Gas Bottle exchange

[Hope174]

Gas Bottle exchange

Being new to all this motorhome stuff, this may seem a daft question... but here goes...
we had a gas bottle supplied when we purchased our van, and I have now managed to get a 2nd empty bottle.
my question is this, does it matter what “brand” is on the bottle when I go to make an exchange?
can I take a blue Flo Gas Butane and exchange for same KG Calor Propane?
Also, can I go to a calor main depot or is it best to go through a camping/Caravaning retailer?

 

[Trek]

You can normally only exchange calor for calor and usually only same size and colour bottle (blue = butane Red = propane)

when i used to exchange cylinders we used flo gas as it was cheaper than calor but that was years ago

now have a pair of refillable Gaslow cylinders

 

[Tezza33]

In my experience you can change a Calor bottle for another Calor bottle of a different size or type of gas but it depends on the Calor stockist.

You can only exchange FloGas for FloGas or in fact any type of bottle for an equivalent from the same supplier

 

[Caz]

Calor have rules about what you can exchange, they don't like you swapping for different sizes. Some of their suppliers stick to the rules, some don't. They have relaxed it a bit, last year you couldn't change anything to or from a 6kg propane/7kg butane size. It explains what you can swap for what here - https://www.calor.co.uk/gas-bottles/buying-gas-bottles/gas-refills-exchanges-returns

I've found the cheapest places are agricultural or builders merchants. Most camp sites stock it as well.

Calor dealers won't accept Flogas. Budget Gas, Alta Gas etc bottles so unless you have a local supplier it's best to avoid them, although they are cheaper.

 

[Wully]

I would say that for you’re needs you’re probably better of with calor as it’s the most common. Nip down you’re local council refuge recycling depot the guys there have loads lying around bung him a £5 and he’ll probably let you have a couple. And if you go to a large gas supplier they’ll not bother if you exchange a small bottle for a bigger one just check it has same regulator fitting

 

[RoaminRog]

Many of us on here use refillable systems, where you simply pay for the gas and don't have to worry about exchanging bottles EVER.

 

[Les Haro]

Tried to give an old bottle of gas to the scrap man, he cant weigh them in they are restricted items.
You have to return them to a stockist for recycling.

 

[Ffion]

I have gaslow fitted too. I got fed up of paying£25 for a bottle and exchanging it when there was some in it just in case we ran out. Fill up when I want now. A big outlay but can be moved from van to van.

 

[Wooie1958]

Calor gas bottles are in groups, scroll down to the Cylinder exchange policy and it is clearly explained

https://www.calor.co.uk/gas-bottles/buying-gas-bottles/gas-refills-exchanges-returns

They do not accept other companies bottles.

 

[Trek]

Being new to all this motorhome stuff, this may seem a daft question... but here goes...
we had a gas bottle supplied when we purchased our van,

Thought i would ask if you know what type of gas you have as you say you are new to this stuff

as this time of year you need to be using Propane Thats the Calor red bottles other companies could be different colours

a lot of first time winter campers get caught out when they unknowingly go camping with butane gas bottles

 

[Vanterrier]

Tried to give an old bottle of gas to the scrap man, he cant weigh them in they are restricted items.
You have to return them to a stockist for recycling.

Turn your old or unwanted bottle into a stove...

k

 

[GMJ]

Tried to give an old bottle of gas to the scrap man, he cant weigh them in they are restricted items.
You have to return them to a stockist for recycling.

If returned to a Calor Centre you can get from £7.50 upwards for each one returned...

https://www.calor.co.uk/unwanted-calor-bottle-return

My local chap let me upgrade my 6Kg Propane to a 13Kg and I just paid for the extra gas. I hope the same chap is working when I pop in and swap my other one over later this week!

Graham

 

[Hope174]

Thought i would ask if you know what type of gas you have as you say you are new to this stuff

as this time of year you need to be using Propane Thats the Calor red bottles other companies could be different colours

a lot of first time winter campers get caught out when they unknowingly go camping with butane gas bottles

The van was supplied with a Calor Red bottle, I was given the Flogas blue bottle for free, so m6 aim is to have 2nd bottle hand. When one is empty I can swap over to the new full bottle then get the empty bottle exchanged so on and so forth.
Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

 

[Trek]

You will find that uk propane gas bottles have a different fitting for regulator or flexible hose than the butane bottles

so if you are currently connected to a propane bottle you wouldn’t be able to just swop bottles to a butane one , you would also have to change either the regulator
( if attached direct to bottle) or the hose