Carrying spare gas bottle

Our previous van - a Chausson Flash S1 - only had space for 1 x 6kg bottle of gas (well actually it might have handled something a bit bigger, but I didn't feel strong enough to man-handle a very large one). Fortunately, like your new van, the space heating was provided by a blown air diesel set-up. We also use hook-ups quite a lot, so didn't consume a lot of gas.

But when we did long continental trips I carried a 4.5kg bottle of propane securely strapped in the garage, just in case... However, never used it.

On our current van we have a 11kg refillable cylinder plus a 6kg Calor as a back-up (the gas locker is big enough for both). And although we have 6kw gas blown air space heating, we haven't ever used the Calor exchange bottle. Just top up the refillable as we go - easy peasy. :giggle:

Enjoy your new van ! (y)
 
Raul said:
So why worry about gas? If heating is done by diesel, hot water and cooking by lpg will last quite long. We use about 10l per month for cooking and hot water in summer months. Fridge/freezer is compressor. Heating by diesel.
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At the moment, my wife is suffering from some health issues which means she can't eat raw foods, and most foods she can eat need to be roasted in our Omnia. It tends to be on for a few hours and therefore goes through gas a bit. In our old van we had 2 gas bottles and so always had a full spare. In our new van we can't do this so I'm just looking and asking advice ref. what would be the best option.
Again, in the old van in the summer we found gas lasted quite a good time, but winter we were going through it at a rate of knots. Mostly through heating, but of course the fridge and cooking also used some too.
New van, we don't have the worry of the heating, but we can't be in a situation where we can't cook food or my wife will get pretty sick pretty fast. Joking aside, I can of course monitor LPG levels and it seems a good option, apart from all the stockists I'm seeing in Poland are completely sold out of 11kg refillable options. AluGas, GasLow and GasBank all completely sold out. I'm not happy buying a non-branded refillable, flammable gas storage device and so either need to wait for stock to become available or carry a spare 6kg for now.
 
two said:
The point with refillable bottles is that you can arrange to refill before every trip and set out with a known amount of gas. Running out should not be a surprise.
An Alugas cylinder would save you weight, but a SafeFill would also allow you to connect conventional cylinders in an emergency.
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Sadly, I can't really get safefill in Poland.
 
RubyOptics said:
At the moment, my wife is suffering from some health issues which means she can't eat raw foods, and most foods she can eat need to be roasted in our Omnia. It tends to be on for a few hours and therefore goes through gas a bit. In our old van we had 2 gas bottles and so always had a full spare. In our new van we can't do this so I'm just looking and asking advice ref. what would be the best option.
Again, in the old van in the summer we found gas lasted quite a good time, but winter we were going through it at a rate of knots. Mostly through heating, but of course the fridge and cooking also used some too.
New van, we don't have the worry of the heating, but we can't be in a situation where we can't cook food or my wife will get pretty sick pretty fast. Joking aside, I can of course monitor LPG levels and it seems a good option, apart from all the stockists I'm seeing in Poland are completely sold out of 11kg refillable options. AluGas, GasLow and GasBank all completely sold out. I'm not happy buying a non-branded refillable, flammable gas storage device and so either need to wait for stock to become available or carry a spare 6kg for now.
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Understand the situation.

In addition to what I wrote above, we always carry one of these and a couple of disposable cartridges of gas. It can always be brought into service as a last resort. As it happens, we use it quite often outside in summer when cooking fish or other food with strong odours.

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Just to add, when we had our kitchen at home completely redesigned and renovated we did all of our cooking for three weeks on two of the stoves and it worked out fine.
 
mikebeaches said:
Understand the situation.

In addition to what I wrote above, we always carry one of these and a couple of disposable cartridges of gas. It can always be brought into service as a last resort. As it happens, we use it quite often outside in summer when cooking fish or other food with strong odours.

Broken Link Removed

Just to add, when we had our kitchen at home completely redesigned and renovated we did all of our cooking for three weeks on two of the stoves and it worked out fine.
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As evidenced by my story of taking the dealers van keys, I think I must be losing it. Why on earth didn't I think of that? I have two of those stoves from when we used to go camping as a family. As you say, fantastic little things. I think I'll still go for one of the refillable systems, but there might well be less urgency to it now. Thank you very much indeed.
 
We have diesel heating and recon to use 11 kg gas if not on hook-up in about 5 weeks. We have a gasit cyl with a basic gague which reads full then drops to empty in one day! when theres about a weeks worth left.
It gives us plenty of time to top up and I wouldn't bother with a spare cyl.
 
