Talk to me about Safe Fill Bottles

[davidathomas42]

So I pick my MH up on Sunday. Its a Bailey and takes X2 6KG bottles.

Just seen a Neighbour today who sold his motorhome and has in his garage X2 7.2KG Safe fill bottles and various adapters.

Need to check Sunday if they will fit mine size wise but essentially if I do I assume no issues? in using these in place of Calor swappable bottles? They have the same type screw thread to regulator as far as I can tell. They can be removed the same to take them to a LPG garage to fill like you would GasLow etc. or left in the van and filled in place.

The only issue I see is that I wont have an external connection point to fill them so ill have a small bit of hassle turning off and disconnecting the MH then removing the van connection. Connecting the fill line from the garage then putting it all back etc.
May be an option to add a quick connection at a later date?

Anyway. £150 for both bottles and connections.

Is there a downside i'm missing before I grab them?

 

[VXman]

No down side. The only possible issue is finding LPG in the UK. It's not as easily available as in Europe. There is a good app for locating places though (myLPG.eu) and I've always managed to find places. There is also a useful LPG facebook group. It is an excellent choice if you are travelling in Europe as it's much easier than finding foreign bottles and appropriate connectors and also its a lot cheaper than Calor.

It's worth investing in fitting an external fill point to stop any awkward questions in petrol stations where they don't understand.

 

[Tombola]

Morrisons near me now have an alarm type device when anyone pulls in and triggers the LPG. It start behind the cashier..LPG check..LPG.check. until they stand up check it's no one dodgy and then they switch on.
The girl in was speaking to said it's a pain as the switch is in the back room.

I sailed through no problem with my internal fill point.

She mentioned folk trying to fill none regulated bottles...

 

[davidathomas42]

Thanks guys.

I am wondering shall I do one LPG bottle and one Calor bottle so I have options and redundancy.

 

[Tombola]

Thanks guys.

I am wondering shall I do one LPG bottle and one Calor bottle so I have options and redundancy.

Lots of us do this..I use the standard bottle as emergency when in the UK till I find a fill up. Been over a year since I changed it

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

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

Thanks guys.

I am wondering shall I do one LPG bottle and one Calor bottle so I have options and redundancy.

The other bottle could be sold to me easily.
Mike.

 

[davidathomas42]

The other bottle could be sold to me easily.
Mike.

Not if your in Spain I guess... But at that price i'll be taking both if I can get at least 1 to fit.

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

Not if your in Spain I guess... But at that price i'll be taking both if I can get at least 1 to fit.

Only temporarily here on a flyaway holiday. Hundreds of M/homes here though.
Mike.

 

[Bern8]

I have a handwheel pigtail attached to my Safefill bottle. Have no problem at my nearest Morrisons when I go to fill up. I take the bottle out of the van (anyone who leaves it in the van are pushing your luck if things go wrong). The bottle has a section where you can shine a torch from the back and will show through the fibreglass to show the level of lpg in the bottle. I manage easily enough to keep it adequately filled.

 

[StillGoing]

Check the date on them. They have a certified life of 10 years.

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

 

[davidathomas42]

Check the date on them. They have a certified life of 10 years.

Will do... Their van was about 3 years old when they sold it this year and he bought them new so should be good.

 

[Nonna]

I've read that many UK filling stations won't allow refilling now. Some folk have had external filling points fitted to get round this.
Morrisons seems to be the main place to go for refills now

 

[Nonna]

From Safefill sitr

 

[LithiumConvert]

We have 3 Safefill bottles and almost invariably fill them at the same place near home. (often two at a time), so we always have a full one in the motorhome.

Running one at a time to empty means that I do not have to worry about them being overfilled as I always ask for 19 litres. (14 litres, in your case)

I am wondering shall I do one LPG bottle and one Calor bottle so I have options and redundancy.

Pointless. The Calor is just too expensive. You will learn where to fill them.

The bottle has a section where you can shine a torch from the back and will show through the fibreglass to show the level of LPG in the bottle

Never thought of that, but only very rarely do I have any difficulty seeing the liquid in the bottle.

 

[Lenny HB]

Running one to empty means that I do not have to worry about them being overfilled as I always ask for 19 litres.

How can you overfill them, they should have an 80% cut off valve, if the haven't it's not legal to refill them.

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

 

[LithiumConvert]

It's worth investing in fitting an external fill point to stop any awkward questions in petrol stations where they don't understand.

Doees not really work with Safefill as the gas is drawn off from the top of the bottle where the liquid fill hose needs to connect.

 

[LithiumConvert]

How can you overfill them, they should have an 80% cut off valve,

That is the theory. As you say they "should have....." I do not rely on "should have"

 

[Googlebot]

You can’t fit another refill point externally with safefill.

They have a non return valve in the filler and many adapters trigger this rendering it useless so it can’t be extended and isn’t supposed to be used with adapters.

