Refillable gas bottles

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Millie Master said:
It is, but you soon get used to doing the swap over!

When I build my next van, unless the Norwegian manufacturers of the SafeFill tanks make the sensible decision to make their tanks with 2 take off points like the Alugas cylinders have, I won't be buying another one and would buy the aluminium one instead.

Personally I would never have/but a steel cylinder on weight grounds alone and likewise wouldn't consider installing an underslung tank as I simply don't like them.
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I recently went to Autogas 2000 intending to have 2 x 11kg steel cylinders installed. Ended up with 2 x Alugas 11kgs as the price difference was under £60.00. Well worth it for the weight saving imho.
 
Millie Master said:
It is, but you soon get used to doing the swap over!

When I build my next van, unless the Norwegian manufacturers of the SafeFill tanks make the sensible decision to make their tanks with 2 take off points like the Alugas cylinders have, I won't be buying another one and would buy the aluminium one instead.

Personally I would never have/but a steel cylinder on weight grounds alone and likewise wouldn't consider installing an underslung tank as I simply don't like them.
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Doesn’t that depend on the van you get re weight of steel bottles. A Gaslow 11kg bottle is 12.4kg and isn’t the Alugas heavier than Safefill at over 5kg? Under 15kg for 2 x 11kg bottles saving, could be important if tight on payload but expensive saving if not?
 
We have Gaslow and I suppose it was both convenience and money saving that prompted us to do it. We have two 6 kg bottles and for Calor that would be around £45 to refill both. And that doesn't take into account the wasted gas that we hand back because we were going away for thee weeks and there wasn't enough to get us through. Our two 6 kg Gaslows cost us £13 for the first fill and I doubt we have put more than £7 in when refilling.

Not having to lug bottles around was also in the frame. Although I am fit right now, I am an old fart! So I am pre-empting the aches and pains, after changing a bottle when we got the van and putting my back out. As for weight and all these fancy alloy and fibreglass bottles? Not for me. Steel is stronger in the event of an accident. And in the event of a fire, FG would breach in no tome and alloy would melt easier. Much rather wait until a steel bottle gets that hot it goes off like a rocket! But that would take a lot longer and by then, the habitation area would be out. :)??
 
We had two 11kg Gaslow cylinders fitted years ago and never regretted it.

The initial outlay might seem high but with no more swearing at scraped knuckles, no effort lifting bottles in and out, no more toes squashed from dropping the damned things and also having to source different types of bottles in different countries it's an investment that can't be justified just in monetary terms.

If push comes to shove and you, heaven forbid, pack up Motorhoming you can always sell the cylinder/s and more or less get your money back and they will of course be easily moved to a newer MH should you sell the present one.

We rarely use hook up and gas is used 24/7 for the Fridge/freezer, heating, hot water for washing up and showers, cooking each day and what we 'save' in not paying for EHU is spent on the cheaper gas option.

Everyone uses their Motorhome in a different way and what suits us may not suit you but I feel our investment in a refillable gas system has improved and made much easier the way we holiday throughout the year.
 
My van came with two refillable bottles which obviously make economic sense I probably would not have had them fitted if not as van is twenty five years old.However as we almost never use sites but always wild camp they are much cheaper.
 
I am going to see an Autogas installer on Tuesday who says that he can fit LPG for fuel and also have it fill another cylinder for the heating and cooking inside the van, so all is filled during one visit to a filling station.
 
My only criticism is on my system both bottles are connected and it means I can’t wait until one is empty then switch to the other ,which in turn would give me plenty of time to refill the first.
 
Topmast said:
My only criticism is on my system both bottles are connected and it means I can’t wait until one is empty then switch to the other ,which in turn would give me plenty of time to refill the first.
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Are you bsolutely certain that there isn't a fault with your installation as the ones I have seen run down one bottle till it is empty and then switch to the other..... oh and do you have an external filling point?
 
***** said:
All you need to do, is keep one bottle turned off, until the first is empty, or what we do is we know roughly how long a bottle will last and we swap over before the first is empty
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Unfortunately I can’t turn one bottle off as they are both permanently joined together the outlet on one has the regulator and the other one has nothing connected to it I suppose you could use it for an external barbecue! .both bottles are joined by a separate connector which is in turn passed back to an external filling point.perhaps it is just an old system but it still works well.
 