The Wino said:
We have diesel heating and recon to use 11 kg gas if not on hook-up in about 5 weeks. We have a gasit cyl with a basic gague which reads full then drops to empty in one day! when theres about a weeks worth left.
It gives us plenty of time to top up and I wouldn't bother with a spare cyl.
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Yep, I think the comments on this thread, as well as all the others, have convinced me that a refillable system is the way forwards. One question though...if i get a refillable system fitted and then find myself unable to refill (I think Italy is known for not having many refilling points??) Can I still just plug in a standard hose onto my reducer, put my refillable in the garage and use a local propane/butane bottle?

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RubyOptics said:
Yep, I think the comments on this thread, as well as all the others, have convinced me that a refillable system is the way forwards. One question though...if i get a refillable system fitted and then find myself unable to refill (I think Italy is known for not having many refilling points??) Can I still just plug in a standard hose onto my reducer, put my refillable in the garage and use a local propane/butane bottle?
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I think you might be able to get an adapter from the hose to the regulator to the bottle if not a local pigtail from the regulator to the bottle. As I say we've never needed one. I think if I was worried I would have an external BBQ point fitted and backfeed from a local bottle with a clip on regulator rather than disturb the refillable as it would mean getting the filling hose and inline filter out as well.
 
With refillable it’s a different way of think compared to rent bottles. I know that I can fill up local to me, so if I wanted, every time I head out I can fill my 2x11kg cylinders. Only once have I used a complete bottle and that was a two week holiday for Xmas. When one goes I know I’ve got the other, and that will expire in a similar amount of time to the first.

So if you know Italy is difficult for gas, brim your cylinders before you enter, then you know you will have X amount of gas. And if at anytime you see it available you top up. It’s not like you need to empty a cylinder before refilling/swapping.

Its a far better than the system in the UK where we get a Calor bottle at high cost, then can‘t swap or refill whist in any other country and don’t have the ability to top up, so you either go on a trip not full gas, or do a bottle exchange wasting gas that you have purchased.
 
The Wino said:
I think you might be able to get an adapter from the hose to the regulator to the bottle if not a local pigtail from the regulator to the bottle. As I say we've never needed one. I think if I was worried I would have an external BBQ point fitted and backfeed from a local bottle with a clip on regulator rather than disturb the refillable as it would mean getting the filling hose and inline filter out as well.
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Ahhh, ok. We are thinking of putting on a gas point anyway, so i can just feed into the refillable system by connecting to the bbq point, opening the fill valve on the refillable system and then opening the standard bottle??
 
Landy Andy said:
With refillable it’s a different way of think compared to rent bottles. I know that I can fill up local to me, so if I wanted, every time I head out I can fill my 2x11kg cylinders. Only once have I used a complete bottle and that was a two week holiday for Xmas. When one goes I know I’ve got the other, and that will expire in a similar amount of time to the first.

So if you know Italy is difficult for gas, brim your cylinders before you enter, then you know you will have X amount of gas. And if at anytime you see it available you top up. It’s not like you need to empty a cylinder before refilling/swapping.

Its a far better than the system in the UK where we get a Calor bottle at high cost, then can‘t swap or refill whist in any other country and don’t have the ability to top up, so you either go on a trip not full gas, or do a bottle exchange wasting gas that you have purchased.
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Yes, I can see exactly what you mean. Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal, but the wifes health problems have, as you say, required a bit if a change in my way of thinking about having a supply of gas. The cost point isn't such a big concern for us, as here in Poland an 11kg bottle is roughly a tenner when you exchange. So we aren't really looking at this as a money saving measure, just a way of ensuring she can always cook her food.
 
RubyOptics said:
Ahhh, ok. We are thinking of putting on a gas point anyway, so i can just feed into the refillable system by connecting to the bbq point, opening the fill valve on the refillable system and then opening the standard bottle??
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No not to fill the refillable bottle because you can only feed in gas after using a regulator through the BBQ point as it's the low pressure side. You would use the local bottle to feed the low pressure system not refill the refillable bottle if I've made it clear!. I would turn the refillable off.

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I don’t know how it works for you, but if you have Polish cylinders fitted in your van, then you travel and run out in Italy can you swap a polish cylinder for an Italian cylinder? Or it is like the UK where that is not possible or straightforward.
 
The Wino said:
No not to fill the refillable bottle because you can only feed in gas after using a regulator through the BBQ point as it's the low pressure side. You would use the local bottle to feed the low pressure system not refill the refillable bottle if I've made it clear!. I would turn the refillable off.
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Ahhhh, I think I get you now. I'm not using the bottle to refill anything, just as a source of gas being fed in through the BBQ point, right?
 
