Portable gas heater – supporting little old lady content

I’ve adopted the little old lady over the road by accident, so last night having closed down 203 open tabs and all of the apps on her ipad so it would function again, i installed a new butane bottle in her portable gas heater, the type with the waffle grids off white panels on the front that radiant heat, little nozzle and ignition poking up from the bottom.

Not been used for a month while we sourced some new 15kg bottles (12kgs no longer stocked it seems) so gave it a spin from 0 to 6 on the dial, ignition clicked on 1 as expected and functioning fine, each new number resulting in a little bit more of the panel lighting. However spinning it back down to 0, it stayed lit. Gave it a few mins but holding steady so turned off at the regulator. Turning the gas back on could swear i could hear gas at the ignition nozzle and smell it. So it has been left disconnected with the bottle removed overnight.

Options of further diagnosis tonight? i’ve very much assuming that it should fully turn off and potentially this is just an age and wear issue? She is at an age where is can’t leave her to have to turn on and off at the regulator. Its only occasionally heating the conservatory during the winter so its not critical and to be honest i’ll probably end up just getting her a new one to avoid any risk.

Any advice welcomed

Cheers

Dave

That happened to me once!  One minute I am helping her carry shopping up the common stairs, before I know it I am taking her to the optician, looking for her teeth she dropped and popping up for a cup of tea most days.  It was very worthwhile she was a nice lady 90 plus years and had lived in the tenement block her entire life so full of stories.

Can’t help with the gas thing sorry but good for you.

i’ll probably end up just getting her a new one to avoid any risk.

This. or, better still, an electric one. Or, better stillerer, an electric blanket to put over herself in the conservatory

I’d be donating her an oil filled electric radiator. Gas in that scenario just sounds like asking for trouble.

Good idea both (IHN, bensales) you have prompted me to go looking for the oil filled radiators that were ‘spare’ at work the other day…..

Nasty things and lots of humidity. I would be asking her to go electric on the grounds it is safer. You can also have it on a timer so she can’t accidently leave it on and run up a big bill.

Old folk and gas fires, not safe (falls/forgets etc).  Oil rad if possible.  MIL had a fan heater with a remote if she felt ‘cold’.

What a great neighbour you are.  Agree with others re portable gas heater being a ‘no no’, however anything electric does throw up another issue such as location of sockets and potential trailing of wire.  With regard to an oil-filled radiator, this is probably much safer although worth bearing in mind that it will only heat a small area and needs to be a reasonable size to do that.  Mine has a timer and I believe a cut-off along with 3 settings, it’s a DeLonghi.  Being heavy makes it pretty stable.

Oil filled radiator just fell off the asset list at work.

And appreciate the neighborly comments, i’m basically working on a system of pay back, lot of my grans neighbors helped us out in the last few years of her life making sure her bins went out, she didn’t get ripped off by TV repairs and getting shopping for her. If i do the same then hopefully everyone gets a little bit of extra support and company in their old age.

Go be nice to oldies everyone

although worth bearing in mind that it will only heat a small area and needs to be a reasonable size to do that.

Huh?  I have one that heats a large double garage sized space!

I’ve adopted the little old lady over the road by accident

I don’t have anything to add to the gas/oil heater discussion, but I do think it’s great that you’ve adopted instead of getting a pedigree old lady from a breeder or farm.

Delonghi for our conservatory with a polycarbonate roof.

spinning it back down to 0, it stayed lit. Gave it a few mins but holding steady so turned off at the regulator. Turning the gas back on could swear i could hear gas at the ignition nozzle and smell it.

Check the manual – For some of them, at least, I’m pretty sure that the only way to turn them off is to turn off at the bottle – i.e. the lowest setting is one panel on ‘low’ not ‘off’.

They have a thermocouple that only lets the gas through when the flame is lit – if you’ve turned it off, then on again straight away, then the thermocouple would probably still have been hot & holding the supply open. Try it when everything is cold – shouldn’t be any gas then unless you hold the knob down (or similar safety override).

One psychological aspect is that the heat is “bought and paid for” when the cylinder is bought, rather than the constant worry of what the next electricity bill will be. They’re not much cheaper than electricity though (about 26p / kWh vs ~39p for electricity).

+1 for changing to an electrical source of heating it might be safer and better for her.

