I've Got Gas!

Last summer, we special ordered a patio set to fit the great outdoor space we had in Chicago. Undoubtedly, the center of attraction of it all was the fake gas firepit. Hide a propane tank underneath, press the insta-matic igniter, and fire lept from the well-made ceramic logs. We couldn't leave it all behind so we brought the whole thing with us to the UK.

Maybe its just because everything here is so new to us, but the it seems they suffer from a lack of standardization. Refrigerators, dishwashers, stoves, -- they have oodles of different sizes and kinds of these things. Same with their gas tanks. To complicate things, they have grills that use propane, grills that use butane, and grills that use both. Many grills don't even come with the gadget to attach to a tank. Add to that the fact that they have around a dozen or so different tank sizes that vary slightly from vendor to vendor -- all painted different primary colors -- and you can understand why getting our fire pit working over here wasn't easy as treacle pie. I think I like the USA one-size fits all system.

We were at Wye Valley Garden Center -- a large garden store chain -- and I found they had regulators there (one kind for propane and another for butane). I grabbed a propane one and we crossed our fingers and hoped it would work. We then went to the über-Shell station to get the gas. I had no idea what to look for. They had a huge cage full of gas: tall red ones, short blue ones, medium sized yellow ones. But nothing that looked liked it would fit my new regulator. Luckily, the friendliest guy in the world was working outside and I explained to him my ignorance and how it was all different back home. I showed him our regulator and he explained we needed a '13 kilogram patio gas' and showed us the correct tank: a medium sized one that was only inside the cage. The regulator doesn't thread on to the tank, it just snaps on. We bought a tank (20 pounds -- not too bad) and headed home.

A couple hours later, I replaced our regulator (suprisingly simple), and then had gutted the inside of our fire pit to make room for the much-larger-than-the-US-size tank. It was all worth it. By nightfall, we had a roaring fire to keep us warm on yet another cool English night.

Cheers!