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Comment by metalman | Hacker News Reader

no propane burners. propane freezes solid at minus 60°, and you need heaters to get any flow long before it gets that cold, to the point that you can set propane out in a bucket, which I have some experience with in useing it, to supper cool transmission shafts, so that they shrink, and press fit bearings slip right on. so yes they have propane, but they use it in other, less well known ways.

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Propane freezes long before -60C.

The recent cold snap in the Yukon had smaller tanks useless just past -35c, and bigger ones not doing much past -40c.

We don’t take it on winter adventures for that reason.

I am not understanding this.

Propane does not freeze anywhere near -60C. Wikipedia [1] says it freezes (liquid to solid) below -187C and boils (liquid to gas) above -42C.

Propane is probably unusable as a fuel below -42C because there is no vapor leaving the tank [not within my experience]. That is different from the propane being a solid.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propane Melting point −187.7 °C Boiling point −42.25 to −42.04 °C

It freezes as pressure drops when you try to use it from the tank. Like how a can of air duster gets cold when you spray it.

I don’t know that it turns to a solid, but it very much doesn’t work past -35C.

Ask anyone that lives in Yukon/Alaska. They’ll tell you.

Well, locals called it propane, but I didn't exactly "send it to trace for analysis."

Generally, you (and your toolbox) only spent a few minutes out of every working hour outside. And your toolbox would definitely be room-temperature initially and not cool down to anywhere near ambient temperature while out.

No, that's when you use your propane burner burner to heat up your propane burner.

Maybe butane?

Butane stops vaporizing at -1C (31F), isobutane at about -10C (10F). Propane's boiling point is even better, at about -40C/-40F, but it self-cools and doesn't develop the required pressures to run a torch.

I know this because my otherwise dependable camp stove is a 3-season affair. For winter camping, you basically need a white gas system (liquid fueled, manually pressurized or gravity fed).

I suppose I'd reach for an acetylene torch in a cold workshop.

You're right. I misinterpreted my little butane torch's apparent high pressure in relation to my big propane torch.

Canned ethane or ethyne ("acetylene") then.

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