Tetenal Protectan Composition
 

I have just purchased a tin of Tetenal Protectan.
It is used to squirt into bottles of developer etc. to stop them going off.
After reading a few posts on people using cans of lighter refill gas, and some people saying how dangerous this could be, I purchased the real thing. TETENAL PROTECTAN.
The first thing that I read when I looked at the can was a serious warning printed on the aerosol about the dangers of using near naked flames, and cans exploding in excessive heat
The link below takes you to the TETENAL DATA SHEET FOR PROTECTAN.....…….
On page 2 it gives the ingredients.
BUTANE...……...50-70%
PROPANE..……..20-30%
ISOBUTANE.....10-20%

So watch your step when using it.
https://www.freestylephoto.biz/stati...nal/105193.pdf

Almost the gas used for camping stoves, but camping stove gas is 1/3rd the price!

Norm the problem as far as I have seen when looking at camping stove gas is that there is no push button on the top or a means of inserting the white tube that then takes the gas to the container such as bottle of dev etc

Is there a safe way to overcome this as you are right the gas stove stuff is far cheaper? In fact the stuff in Aldi when it has its "outdoor camping" weekend was miles cheaper

If this has been covered in earlier threads on Protectan then my apologies but any ideas on this would be welcome

Thanks

Mike

Hi Nat,

take a read of the following recent (February 2020) links posts, where Protectan and a much cheaper equivalent is being tried out by myself.

Well worth a read! :)

http://www.film-and-darkroom-user.or...ad.php?t=13038

Terry S

I re-read the thread referred to by Terry( thanks Terry) in which I had some input and all things considered the Argon which Terry has bought may still be the safest( literally :D) bet

Bob did mention using the top from an empty Protectan container on a camping gas bottle with slight modification to its top spigot but clearly the fit is not the best in that it requires the Protectan top to be pressed down on the camping gas bottle. Once you have finished spraying, the top becomes loose if I have understood Bob correctly so not ideal

Terry's early findings about the new product which he posted today bodes well


Mike

You can get the tall screw on propane/ butane camping gas cylinders. Srcew a plumbers torch on a cannister (remove the shroud off the end of the torch) and you can squirt a burst of gas into your bottle.

I was using gas canisters intended for refilling lighters. A lot of butane gas stove canisters have a female fitting so would not be suitable for this use. 'Tho, by coincidence I do have a camping stove that uses canisters with a male valve spout but that has exactly the same issue as the gas-lighter refill type.

https://www.kramp.com/pdf/en_US/paas...ropane_sds.pdf

A neighbour having a lockdown garage clear out gave me a spare gas torch.
It appears to be roughly the same constituents as Tetenal Protectan.
The above link should go to the safety sheet for Parasene gas, a mixture of Butane and Propane.
I think once my can of Protectan is used up I will be trying Parasene instead. It will also come in handy for diy beside my gas torch and propane bottle.

Attachment 3710

Attachment 3711

I am sure it is fine but what counts here is whether the top of the Parasene can accept the fitting that you get on the Protectan can that allows a plastic tube to be inserted in the button you press to allow the gas to escape and in fairly small squirts

If it has or can be adapted then you are good to go

There was quite a long thread on alternatives to Protectan here on FADU as there is stuff that works out cheaper although not as cheap as free as in your case

Mike

Mike

As far as the gases go it should be fine. Propane is 1.5 times heavier than air (tho' butane is better, at twice as heavy) so the mixture should do the job perfectly well.

As Mike points out, the difficulty is getting the gas out of the bottle in a useful way. I looked at a couple of camping gas bottles and a blowtorch bottle I have laying about and none had a suitable valve attachment. Making an adaptor sounds like a job for a 3d printer, but mine currently has a dead motherboard (the fixing of which is on my list of things to do...).