Filling UK gas bottle in Europe

robodell

Guest
Hi,

Does anyone know where I can buy a full set of European adaptors for filling my UK bottles from LPG (GPL) stations? I know they are about because I have seen loads of motorhomers with them, but I can't seem to track them down.

I use 2x11kg Flowgas propane bottles. I am aware that some people will advise against self-filling them, but I've met so many people that do it that I believe if you are responsible about it it should be ok. This is not meant to be a cost saving measure, merely the ability to fill up when empty and replacements are unavailable.

I know that with my 11kg bottles, I can safely put 22 litres of gas in and I would never exceed that EVEN though some folks tell me that there is a cut-off to prevent you from overfilling.

I am looking for the ability to refill in France, Spain and Portugal primarily. I am aware of the (very) few places in Portugal where you can get your bottles refilled, but they are scarce and you are never in the right area when you get low.

Help required PLEASE - I'm happy to pay the going rate for the adaptor kit if anyone has a spare set.

Thanks

Rob O'Dell:cool:
 
hi. there are loads of places to fill bottles in portugalmany garages have gpl,as its known there. spain can be difficult and you need a newish spanish adaptor. some garages have them others not. the spanish adaptor is available in uk. i dont have one as i use a spanish bottle .much cheaper than refilling. will message a tel,number to you for fittings.
 
hi. just realised you may not be able to pick up messages
 
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They were on ebay for filling 'non fillable' bottles, also Gaslow and C.A.K tanks sell the adaptors to allow your adapter to be used in Spain etc.
 
There is NO cut off in a normal gas bottle such as Flogas or Calor, only bottles designed for refilling yourself such as Gaslow, Alugas or tanks fitted have the 80% cut off. Overfilling could be dangerous & you should be aware of what you are doing :rolleyes:
With normal bottles you should work out how much gas you need to refill with by the weight of the bottle. I wrote on my calor bottle what the weight was full & also have a double check with the weight stamped on the bottle. As said Portugal is easy as there are lots of places to fill up it is only Spain where there are a limited amount of places to fill up. You might also encounter problems trying to fill normal bottles rather than the ones designed to be re-filled.
 
On this subject, is it possible to refill BP gaslight bottles useing an adaptor?
I regularly refill my Calor bottles and am aware of the procedures etc...but having looked at BP's there does not seem to be a way of manually shutting down. Perhaps Alan will know :)
 
BP Fiberglass Bottle refilling???

I have adored these bottles from afar for years assuming that the "Click-On" type bottles were not re-fillable. If anyone knows for a fact that these can be manually refilled at the GPL pumps then I'm in for a pair of these too! I could shave about 16Kg over my German steel bottles. Every little bit helps.

Now If I could shave 16 Kg off myself than that would be another matter all together!!!
 
hi. never filled a gas litebottle.for uk clip on bottles i use a clip on adapter to uk old thread same as german french maroc bottles then use a different adapter to uk propane. THE FIRST ADAPTER IS A CALOR PART. SUPPLIED BY THEM WHEN CLIP ON FIRST CAME OUT. THE SECOND ONE IS ONE I HAD MADE. look around companies like BES.they carry all sorts of adapters .remember all bottles are designed to be refilled . wouldnt be any use other wise.think about what you are doing. more bottles without a cut off are filled worldwide every day than ones with it. gas companies wouldnt be allowed to refill if it was really dangerous. care and attention is the key. camping gas is refillable as well. they are the biggest rippoff.
 
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vwalan said:
hi. never filled a gas litebottle.for uk clip on bottles i use a clip on adapter to uk old thread same as german french maroc bottles then use a different adapter to uk propane. THE FIRST ADAPTER IS A CALOR PART. SUPPLIED BY THEM WHEN CLIP ON FIRST CAME OUT. THE SECOND ONE IS ONE I HAD MADE. look around companies like BES.they carry all sorts of adapters .remember all bottles are designed to be refilled . wouldnt be any use other wise.think about what you are doing. more bottles without a cut off are filled worldwide every day than ones with it. gas companies wouldnt be allowed to refill if it was really dangerous. care and attention is the key. camping gas is refillable as well. they are the biggest rippoff.
Click to expand...