I used to have one and found it excellent! I know it seems a faff, but if I was passing somewhere in the car, I just used to chuck the bottle in and voila.

Had one Safefill and a flogas. Flogas was never used thankfully at the price of a refill.

 

[Basildog]

It's worth investing in fitting an external fill point to stop any awkward questions in petrol stations where they don't understand.

Safefill aren’t designed to have an external filler connected

 

[VXman]

Safefill aren’t designed to have an external filler connected

Ah - didn't realise that. In that case it's a downside. I use Gaslow.

Some garages will not allow you to fill a bottle direct. Also the hassle of opening the locker door and maybe having to take it out.

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

 

[VXman]

That is the theory. As you say they "should have....." I do not rely on "should have"

'should have' is probably not the best word. They 'do' have a cut off valve.

I use a Gaslow bottle. I always rely on the cut off valve and it has always worked.

I never let it run empty as I only have the one bottle. Never understood the need for 2 as I just refill when it gets near empty. Just like you do with the petrol/diesel tank.

 

[davidathomas42]

Never understood the need for 2 as I just refill when it gets near empty. Just like you do with the petrol/diesel tank.

My need for 2 bottles is it’s now winter and I’ll be in the van full time. If I’m away in the lakes or somewhere I can’t get to refill I’ll likely drain the 7.2kg bottle in 4 days with heating and cooking. I need a 2nd so I don’t have to go searching after a few days.

Fine if your an every now and then user in winter or a summer user.

 

[Figaro]

I never let it run empty as I only have the one bottle. Never understood the need for 2 as I just refill when it gets near empty.

The difficulty is knowing when it's nearly empty in my experience.
I use two Gaslow and just switch to second bottle when main runs out.
Works for me

 

[VXman]

The difficulty is knowing when it's nearly empty in my experience.
I use two Gaslow and just switch to second bottle when main runs out.
Works for me

Never had a problem working it out. On average when travelling I get about 2 weeks out of a bottle. After about 10 days I will take a look at the gauge and decide whether to start looking for a garage not.

I find the Gaslow guage underestimates. It can get to completely empty and still work for a couple of days so as soon as the guage is halfway/two thirds into the red I will go and fill up.

I do have a small (6kg) calor bottle that came with the van so I keep that I'm the locker should I ever run out. In 3 years I never have!

 

[Nonna]

'should have' is probably not the best word. They 'do' have a cut off valve.

I use a Gaslow bottle. I always rely on the cut off valve and it has always worked.

I never let it run empty as I only have the one bottle. Never understood the need for 2 as I just refill when it gets near empty. Just like you do with the petrol/diesel tank.

I have 2. Using the first bottle only until it runs out allows me to know I have a few days before I need to refill
Being in an area where Autogas stations are few & far between & those not always with gas available it's the safest way.

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

 

[VXman]

I have 2. Using the first bottle only until it runs out allows me to know I have a few days before I need to refill
Being in an area where Autogas stations are few & far between & those not always with gas available it's the safest way.

As said above - a spare calor or similar can be a useful safety net. But...I've never run out.

 

[VXman]

Pointless. The Calor is just too expensive. You will learn where to fill them.

Not really. It's a emergency back up. Doesn't need to be used. I kept my calor that came with the van. I use it as a back up. It's still full after 3 years of using one single Gaslow bottle.

 

[Lenny HB]

We have two 14 kg bottles I would hate to travel with only one. I try to avoid filling up in France due to the high oily residues in their gas. That wouldn't be possible a lot of times with only one bottle.

 

[tonka]

I think most things have most likely been covered above.
I have had 2 x 10kg safefill for a few years now.

1. Check if you have local LPG places, use apps like mylpg.eu. Lucky for me there are quiet a few locally and i take the bottles in the car to an independant just 2 miles away. Many local taxi companies around here are now having their own LPG tanks and will sell to public.
2. Check age of the bottles and factor that into the cost price against a new ones.
3. You cant / should not use an external filler. Not really designed for that.
4. The handwheel POL pigtails are very usefull to aid connecting and taking out the bottles (Amazon).
5. They have a safety cut off at 80% HOWEVER !! There have been a few instances, mine included, where they can overfill. Safefill seem to point the finger at user or filling equipment faults. So worth being aware of what amount you can fill and keep to that. My 10kg bottles are meant to take 19.5ltrs but from empty i usually tell the man who fills for me to cut off at 18lts as a precaution.

Current prices on the 7kg seem to be about £190 each so 2 for £150 and 3-4 years old is a good deal and you will soon recoup costs.

 

[Pausim]

The difficulty is knowing when it's nearly empty in my experience.
I use two Gaslow and just switch to second bottle when main runs out.
Works for me

I thought Safefill and Flogas Gaslight used plastic bottles you could see into to check the level.

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