***** said:
Surely each bottle has a stop tap, a turn knob to turn the gas off.
Maybe you could post a photo of your set up
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Yes both bottles have the normal shut off valve on top one for the regulator and the second bottle tap isn’t used but as both are joined to the refill point by a different pipe you can’t isolate one from the other.
 
Topmast said:
Yes both bottles have the normal shut off valve on top one for the regulator and the second bottle tap isn’t used but as both are joined to the refill point by a different pipe you can’t isolate one from the other.
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Are you sure these are proper refillable bottles not a previous owners bodge up with bottles intended for exchange?

My refillable bottle has separate filler and outlet connections. The refill connection has a non return valve so liquid gas only goes in, not out. The outlet connection has the normal shut off valve. Inside the cylinder is the vital 80% cut off valve without which it is very easy to overfill the bottle, which is dangerous.

As @***** says your system seems very strange and potentially very unsafe. It sounds like the inlet and outlet systems are permanently linked. I hope I am wrong. If They are linked I would take it to an expert lpg gas fitter as a matter of urgency to get it checked.

What make are your gas cylinders?
 
I like everyone didn't enjoy paying exchange prices for gas and lifting a full 13kg bottle into the locker and refixing/connecting it is an effort and time consuming .
I purchased a 2nd hand R67 Gaslow bottle that was newer than the so called refurbished bottles Gaslow sell.
Beware this ruse! Legally bottles have to be retested every 10 years and Gaslow's refurbishment doesn't redate the bottle!
I suspect that when you return a bottle after 10 years as they suggest they'll only offer a few pounds discount - probably still more expensive than you can buy them from Hamilton gas etc.
I also take the view that a bottle that's tucked up in a nice dry locker, not being manhandled and dropped onto hard floors regularly and is kept topped up with gas is going have a safe life well above 10 years.

Anyway to get back on track I installed one gaslow cylinder and have a 6kg Calorlite as back up.
Why if you can top up 'anytime' - arguably whenever you refuel the van, why do people pay the extra for a second bottle?

I used GasIt pipe work etc as they seem to be much cheaper and I arranged a trip that went past their Bristol stockist to get a further cash discount and save postage.

To safeguard myself from potential insurance company wriggling if the van caught fire I had a full van gas check done that included the new filling and linking hoses and the BBQ point I'd also installed.

How many of us have a regular gas check?
I think annual is a bit ott but every couple of years makes sense.
The gas man tells me that technically as the filler point is before the regulator and has bottle fittings on it it is 'used serviceable' and therefore not part of the must be installed by a competent person regulations!

So in short both cost and convenience.
 
All is revealed!
After listening to all the above comments I have investigated further ,as there is very little room I slid a mirror over the top of both bottles to read the gauges one quiet low the other showings full,as When I got the van I was told that both bottles emptied at the same time this didn’t make sense so spoke to previous owner who now admits he hardly ever used gas as always went to sites with electric so never actually emptied a bottle. So obviously I do have to move regulator from one to other.My apologies for mis leading information but was only relying on what I was told.
 
Thanks to everyone who replied just shows I should not have listened to previous owner but checked everything myself . The older I get the less hours seem to be in a day.
 
It is helpful if gauges are easily seen and even better if they are mechanical operating on full bottle depth.
But the big thing about refillable is that you don't have to wait until you're empty before topping up.
If you see gas at a good price (Morrison's and Asda in UK) then fill up whether it's 2L or 20L makes no difference.
Use Filllpg.co.uk to find stations and do a bit of route planning.
 
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Had a single 11kg Gaslow refillable on my pvc and had to use the dentist mirror jobby to view the gauge. Much easier on my Pilote, 2 x 11kg Alugas cylinders. Autogas 2000 said the gauges are accurate but I just leave one open and when I run out of gas I will just open second cylinder and fill up at the next available opportunity.
 
Thanks to everyone who posted in this thread. It has been very useful to me as I'm deciding what to get. Safefill is cheapest option but not sure about taking out and refilling the bottles? Also put off by the post saying they had difficulty refilling in France. Any further advice welcome
 
I have a very tight gas locker and the bottles need to face each other so one of the gauges has to be at the rear.

I bought a piece of polished stainless steel off Ebay ( approx £3 ) and stuck it to the rear of the gas locker using Halfords Giant Black velcro coins.

www.halfords.com

VELCRO Giant Black Coins 45mm x 6 | Halfords UK

Shop the latest VELCRO Secure items in place to stop them moving when in transit, or to keep things to hand. at Halfords UK
www.halfords.com www.halfords.com

47810
 
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