Thanks Alan, I thought you would know.I will keep looking
 
vwalan said:
camping gas is refillable as well. they are the biggest rippoff.
Click to expand...

They certainly are.
(Unless you buy them in Spain where the shops appear to refill them. - no camping gaz seal, slightly underweight, but only 11 Euros instead of up to £24 here! And their Spanish gas is much better at low temperatures.)
Any idea where to get the kit to refill my 907 bottles please?
(Am well aware of the dangers of overfilling, and maintain accurate scales to weigh the bottles.)
 
you need 2 adaptors

first one is to the common euro thread [ like a 4.5Kg calor butane dumpy ] available all over mainland europe and probably in uk as well as camping gas sell one themselves

then you need an adaptor to that , probably called for a french/ german or dutch bottle which are all the same thread

DO NOT PUT MORE THAN 5 LITRES AN EMPTY 2.8 Kg BOTTLE

some people say it is dangerous to fill ordinary gas bottles yourself as you could overfill ; well , it is , and it isn't ! the pump will only work at 10 bar pressure , so it stops filling when the bottle reaches that [ rated operating pressure of bottle is 15 bar , test pressure 30 bar ; so the bottle will not explode whatever you do

HOWEVER , you need to leave enough space above the liquid to ensure that no liquid goes up the pipe to the appliance ...that WOULD be dangerous

so only fill empty bottles , and then only to the rated capacity , which in the case of the big camping gas is , as stated , 5 litres

I presume that most people know that camping gas started out as a french company , but was taken over by colemans of the usa some time ago
 
some people say it is dangerous to fill ordinary gs bottles yourself as you could overfill ; well , it is , and it isn't ! the pump will only work at 10 bar pressure , so it stops filling when the bottle reaches that [ rated operating pressure of bottle is 15 bar , test pressure 30 bar ; so the bottle will not explode whatever you do
Click to expand...

Just this statement alone should convince anyone who really does know the physics involved that this poster hasn't a clue what he is talking about.
 
amazing ; what's physics got to do with it ; chemistry , ok , you may have heard of m. boyle ; P1V1/T1 continues to equal P2V2/T2 just like he said

the fact remains that a pump limited to 10 bar cannot create more than a 10 bar pressure in the recipient container anymore than a liquid can run up hill
 
Tony Lee said:
Just this statement alone should convince anyone who really does know the physics involved that this poster hasn't a clue what he is talking about.
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Hi Tony,

Perhaps you should spend a little time and educate rather than belittle the poster.

Richard
 
amazing ; what's physics got to do with it ; chemistry , ok , you may have heard of m. boyle ; P1V1/T1 continues to equal P2V2/T2 just like he said

the fact remains that a pump limited to 10 bar cannot create more than a 10 bar pressure in the recipient container anymore than a liquid can run up hill
to illustrate my point , many of the air pumps now being installed at filling stations are now limited to 4 bar ; you can stand there all day but they won't pump your motorhomes up to 4.1 bar ! common sense really
 
I have one of the adapters listed on ebay jukka5523 | eBay UK

They've gone up in the past 18 months since I purchased it but probably down to euro exchange rate.

I only purchased it for convenience if stuck without gas and have only used it once and I was probably over cautious, rather than fill the 6kg bottle to 12 liters I stopped at 10 liters.

hth
 
lebesset said:
amazing ; what's physics got to do with it ; chemistry , ok , you may have heard of m. boyle ; P1V1/T1 continues to equal P2V2/T2 just like he said


the fact remains that a pump limited to 10 bar cannot create more than a 10 bar pressure in the recipient container anymore than a liquid can run up hill
to illustrate my point , many of the air pumps now being installed at filling stations are now limited to 4 bar ; you can stand there all day but they won't pump your motorhomes up to 4.1 bar ! common sense really
Click to expand...


