New Motorhome - Which Gas System - Refillable or Calor

[JON8H]

Hi - Seeking Help & Guidance

I am about to take delivery of a new Motorhome and am not sure what Gas system to use. I.e. Refillable or Calor Gas?

We do (did) go to the continent and have spent time in Spain and France but going forwards I would hope we will be able to go to other countries in Europe. Up to a maximum of 3 weeks aways though hopefully longer in the future as I have now retired. Most of our time is spent on campsites hooked up to mains electric, but we do occasionly stop on the roadside on the way to camp sites. Any gas system would need to be usable in the UK and Europe.

I have always opted for Calor Gas and traveled with at least one full bottle.

But the new Motorhome has nothing in it at the moment except a regulator. So which way to go? What are the benefits of each? Any help you can give us would be great fully appreciated, including recommendations on which refillable system to use, if that is the right way to go.

Jon

 

[XxAnthxX]

Why not a Safefill refillable bottle…as it’s not a ‘fixed’ system you could easily stick a calor or continental bottle in if you needed to.

Safefill | Safe and easy to refill LPG Gas Cylinders

Safefill LPG Gas

www.safefill.co.uk

 

[Lenny HB]

If you are going to do more continental touring Refillable is a must have and the more continental touring you do will probably you will probably use sites a lot less.

 

[Derbyshire wanderer]

I prefer to have an underslung tank with a fill connection in the side skirt.
It is the equivalent to almost 4 of the 6kg bottles so can last far longer than most bottle cupboards can hold ( mine co only fit 2 of the 6kg ones).
Top up wherever passing a station that sells it and carry adapters for European suppliers.
No hassle of lifting and swapping the cylinders
No having to change a bottle at dinner time/night time/bad weather time.
No need to swap a cylinder with some gas left or carry one almost empty knowing it will need changing soon.
Fill up at a fraction of the cost of Calor bottles
Refillable bottles have some of the above benefits but with a underslung tank you also win a storage cupboard back.

 

[Stealaway]

It is a big investment to opt for refillable bottles.- £350 +
But.
A 13kg bottle will hold 22 ltr of gas at a average cost of £35. My Safefill bottles hold 19 ltr and an average cost of £10 to refill. You can easily see you will soon recoup the investment.
Refill station's are even more easily found in Europe

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[John H.]

Safefill is the way to go.

Your van looks big enough to take two 19 litre Safefill bottles. They use the same fittings as Calor.

You can refill anywhere that sells LPG (although you need to bear in mind that many places do not like any refillable systems)

The bottles a light weight, so easy to handle even when full.
You can buy a regulator with two bottle connections for ease of changeover (or even run with two on at once)
You can refill half empty bottles.
You can see the LPG liquid in the bottles, so no need to guess how much is left.
Fill up at a fraction of the cost of Calor.

 

[Sapper520]

We’ve got 2 x 11kgs exterior refillable Gaslow canisters, with auto changeover……..works well for us.

 

[nicholsong]

Not an answer to the OP's question exactly, but we have a Gaslow 11kg re-fillable, plus a 11kg Calor we inherited with the MH, which we have kept as a reserve but never used to date.

We have had two occasions when we could not re-fill the Gaslow: firstly after some time in the Pyrenees the Gaslow was almost empty but we were going down the valley to go up the next valley so found a station.

Secondly, is this last week; the MH is on a Greek island which has no LPG and no re-filling station(all exchange bottles arrive on the island full and leave empty). The Gaslow is near empty and when we return to the island for two weeks we shall have to rely on the Calor. If we stayed longer it would be a case of dumping the Calor and buying a local cylinder which we would probably have to dump somewhere in Europe, as exchangeables are not usually accepted in other countries. One EU?

This is just information for people going to such areas, but for 12 years the Gaslow has been adequate but for these two areas and the reserve Calor not touched.

Geoff

 

[K R B]

I live in france, and have been checked several times when filling.
If I was you I would go for a fitted system to save hassle when touring abroad.

