butane is a hydrocarbon, meaning it’s made of carbon and hydrogen. It’s often confused with propane, which is also widely available, but they’re different.
updated 11/9/23, adding the butane video, and then 8/5/23, mostly with seo and tweaks. But I have other stuff to add later, so that’ll probably change.
freezing with butane
In case you didn’t know, cans of butane are very useful for welding ice together. Like gum-freeze, butane is VERY cold when sprayed from a can. (One source indicated that it comes out at -20˚C, but I’m not sure that’s true; I need to look into things a bit more.) But anyway, when it’s maybe a little hotter than you expected and your ice is a little warmer than you expected, or, much worse, you broke something, it’s always nice to have a can around to help freeze things together.
In the past, butane has been easy to find too, with cans of one brand, Ronson (white cans, red tops), almost always available at Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and Circle K, which are also places that are almost always open. As of late, however, it’s been harder to find at these places. Once, when I really needed a can or two to fix a broken sculpture, it seemed that I couldn’t find it anywhere. I think we eventually found a couple cans at a random gas station.
cautionary tale
Unfortunately, as cold as butane is coming out of the can, it’s still EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE! 🔥🔥🔥 Big surprise when you consider that it’s being sold to refill lighters. So, you have to be VERY careful when you use it. Using it to weld pieces of ice together can be a bit like dousing the area with gasoline. You have to know where ANY potential ignition sources are.
I found out the hard way once that lit sternos ignite butane gas quite easily. Not only that, but it’s hard to see that they’re lit and you can kind of forget about them since they’re often there at set ups. The resulting fire was short lived and no damage was done. But it was very scary and a sobering reminder that careless use of butane could do serious damage or even hurt or kill someone! So it’s on you if you decide to use it. Don’t use it unless you’re comfortable with the situation and be careful!
where to get it
Since I’ve been having a little trouble finding it when I needed it, I’ve kind of been one the lookout for it lately. Today, I found some cans at Lowes, in the tool section. It’s evidently the fuel source for a small torch, since it’s a Bernzomatic product. You can also get it at smoke shops, usually.
And if I don’t mention another great source, a chef will definitely point it out to me. Butane is the fuel for the portable gas stoves that you see at Sunday brunch, at the omelette station. So restaurants, country clubs, and hotels usually have cans of it lying around in a box, somewhere. Of course, when you ask someone at the restaurant/hotel for it during a set up, you’ll often get a can of propane instead, since they were just using it to torch the top of their crème brûlées
cans of butane at Lowes
various cans of butane: The can to the far left is the kind used for portable burners. The white and red Ronson can might be the easiest to find.
using butane to freeze stuff
One reason I like freezing with butane is the plastic nozzle that’s usually on the can. (The canisters for the portable stoves usually have metal nozzles that don’t work as well.) It fits very well into the slight gap between two pieces of ice. And then you push into the seam, and butane shoots into it, cooling the weld.
Three downsides though: 1) The cans don’t work well when the nozzle is pointed up, because you’re not shooting the liquid butane out of the can in that orientation. 2) Shooting butane INTO a seam tends to push water OUT OF the seam, which is bad, because you wanted that water to freeze. But as long as you get that surrounding ice to cool down, new water coming back in can freeze. 3) Butane has a high boiling point, just below 32˚F. What that means is that if you’re working in pretty cold temps, the butane likely won’t work to freeze. But the good news is that if it’s already freezing, you probably don’t need freezing with butane anyway!
this video has freezing with butane, shows how flammable it is, and also how quickly liquid butane boils at room temp.
additional on freezing with butane
For other ice nerds like me (I’m probably also an ice geek, but we’ll cover the differences another time.), The reason that butane cools so well is that the change in pressure as it comes out of the can requires a drop in temperature.
Also, I know that the butane evaporates very quickly, but I’d be hesitant to spray the butane directly on food. There are at least a of couple of chemicals that could be mixed with the butane (in very limited amounts though) and I have no idea if they evaporate or hang around. So, to be on the safe side, food should NOT be present when you’re freezing with butane. And when I can get it at Wal-Mart, I think it’s usually $1.78 per can. (ok, THAT’S not true anymore! 😂 I’ll update when I find out.)
Finally, at least some of the time, you have to be 18 to purchase butane, which is a good thing. Not only is it dangerous from a fire 🔥 point of view, but it can be abused as an inhalant. So if it’s part of your ice sculpting toolbox, take care with its availability.
other substances that have a similar freezing effect
Canned air and gum freeze are other products that freeze when they come out of the can. At least one brand of gum freeze is apparently not flammable, so that’s an advantage over butane, as least as far as freezing with butane. However, brands don’t seem to have consistent formulations and another brand apparently has butane and propane in it. Also, gum freeze can be significantly more expensive and definitely harder to find.
Canned air or office duster is easier to find, but it can have some toxicity issues. “Canned air” SOUNDS like it’s just regular air in a can, but that’s evidently not the case. It’s rather canned gases. I use one canned air brand fairly often. Some time soon, I’ll see if it’s flammable and update.
As both can be abused as inhalants, they’re also generally restricted sales. Again, that’s a good thing.
links and stuff
This post is listed on the ice sculpting techniques page, and you could also find photos and info from this entry on the ice sculpting secrets Instagram account or the facebook page. You can comment there as well as below. And if it won’t LET you comment below, then definitely comment on fb and/or IG. Thanks!