More dangerous ignorance.
Boyles law and Ideal Gas law refer to GASES.
We are talking about LIQUIDS

I wouldn't mind if common sense did come into it, because commonsense would at least indicate that there is a reason for some of these "terrible" rules and regulations that so restrict the basic right of truly stupid people to kill themselves. I would regard it as basic natural selection if it weren't for the sad fact that they often take innocent people out with them

Fixed tanks come with an overfill preventer valve and or a bleed valve so when filled by trained people, it is impossible to fill the bottle right up to the top. A normal exchange bottle may not be fitted with either of these devices (although they are in the USA) so if you just hook your bottle up to an autogas pump using an illegal adaptor, it may be possible to fill the bottle right up to the top with liquid LPG so there is no gas space at all. True, the autogas pump may not be able to burst the bottle even in this case, but what happens if you then turn the valve off and leave the bottle in the sun of in the boot of a car in the sun.
Last time I looked, LPG (where L stands for liquid) is regarded as incompressible and figures I have seen refer to a pressure of 200 Bar (two-hundred) compresses LPG by less than 1%.

So you have a bottle full of incompressible liquid being heated in the sun. Perhaps someone else will explain which one of several possible scenarios is most likely

Not at all the same as having tyre pressures limited to 4.1 Bar so idiots don't blow their tyres apart and kill someone. It IS a matter of basic physics - fill a container right to the top with incompressible liquid and heat it up and see what happens.
 
Tbear said:
Hi Tony,

Perhaps you should spend a little time and educate rather than belittle the poster.

Richard
Click to expand...

Is there anyone who can point to regulations or approvals that would indicate that using these adaptors to refill exchange bottles on the forecourt of a filling station is either legal or safe.? This topic comes up regularly and the first or last sentence of the OP is invariably "Yes, I know this is illegal/dangerous/stupid etc etc ... but ...."

As for belittling someone who pretends to know what he is talking about by advocating this practice on an open forum when he also hasn't a clue about the level of experience, or competence or commonsense of the OP - I would be surprised if this forum didn't have rules against members who give advice without considering their duty of care. Do no harm is the safest course of action.
 
Tony Lee said:
A normal exchange bottle may not be fitted with either of these devices (although they are in the USA) so if you just hook your bottle up to an autogas pump using an illegal adaptor, it may be possible to fill the bottle right up to the top with liquid LPG so there is no gas space at all.
Click to expand...

Tony, where have you found the information stating that these adaptors are illegal?

Tony Lee said:
Is there anyone who can point to regulations or approvals that would indicate that using these adaptors to refill exchange bottles on the forecourt of a filling station is either legal or safe.? This topic comes up regularly and the first or last sentence of the OP is invariably "Yes, I know this is illegal/dangerous/stupid etc etc ... but ...."
Click to expand...
Surely you are more likely to find information if they where illegal. If there is nothing stating it's illegal then its legal, no? I have yet to be shown anything that states it is illegal to fill up these bottles at a forecourt. It may be against the exchange bottle owners (calor etc) terms and conditions but it's not illegal.

Greg
 
According to the HSE, the refilling of transportable lpg cylinders other than those specifically designed for the purpose (eg Gaslow) is potentially dangerous and any forecourt owner who allows it may be liable to having his license to store petroleum removed. In other words, he could be put out of business. There is no statute banning such refilling but the powers that the HSE has render such a statute unecessary in practice.

At the other end of the spectrum, if the user ignores the HSE and refills such a cylinder then it is almost certain that if anything goes wrong his insurance will be rendered null and void.

All in all, it might be safer for those who don't know what they are doing (and that is the vast majority of us, including me) to play it by the rules.
 
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