 

[Bessy765]

We have a underslung tank also have a fitting ‘T’ with a blanking cap on it so no open ends. If we need extra gas such as in the winter we just connect a bottle from whoever supplier is local. Also have noticed in the UK lpg stations are getting a bit thin on the ground in some areas.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[the1andonly]

I have 1 gaslow 11kg and carry one calor 6/7kg bottle with fittings for both butane and propane. I also have a bbq point that i could attach a foreign bottle & regulator at a push. I am currently using a butane bottle that i bought for my folding camper and has been in the garage for 4 years. (Useful in this time of poor availability) i also have mopeka sensors to monitor levels in each bottle (can be used with specifing butane propane ratio as well)

 

[Landy Andy]

The big advantage to refillable bottles/system is the ability to “top up” if you go with calor then you either start your trip with less than 100% full, and hope you have enough, or, swap a calor gas whic has some gas in it for a full one, wasting, what is expensive gas. Also if you are on calor, and with to travel for long periods then you can only use what you are willing to carry, unless you start to buy local bottles, and swap around pipe work carrying around an empty bottle to bring home.

Another great advantage to use was that our van was designed to have twin 6kg btls, and so not enough room for the next size up. But refillables come in different sizes, so we could then go to twin 11kgs of gas, so practically doubled the amount of gas we can carry

 

[Landy Andy]

I don’t understand why people have one refillable and one calor. When do you use which?

 

[two]

The main advantage of refillable cylinders is that you can always set off with a known quantity of gas and don't need to wait for a cylinder to be empty (or almost empty) before refilling. You can also get adaptors so that you can fill in any country.
I use SafeFill because they are light and fairly cheap, and easy to re-sell. There are loads of folk who will say you cannot fill them at some stations but I think that is largely hearsay than personal experience. With good management, you should never find yourself desperate for gas so, if you are turned away, just move on and find another garage.

 

[JON8H]

Thank you for this I will check it out

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[the1andonly]

I don’t understand why people have one refillable and one calor. When do you use which?

The primary purpose is backup/ and a dual system is a large initial outlay. In my case i had a number of unused calor to use. The prime use would be autogas and never use the backup, the idea to never run out of gas.

 

[nicholsong]

I don’t understand why people have one refillable and one calor. When do you use which?

Look at my post #8 above

 

[Steve and Denise]

Gaslow two x11kgs plus 1x 10kgs Safefill if needed best off all situations I would never buy calor absolute rip off

 

[breeks]

you can get an adaptor for normal gas bottle £20 to refil they done it in portugal when i was 30 years old i am now nearly deed

 

[Landy Andy]

Look at my post #8 above

So two refillable would have been as good or better.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[daveandsan]

Alugas, two x 11kgs. I had them fitted to our last Motorhome which had 13kgs exchangeable bottles fitted and I didn’t want to be mauling bottles about with my bad back.
Had them swapped over when we changed our Motorhome.

 

[Abacist]

We have had mains fridge problems for some time which means we rely more on gas and therefore use more. I would not be without our GASIT refillable system of 2 11 Kgs cylinders

 

[JON8H]

I prefer to have an underslung tank with a fill connection in the side skirt.
It is the equivalent to almost 4 of the 6kg bottles so can last far longer than most bottle cupboards can hold ( mine co only fit 2 of the 6kg ones).
Top up wherever passing a station that sells it and carry adapters for European suppliers.
No hassle of lifting and swapping the cylinders
No having to change a bottle at dinner time/night time/bad weather time.
No need to swap a cylinder with some gas left or carry one almost empty knowing it will need changing soon.
Fill up at a fraction of the cost of Calor bottles
Refillable bottles have some of the above benefits but with a underslung tank you also win a storage cupboard back.

Hi - Who makes / fits this type of system?

 

[DuxDeluxe]

Hi - Who makes / fits this type of system?

Have a Google for autogas 2000

Autogas Leisure 2000 Limited - Refillable Gas Solutions for Motorhomes

Autogas 2000 Leisure Limited, Motorhome LPG refillable gas Solutions and refillable gas bottles.

www.autogasleisure.co.uk

 

[Derbyshire wanderer]

Hi - Who makes / fits this type of system?

As above Autogas 2000 did ours.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[ChrisB564]

As above Autogas 2000 did ours.

Another thumbs up for the guys at Autogas. Very professional and lovely people. I drove to Thirsk after buying my home in Lincoln. They even have a hookup so that you can stay overnight. Nice area to visit as well. They also gave me a 5% discount for being a funster.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Our van got delayed by a month so the dealer put 2 x 6kg refillable bottles in for us free
Very handy if you have a 3 way fridge, we can stay off grid for 4 weeks in Spain, probably more in the UK.