Re-fillable gas bottles now available = great !

[ghost123uk]

From today I will be re-filling my gas bottle and I will be doing it at LPG stations

However, I will do doing it legally and properly, with one of these =



I got mine from HERE
"SafeFill" website HERE


They are about the same diameter as a 4.5KG Calor bottle, and a little taller, a whole lot lighter and hold hold 6KG of LPG (which won't freeze = another great advantage) Cost = £149 You will re-coup your money in about 10 re-fills

LPG = 68.9 pence per litre. Propane is 1.95 Litres per Kg. A 4.5 Kg Calor bottle costs £15.49 which works out at £20.75 for 6KG and filling this (6KG) costs only £8.06 making a saving of £12.70 every time you full up, so it pays for itself in about 11 re-fills. If you use Propex and / or go away a lot, this pays for itself quite quickly,. It has a "see through" bit so you can see how much gas is is left too So you don't have the nuisance of it running out when you least want it to (as recently happened to me, prompting this purchase )

Oh, and you can get some money back on your old Calor bottle of course

[Wychall]

Good to see that you get someone to carry it for you as well...........

[ghost123uk]

Very good Brian

Funny, that girl must be tiny as she makes the bottle look huge. I supposed they do it on purpose to make the "product" look bigger ! Mind you, for us T25 owners, space is at a premium, so they would have been better using a tall fat bird !

[jonno]

Looks good, may have to save up fore one of these.

[cleagarr]

OK, that "subject line" has got your attention

LPG = 68.9 pence per litre. Propane is 1.95 Litres per Kg. A 4.5 Kg Calor bottle costs £15.49 which works out at £20.75 for 6KG and filling this (6KG) costs only £8.06 making a saving of £12.70 every time you full up, so it pays for itself in about 11 re-fills. If you use Propex and / or go away a lot, this pays for itself quite quickly,. It has a "see through" bit so you can see how much gas is is left too So you don't have the nuisance of it running out when you least want it to (as recently happened to me, prompting this purchase )

Oh, and you can get some money back on your old Calor bottle of course

I can feel more money being sucked out of my pocket as I read this.... due to availability in France you would not need to worry about Calor (not available) or getting campingaz etc.

Question: is the regulator the same as you would use on a Calor Bottle?


Cheers

[ghost123uk]

Question: is the regulator the same as you would use on a Calor Bottle?
Cheers

From their website =

Q. What regulator should I use with a safefill cylinder?
A. 30 to 37mb Propane regulator with attached left hand POL

Not sure what a POL is, I guess it is the threaded nut thing ?

Looks like the answer is you need a Propane one like this (at £4.95 on Ebay) =



I have not collected mine yet from Flintshire Auto gas but I am sure being nice guys they will include one anyway

[fairwynds]

I like this. I wonder how, price wise and capacity wise, this compares to having an underslung leisure tank fitted at Gasure or others? (Can't see the price on Steves site...)

[ghost123uk]

The under slung tank will hold more I guess, but I don't think anyone needs more than 6KG at a time. It's certainly a HECK of a lot cheaper and doesn't eat up your ground clearance, and is a LOT lighter. Plus it's zero maintenance and cannot hardly go wrong ! Takes up a bit more room inside the van though, but that doesn't worry me considering the advantages.

[fairwynds]

The under slung tank will hold more I guess, but I don't think anyone needs more than 6KG at a time. It's certainly a HECK of a lot cheaper and doesn't eat up your ground clearance, and is a LOT lighter. Plus it's zero maintenance and cannot hardly go wrong ! Takes up a bit more room inside the van though, but that doesn't worry me considering the advantages.

Agreed, and you could also take it out of the van and link it up to a stove/cooker for outside cooking too - always nice to avoid filling the van with cooking smells time and time again

[cleagarr]

I like this. I wonder how, price wise and capacity wise, this compares to having an underslung leisure tank fitted at Gasure or others? (Can't see the price on Steves site...)

http://gasure.co.uk/gasfit.htm

Looks like a 20 litre tank is £250 + VAT (fitted is £380 + VAT) at Gasure.

This holds 15 litres and costs £150. No contest in my view.

[fairwynds]

Am in Stoke at the moment. Am going to visit this company tomorrow for a look see. If you read all the info on their site they do urge caution re garages NOT allowing you to fill their cylinders.... It seems that it's lawful to fill these, but NOT lawful to fill rented cylinders, which they get understandably twitchy about!

[andypandy1930]

Lots of garages are still funny about people filling gas bottles legal or not so beware, looks a good bottle ( and girl )

[ghost123uk]

Apparently it comes with a document you can show to the garage pointing out that it is OK to fill these type. Plus there is a map, like an LPG map, on the website showing all the garages that know about filling these.

[fairwynds]

Had a very interesting trip to the Safefill place in Stoke this morning.
Bought one of their cylinders. They will fill free of charge upon first purchase if you go to them (for 80-90 members), so that saved me another £12 or so.
Ok then, and whilst I'm not able to endorse the product etc...... I have eight years experience of working with compressed gas so felt able to ask a few 'searching' questions whilst I was there.
The composite cylinders are manufactured in Sweden, and have all the relevant european safety tests/certs. Each cylinder is serial numbered and (currently) is due to be safety tested every 10 years. The valves are manufactured in the UK and unlike your standard cylinders from your local garage/camping shop, are fitted with failsafe devices as described on their website. I was able to see the valve being fitted and pressure tested on my own cylinder.
In short their seems to be no issue with refilling at a garage, it is not 'against the law' as there is no law prohibiting this action. However (and this is the crux of the matter currently....) there IS guidance (in the form of a rather large manual/publication) provided to forecourts from the Association of Chief Fire Officers...its lengthy but importantly says that garages should not allow members of the public to refill portable (infers Calor type and others) cylinders. But then it also refers to allowing cylinders 'fitted' to a vehicle to be filled. It definately seems that bureaucracy has yet to catch up with the advance in cylinder/valve technology?
In short, this seems to be a great system (imho) but I will certainly be taking the sensible precaution of not wandering into my local filling station waving my newly aquired cylinder shouting 'ere mate, can I fill this up here?' !!!
In common with transporting compressed gas of any kind, the vehicle owner/driver is responsible for the secure storage/transportation of the cylinder as well as the appropriate usage and visual inspections etc.... stands to reason
Could write stacks about my opinion on this whole subject but not on a public forum..... :wink

[ghost123uk]

So, in a nutshell, you approve