I have selection of gas bottles of various colours all with some gas in them - how can I determine what type of gas is in each - butasne or propane?
The only outer features are:
Green bottle: TOTAL GAZ - 10
Bronze bottle: TOTAL GAZ - 28
Is anyone well up on these things please?
Annoyingly each vendor is free to choose their own colour for differentiating the gas contained within the bottle. I’m afraid that, purely for convenience sake, we only buy Butagaz so I can’t tell you what colour is what for Totalgaz, but their website should have a FAQ section where it’s explained what’s what.
ETA: Although it looks like the brand Totalgaz no longer exists…
Smell it, butane smells of onion/garlic, propane doesn’t.
Thanks Gareth - I confess that it did not cross my mind to use the internet 
It would appear that both green and bronze are propane…
Here is a handy link:
Ah, now that is a handy thing to remember! Thanks! I shall go to bed tonight a little bit more knowledgeable!
When I sold the house in 2022 I had a couple of empty gas bottles in the barn - one was propane and the other was a red calor gas bottle brought from the UK years before. I took them to the local déchetteries but none of them would take them like they always used to and the local supermarket who dealt with gas bottles would not either. The only place I was told was a specialist recuperation firm many miles away. I left them in the barn in the end for the new people to get rid of! Just a warning to anyone else who finds/has bottles to get rid of that the local dump won’t accept them now.
And a little more relaxed. 
I don’t suppose it helps, but all my propane bottles are silver on top and blue below. 
All bottled gas in France contains thiol compounds, including propane, according to AntarGaz.
THT (tetrahydrothiophene) or some thiolanes, have replaced mercaptan as to the go-to smell inducer for natural gas sale/distribution in France.
Thanks, didn’t know that.
French butane bottles have a ‘push on’ quick release fitting on top of the bottle requiring a red pressure regulator. Propane bottles have a left hand screw thread fitting at 90 degrees and a tap/knob on top of the bottle to open or close the flow. Colours of bottles only reflect the supplier, not what is in the bottle.
Are you sure? My butanes have a thread and a gas tap for coventional regulators. Certainly in the UK propane is a different tread so you cant put the wrong regulator on. I saw in france a dual pupose regulator that did both butane and propane.
mmm. I think you might some editing here…
So do some propane, and they both can have screw on regulator fittings too,
Total bollocks, dependant on the supplier, P&B bottles can be both push fit or, rarely, screw.
Normally, the contents of the bottle are hard stamped into the canister around the rim.
One not safe for work experiment would be to open the valve and allow the gas from the container to bubble into some dry ice you might have just laying around in a bucket. If the flow freezes, then it is butane, if it remains a gas, then it is propane. Kids , do not try this in the absence of a responsible adult !
These were quite old and tatty - could not make out any distinct detail of the stampings. But as my cribsheet above and the friendly lass at SuperU indicated - red, blue/silver, green and bronze will be Propane…I now have three new ones, in bronze and firmly stamped Propane. I am happy.
Maybe I am talking ‘total bollocks’ as recently suggested by Dr Le Dolly. However, we have been caravanning and motorhoming throughout France for the past 15 years and have purchased uncountable refilled gas bottles at filling stations, hardware stores, supermarkets, the list goes on and our experience is that propane botlles have a LH screw thread and butane has a push fit regulator. This may be related to bottle size, which are all 13kg.
I’m afraid I’m going to say bollock too. All these are butane bottles and one isn’t 13kg the weight is written on the bottle.
True, certainly in the UK.
