Refillable gas bottle

[Geek]

I have to physically swap the cylinders, but it's no biggie, unless it's to make the morning brew and it's persisting down.

Swapping bottles means setting off with a spare. When you have a mostly-empty bottle, do you risk it or do you swap it and lose the remaining gas?
Also, my experience was that the bottle used to run out at the worst times: a storm, or the middle of the night, or both.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

We (Liz) logs how much we use the Calor, and we guesstimate when it might need replacing, but so far out of this one 6kg we have used it to make a breakfast, in two years, so my worry muscles on that are very relaxed, and the cost of replacing it, if we ever need to, is far far less than the cost of a tank or another cylinder, but gives us the same peace of mind.

 

[Geek]

The vast majority of our LPG consumption is for space heating. I guess we could have a diesel heater (we have one in the shed) but they're noisy and a bit smelly, and unless you buy red diesel they're more expensive to run.

I guess it's a choice of investing in refillable LPG or investing in solar, b2b batteries and inverters as well as a diesel heater.

Although we do seem to have done both, I'm more keen on LPG as a primary fuel.source.

 

[Andy n Mandy Travel]

We only use our 6kg gas-lo for the heating, everything else is electric, we can do 5 days in winter on one tank and the solar and Lithium do the rest, we can basically do a week at a push with no sun and no gas top ups.

There's plenty enough lpg places to fill up though so wouldn't worry at all, and as said before by someone else, just top up when you pass an lpg pump to keep it full

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Over 6 and half weeks in Europe we topped up four times with 4 to 5 litres of gas, I expected to use more but it was mainly used for cooking.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

69p a litre just off junction 2 M5. Dedicated lpg station .mainly taxis. Attended filling.motorhome filling no issues.

 

[nabsim]

Don't know if it's still the same but there was a cost advantage of using a subsidised Spanish bottle if you were there for a long spell. That would be one reason to have one refillable/one exchange bottle.

Gas will see me out without a doubt, so long as there are customers it will still be produced, when fossil fuels do stop (if they do) then bio-gas is there

 

[Geek]

I think the further south the cheaper

We were filling a 6kg bottle for €2.50 in Lanzarote

A 6kg bottle is 12 litres. That's 20 cents per litre, or were you just topping it up, not refilling from empty?

 

[rugbyken]

filled in zamora today needed deisel €1:27 ltr so gas there as well €81:9

 

[jeffmossy]

I filled up in polencia yesterday 1.29 euro diesel and. 0.82 euro litre for gas

 

[Trotter]

I filled up in polencia yesterday 1.29 euro diesel and. 0.82 euro litre for gas

Time you stopped enjoying yourself

 

[Molly 3]

My autosleeper has a factory fitted underslung tank that has a ten year life span ,Marquise gouted £1500 for a replacement, ??? LPG NOT exactly a win win .

 

[Pudsey Bear]

There are other places to get a new one, if it actually need to be replaced.

 

[Geek]

This is the usual misinformation from suppliers.

Although there is a requirement to inspect and test gas tanks for some commercial applications, it's easier and cheaper to just replace the tank.

However, that does NOT apply to LPG tanks fitted to private motorhomes.
There is no requirement to inspect or replace the tank at 10 years, or ever.

I replaced my tank as a precaution when it was around 17 years old. It was a waste of money. The tank looked rusty, like an unexploded bomb, but it was solid as a rock.

It would have been fine for at least another decade. Longer if I repainted it.

 

[Geek]

My autosleeper has a factory fitted underslung tank that has a ten year life span ,Marquise gouted £1500 for a replacement, ??? LPG NOT exactly a win win .

If you do want a replacement, shop around. Mine cost nothing like that much.

 

[Andy n Mandy Travel]

A 6kg bottle is 12 litres. That's 20 cents per litre, or were you just topping it up, not refilling from empty?

We only had a trickle in there, filled it right up for €2.50

No price on the sign, couldn't belive it when I went to pay.

They even had all the adapters behind the counter

 

[Geek]

We only had a trickle in there, filled it right up for €2.50

Serious question: how did you assess that you only had a trickle left?

The one big advantage of a refillable bottle instead of an underslung tank is that you can pop it onto the bathroom scales to see how much gas is left. But it is a bit of a faff.

An underslung tank will have a level gauge which is easier (particularly if you have a repeater display inside the van) but there is no guarantee of how accurate it is.

And it is easy to mislead yourself.

Recently (well, early this year), I was convinced that my LPG tank had run out because the generator stopped. The gauge said the LPG level was low, but had not run out.

When I refilled it, it took twelve litres less than I had expected.

I then assumed the gauge was wrong, but it wasn't.

It was just that the generator was low on oil so it had shut down for safety: it wasn't short of LPG at all.

 

[Andy n Mandy Travel]

Serious question: how did you assess that you only had a trickle left?

The one big advantage of a refillable bottle instead of an underslung tank is that you can pop it onto the bathroom scales to see how much gas is left. But it is a bit of a faff.

An underslung tank will have a level gauge which is easier (particularly if you have a repeater display inside the van) but there is no guarantee of how accurate it is.

And it is easy to mislead yourself.

Recently (well, early this year), I was convinced that my LPG tank had run out because the generator stopped. The gauge said the LPG level was low, but had not run out.

When I refilled it, it took twelve litres less than I had expected.

I then assumed the gauge was wrong, but it wasn't.

It was just that the generator was low on oil so it had shut down for safety: it wasn't short of LPG at all.

The gauge was at empty, it was a few months ago now but I seem to remember it gaking around the same time as usual when its run out, think it took 9 litres if I remember, but thats not guaranteed.

What i do know its it was a lot cheaper thank the uk

 

[Geek]

The gauge was at empty

Is this one of those pressure gauges on the top of the bottle? If so, that would explain it.

The pressure of the gas in an LPG bottle or tank is not a measure of how much is left. It only changes with the temperature of the surface layer of the liquid inside.

Quite why they can get away with selling these as an indicator of quantity remaining baffles me.

 

[Andy n Mandy Travel]

Ah right, no idea, it was part of the kit.

When I fill up it usually takes 9 or 10 litres but am due to fill it up later this week so will see how many litres it takes and report back.