When a commercial kitchen’s gas usage suddenly spikes, it’s rarely a coincidence. One of our restaurant clients in Somerset West experienced exactly that: their weekly consumption jumped from a stable 4 x 48kg cylinders to 6–8 x 48kg cylinders — with no changes to trading hours, menu, or equipment. For a business operating on tight margins, that kind of increase is not just unusual. It’s unsustainable.
This is the story of how we found the problem, fixed it, and helped them return to normal usage — even better than before.
If you prefer watching instead of reading, there’s also a short video version of this case study available.
What Changed? Why Was Gas Usage Climbing So Quickly?
The first red flag appeared during delivery:
The cylinders were freezing at the base.
Cylinder freezeup is a classic sign of excessive drawoff when appliances demand more gas than the LPG mixture can vaporise at once. When this happens, pressure drops, equipment underperforms, and the system compensates by pulling even harder.
To understand the cause, we conducted a full onsite commercial gas audit.
What Did the Gas Audit Reveal?
The culprit was hiding in plain sight:
The fryer was drawing so much gas on startup that the rest of the kitchen couldn’t reach full operating potential.
Every time the fryer switched on:
- The system experienced a sudden surge in demand
- LPG couldn’t vaporise fast enough
- Cylinders froze
- Pressure dropped
- Other appliances struggled
- Gas usage skyrocketed
This is a common issue in busy commercial kitchens, but it often goes unnoticed until the gas bill doubles.
How Do You Fix a High DrawOff Problem Without Rebuilding the Entire Gas Bank?
Instead of recommending an expensive upgrade to the gas bank or a full kitchen reconfiguration, we applied a smarter, more costeffective solution first:
We switched the restaurant from LPG to pure propane.
Why propane?
- Propane vaporises more efficiently under heavy load
- It prevents freezeups during peak demand
- It delivers consistent pressure for commercial equipment
- It avoids unnecessary capital expenditure
- It allows us to test performance before considering structural changes
LPG is a propanebutane mix designed for residential use.
Propane is the better choice for highdemand commercial kitchens that need reliable, highvolume drawoff.
Did It Work? What Happened After Switching to Propane?
After one month on propane, the results were clear:
- Gas usage stabilised at 3 to 4 x 48kg cylinders per week
- No more cylinder freezeups
- All equipment reached full operating potential
- No downtime, no disruptions, no costly rebuilds
In other words:
They returned to normal and even improved on their original usage.
What If Propane Hadn’t Solved the Problem?
For commercial clients, we follow a structured escalation path:
- Commercial gas audit to establish the exact cause.
- Switch to propane if it presents to be the best first step for high drawoff issues, or
- Increase the size of the gas bank to support higher vaporisation.
- Install a commercial vaporiser for largescale, continuous demand.
In this case, propane was the perfect fit – efficient, reliable, and costeffective.
Why Does a Gas Audit Matter for Commercial Kitchens?
Because small issues become expensive problems – fast.
If your restaurant, bakery, hotel, or industrial kitchen is suddenly:
- Using more gas than usual
- Experiencing inconsistent flame strength
- Seeing cylinders freeze
- Struggling to reach temperature
- Noticing equipment underperforming
Then something in the system is working harder than it should.
A targeted gas audit can identify the issue quickly, and often the solution is far simpler and cheaper than expected.
Need to Reduce Your Commercial Gas Usage? We Can Help.
Hi Service Gas specialises in diagnosing and resolving commercial LPG challenges across the Western Cape. Whether you’re dealing with high usage, pressure loss, freezeups, or equipment performance issues, we can help you find the problem — and fix it.
Get in touch and let us help you get back to normal.
