The gas bottles each nominally contain 25lb of gas, but have been filled with anything from 15lb to over 30lb, mainly down to the skill of the filling station. Only recently have we seen operators using the gas release screw on the valve, which is the only way to ensure a complete fill with liquid propane. In some remote areas they fill by gravity, which can take quite a while and rarely achieves a complete fill (hence the 15lb fills mentioned above).

We have painted on the bottles both the boat name and the word 'propane'. The boat name is necessary because bottles often have to be left at marine services offices along with those from other yachts. The word propane ensures that we get propane rather than butane, as both are available in some places. If you get the wrong type of gas, the appliance will usually still work but there will be a variation in temperature so you'll find your favourite well-tried recipes do not seem to work anymore.

Other than that we have never had a problem with obtaining gas, but by carrying so much, we only really have to fill when we are somewhere it is easy to do.

If properly filled, each bottle lasts us about 6 to 8 weeks, but this really depends upon whether or not we are baking our own bread. We also have a microwave and electric toaster, which means some cooking/reheating does not require gas. For example to make baked jacket potatoes rather than have the cooker on for an hour or more we microwave them for 10 minutes then finish them off in the cooker. As the gas always seems to run out at a crucial point in the cooking process, we have two bottles close to the regulator and a flexible pipe so we can quickly change to the full bottle.

The pipe between the regulator and the stove is metal, except for the flexible pipe to the stove, which is a rubber coated. We would prefer a metal armoured pipe for this but haven't managed to find one, instead keep a careful eye on chafe. We recently had to replace it because the cover was worn. One reason we checked was that friends of ours found themselves with a broken pipe, which happened while the cooker was in use so they had a foot long flame emitting from the severed pipe end. And they were at sea at the time. We immediately checked ours and found enough signs of wear to warrant replacing it.

One downside of metal-jacketed pipes is the metal corrodes over time, resulting in the pipe hampering the stove swinging on its gimbals.