Landy Andy said:
I don’t know how it works for you, but if you have Polish cylinders fitted in your van, then you travel and run out in Italy can you swap a polish cylinder for an Italian cylinder? Or it is like the UK where that is not possible or straightforward.
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I'd still need to get an Italian pigtail etc, so it's not hassle free, but manageable if I needed to.
 
RubyOptics said:
I'd still need to get an Italian pigtail etc, so it's not hassle free, but manageable if I needed to.
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So the same as us then. So refillable makes much more sense. I can still remove one or both of my refillable cylinders, buy local pigtail and bottle and put that in my gas locker. No different to if we had calor cylinders.
 
Landy Andy said:
So the same as us then. So refillable makes much more sense. I can still remove one or both of my refillable cylinders, buy local pigtail and bottle and put that in my gas locker. No different to if we had calor cylinders.
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So to do that I would just need to disconnect the fill line from the refillable. Cover the threads and make sure the hose isn't banging about and the connect a standard pigtail to the reducer, right?

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I don't know when it happens but after a while you and your van become one.

You don't need a dial to know that the grey is near full or the fresh close to empty, You'll know precisely when the loo needs emptying, and when the gas and battery is low. You'll just know. (y)
 
Jim said:
I don't know when it happens but after a while you and your van become one.

You don't need a dial to know that the grey is near full or the fresh close to empty, You'll know precisely when the loo needs emptying, and when the gas and battery is low. You'll just know. (y)
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Couldn't agree more, and we certainly did get like that with our old van. Sadly though, I don't have the luxury of making a mistake whilst "getting used" to the new van. If she doesn't eat small, regular meals, she gets sick. If she can't use the gas to properly cook those meals, she will get sick. So kinda need to hit the ground running, at least in this regard.
 
RubyOptics said:
So as I sit here quivering with excitement about our new motorhome, I am pondering the above. Our new van will have Truma 6D heating (Yay!!) but because of this, it only has space for 1x11kg gas bottle (boo!). I envisage this lasting us quite a while, especially in summer, but would still like to carry a spare for when we go on our extended, off-site jaunts.
What would the consensus be on carrying a smaller (say 6kg) bottle, securely lashed down, in the garage? Yay? Nay?
Thanks all!
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It would be a long trip home to get it if you run out.
We keep one on the bike rack only 6kg one bike though.
 
RubyOptics said:
That's why I'm so incredibly happy my new van has a diesel Truma system fitted!
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... just don't ever let your diesel get low otherwise you'll be in deep do-do both from a heating and propulsion view!
 
Minxy Girl said:
... just don't ever let your diesel get low otherwise you'll be in deep do-do both from a heating and propulsion view!
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Indeed, although I think most modern set ups are designed for the diesel heating to cut out when the tank gets below a quarter full.

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I suggest like The Wino a bbq point to add a non refillable bottle and regulator. A ridiculously expensive way would be to use a camping gaz 907 bottle and regulator available in many European countries. I have a refillable and a calor bottle with fittings for both propane and butane and a 907 for outside cooking (before i fitted the external gas point.

Edit since continuity of supply is important i would use a gas monitor i use a mopeka (bought from usa)
 
the1andonly said:
I suggest like The Wino a bbq point to add a non refillable bottle and regulator. A ridiculously expensive way would be to use a camping gaz 907 bottle and regulator available in many European countries. I have a refillable and a calor bottle with fittings for both propane and butane and a 907 for outside cooking (before i fitted the external gas point.

Edit since continuity of supply is important i would use a gas monitor i use a mopeka (bought from usa)
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We rely on a cheapo innacurate guage. We refill as soon as it looks necessary and you do get a feel for when its getting due. The real advantage of a refillable is you don't need to wait until empty before refilling
 
RubyOptics said:
Ahhh, ok. We are thinking of putting on a gas point anyway, so i can just feed into the refillable system by connecting to the bbq point, opening the fill valve on the refillable system and then opening the standard bottle??
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If the BBQ point is used a regulator would be needed, an alternative is to feed in via the filler using the Gasit connector and then the onboard regulator would be utilised, you would need to open the valve on the refillable to allow the gas to flow through it.
 
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Minxy Girl said:
... just don't ever let your diesel get low otherwise you'll be in deep do-do both from a heating and propulsion view!
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The take-off is at roughly 1/4 tank level, so I can never completely strand myself thankfully!
 
Gaslow also sell a hose to connect a refillable bottle direct to the filling point of their system it is described as a Gaslow reserve connection hose and is around £20 (I brought mine from outdoor bits , they are also in the Gaslow online shop )

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