Butane gas bottles/fires/appliances

I think it's mostly propane gas in Bulgaria, with butane only used for smaller items like camping stoves.

Gas bottles are widely available and many petrol stations either refill or exchange bottles. But I've seen mentioned on other threads about this (if you do a search on gas those discussions will come up) that the fittings used in Bulgaria are different.

If you look on a site like Praktiker (the B&Q equivalent) you'll see some prices, but may well be able to get bottles cheaper in local hardware stores.

Ok great, I'll maybe bring one or two full ones with me and sell the rest of the empties. That way I can still use my estufa if necessary while we get set up over there.

When buying used gas bottles, check  that the 'in test' date stamped on the ring is later than the current date, then the cylinder is safe to use.

Similarly, if you own a gas bottle where the last test date is more than 10 years old, then the bottle will need to be retested by a regulated organisation before it can be refilled.

Thats good to know, thanks. No one has ever mentioned that to me, but once you exchange the bottle, you get a recently filled one that must have been checked by the gas company.

I bought empties from facebook. Where we are, if you don't do it that way, you have to have an account with the various gas companies - which can be a bit of a rigmarole to set up - in order to get your first gas bottle. If you already have a gas bottle to exchange, you just go to the shop, buy a new one and hand over the old bottle.

I think I might have 4 empties and 1 in the fire and one in the hob, all butane, but they always sell on facebook.