An oil filled rad is pretty good from a safety point of view but note it will take time to heat up the room and doesn’t radiate a ton of heat like a gas heater does.  So she night be disappointed with it if she is expecting to just walk into the conservatory, switch on the radiator and bathe in instant warmth.

An halogen or IR panel might be better for that purpose.  They provide instant heat but it’s directional and the heater needs to be facing you.  Fine if there is a chair she normally sits on as you can just point the heater at that and not touch it again.  Bad if she moves around.

If she needs a bit of both ie instant heat but also spread across the room a fan heater might be the better option.

I believe these portable calor gas fires are actually switched off via the tap on the regulator thing that connects to the bottle, or at least this is the case on mine.

The little oil filled radiators and tbh kick out next to nothing. Ive a 1/2kw one and i put it in the workshop(A room 11’x11′) because Ive the radiator switched off in there and left it for several hours. The temp in the room wasnt noticeably warm, in fact not enough to bother using it again

Has she got one of those heated throws / blanket things? They’re brilliant if it’s just one person that needs keeping warm, and cost a pittance to run.

Only problem that I can foresee is that it’s annoyingly easy to trip over the cable when you get up.

I have one. Strangely, there is an old lady connection too. Old dear across the way was throwing it out because she was too weak to lug the bottles around.

I love it. Instant toasty heat. Like having an open fire without the faff. Never noticed condensation, but I have windows open a lot.

To turn it off I always turn it off at the regulator valve on the bottle just to be sure.

Bombs on wheels, disaster waiting to happen with CO, just have a look at the room volume you need to run one safely with no permanent ventilation .

Update on the situation after some further analysis, and thanks for all the input

So prompted by tillydog and a couple of the other comments i’ve been playing around (outside and with a vague instruction to the child to stand back) with it when cold and there is gas flowing with the regulator open and the control valve shut in the 0 position. Having found a manual after some considerable googling this is incorrect and it should shut off when returned to 0.

Taken her over the oil filled heater from work to see how she gets on with it, it has a timer and she currently seems happy with that. Turns out there is a very early wall panel electric heater in the conservatory but its 90s style and comes with the associated baggage of her husband (been dead for 8 year) telling her that it would be very expensive to run when they got it so it has been turned off since the millennium. I’ll see how she does with the oil rad both for the temp and the cost. She did notice the difference when her security light was staying on all night so she seems to have a good gauge on what her normal bill is. Considering she could have a wall mounted, more up to date, oil rad on the wall in the same spot but we’ll see how she goes with the free option.

Gas bottles will be going back to calor for a refund, heater to the tip next time i’m going, need to ring the garage that said her car won’t pass its next MOT due to corrosion despite it looking pristine to me (2015 Kia, this seems very unlikely), husband memorial bench in the middle of the village looks like it could do with a sand back and treatment……

Gas bottles will be going back to calor for a refund, heater to the tip next time i’m going, need to ring the garage that said her car won’t pass its next MOT due to corrosion despite it looking pristine to me (2015 Kia, this seems very unlikely), husband memorial bench in the middle of the village looks like it could do with a sand back and treatment……

Dude you’re a better person than I am.

I went to school with a girl whose dad was a farm hand. By the end of the famers days the family were doing everything for him. When he died he left them three houses one for the parents and one for each of the kids. Nice houses to.

Stick at it OP you might inherit a conservatory!

There’s a reason you don’t see those things any more, they can be literally deadly.  And bottled gas is rather expensive too AIUI.

I have one….

I love it. Instant toasty heat. ….. Never noticed condensation, but I have windows open a lot.

If you close the widows you may not need a heater.

Well done for supporting the community granny. Ours died around 4 years ago. Mrs Sandwich took her shopping, I did the small jobs around the house as required. Mrs Sandwich found her just after the big stroke that eventually did her in a 90 and I’ve only recently removed her phone number and birthday from my mobile phone. Her husband was a bona fide war hero with DFC and bar who died just before we moved in 28 years ago.

We appear to be heading into community grand-parents territory now.

Noted it was a year since i originally posted on this but was reminded of it last weekend.

So little old lady update is that she sadly continued to decline to the point where she could no longer be supported at with carers and the group of neighbors. She has gone into residential care closer to her son down south somewhere.

What was i doing the remined me of this thread, after carrying my oil heater back over and cutting a cat flap into the back door after adopting her two cats by default…….

Portable gas heaters or bombs on wheels as they are otherwise known as……

Carbon monoxide is a real issue with them.