Gas bottle shenanigans, what next?!

LindsayH

Free Member
Posts
171
Likes
174
Well, here I am in France! It's not all been entirely straightforward, maybe I'll do a little thread on the last few days rather than bore you here. One of my biggest problems so far has been gas bottles and I'm not entirely sure what to do next. My first problem was that I managed to get the wrong dimensions for my Calor gas bottle, either I read it wrong or the site had the wrong info listed. Anyway, it turns out that none of the bottles sold in France fitted in my cupboard, so I took my cupboard apart and now I can just about fit one standard small size (10kgish) bottle in. The good news is I am now excellent at finding Intermarche, but it took me SIX attempts to actually buy gas. Problems ranging from them being shut, deserted, not having gas, not having the right gas or often, just them refusing to sell me gas. Eventually, I got frustrated and got one lady to write down exactly what the problem was and went away to google it. I needed a contract. So I went back and asked her if I could have a contract and she looked at me like I was completely mental (apparently it's FAR too expensive) but said yes of course! So I signed a contract and paid less than I would for my Calor refill back home. I bought Propane as everyone has been telling me to buy Propane due to Butane not being too good for the coming winter months.
Next problem, Detender (thanks to whoever posted that word on the other thread, it has been my most used word in Franch so far!). The Intermarche woman said she couldn't help so I went to big DIY store on the other side of town that I had gone to earlier in the day to buy firewood. After an hour of dreadful French, pointing, photos, back and forth to the van and three staff members I gave up without even finding out which the right regulator was. The one thing I could see was that none of them was going to fit my hose. Several of the butane ones came with adaptors that seem to change the screw fitting on the regulator to a push fit one like my current reg has. So, DIY shop on the other side of town. More pointing, photos, confusion, awful French and staring at gas bottles. This guy seemed to be quite knowledgeable but sadly spoke as much English as I do French. What I can gather is this - you can't get Propane regulators to fit on my gas hose. You would need the adaptor and these are not sold for propane regulators as the higher pressure means you need a screw fit. This is my best guess at what he was trying to say and why neither the Intermarche nor the DIY shops could help me.
So what do I do?!? Should I go back and exchange my propane for butane? I've had to open the propane bottle to look at the connection. Also, will the regulators in the DIY shops fit my bottle and if so how do I know which one? There are a few different types (and they all say for 13kg bottles on them and mine is 9kg).
I've been trying to get this sorted for 5 days now, so any help or advice anyone can offer will be greatly appreciated. I've still got to fit the b****y regulator yet :rolleyes2: :lol-053:
 
Awesome to hear you're in France - so jealous :)

It seems like a bit of grief at the moment, but it'll soon be long forgotten I'm sure.

I think you might do well to ideally find a guy who works on motorhomes who will swap advice for wine, or maybe a motorhome dealer who does maintenance. This should be a relatively simple thing to work out x

Keep us posted ;)
 
It will be easily sorted once you find the right person, but it does sound like you're having a bit of a mare. A German neighbour in Portugal went through a similar saga, but once she found the right shop they sold her the gas, regulator and fitted it all and it didn't cost a crazy amount.

Make sure you get the wildcamping competitor app if you're in France as it's full of reviews and probably contains more stops. If I type it properly the forum software will block it, but it lets you park[(4)]night - remove the [()]
 
Last edited:
st3v3 said:
Awesome to hear you're in France - so jealous :)

It seems like a bit of grief at the moment, but it'll soon be long forgotten I'm sure.

I think you might do well to ideally find a guy who works on motorhomes who will swap advice for wine, or maybe a motorhome dealer who does maintenance. This should be a relatively simple thing to work out x

Keep us posted ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks Steeeeeeve! You should all come to France, yay! That's the frustrating thing about this is that I'm sure that once the right solution comes along I'm sure it will be simple, but finding it when you don't speak the language is tricky!
 
ScoTTyBEEE said:
It will be easily sorted once you find the right person, but it does sound like you're having a bit of a mare. A German neighbour in Portugal went through a similar saga, but once she found the right shop they sold her the gas, regulator and fitted it all and it didn't cost a crazy amount.

Make sure you get the wildcamping competitor app if you're in France as it's full of reviews and probably contains more stops. If I type it properly the forum software will block it, but it lets you park[(4)]night - remove the [()]
Click to expand...

Thank you! You're right, I'm sure I'll look back on this as a minor hiccup, just rather stressful at the time!
 
i'm not sure i understand. normally i would buy a bottle in a garage and they'd sell the regulator too. as there's only bottled gas in France , then you can buy it in loads of unlikely places . any campsite should have an English speaker to put you right .
if you can swap back to butane ,i would , as i'm sure it's more widely used over there and more familiar
 
LindsayH said:
Thank you! You're right, I'm sure I'll look back on this as a minor hiccup, just rather stressful at the time!
Click to expand...

We've all been there. I drove miles with a broken cv boot earlier in the year and it got to the point I had to get it fixed in France as I couldn't drive 700 miles home, the whole van was vibrating and the stress it was causing was off the charts.

Life throws us these challenges, but that's the great thing about #vanlife, you've got to face them head on. We learn from these experiences.
 
n brown said:
i'm not sure i understand. normally i would buy a bottle in a garage and they'd sell the regulator too. as there's only bottled gas in France , then you can buy it in loads of unlikely places . any campsite should have an English speaker to put you right .
if you can swap back to butane ,i would , as i'm sure it's more widely used over there and more familiar
Click to expand...

Yes, I certainly thought it would be a lot easier than this. I'm sure the language barrier is a huge problem. Have you bought a propane regulator yourself at Intermarche? If so, what gas hose fitting do you have? I think my next step is to try another Intermarche for the regulator. Unfortunately I'm not staying on any campsites and I need to get the gas sorted quickly before I run out. I ideally want to leave some in the Calor bottle for between foreign bottles.

I have looked at Narbonne, they look helpful. There isn't one near me unfortunately though, so it would mean waiting until I set off again and trying to sort it on the road/while using the gas. Might be the best option though...
 
ScoTTyBEEE said:
We've all been there. I drove miles with a broken cv boot earlier in the year and it got to the point I had to get it fixed in France as I couldn't drive 700 miles home, the whole van was vibrating and the stress it was causing was off the charts.

Life throws us these challenges, but that's the great thing about #vanlife, you've got to face them head on. We learn from these experiences.
Click to expand...

A cv boot will not cause vibs,more likely the cv joint was shot due to boot torn for a while letting the grease out.
 
trevskoda said:
A cv boot will not cause vibs,more likely the cv joint was shot due to boot torn for a while letting the grease out.
Click to expand...

I knew it was torn once it started vibrating, it likely tore a long, long way away. I wasn't exactly hasty about getting it fixed at that point either.
 
hairydog said:
The pressure is around 30 to 50 Millibar, propane or butane. There are 1000 Millibar in a bar, which is about 14psi. So the pressure is less than half a psi: that is perfectly fine with a push fit connection, though a jubilee clip or cable tie to lock it on is a smart move.
You will probably find what you need in a Mr Bricolage store. They seem to have loads of LPG fittings as well as bottles.
We have a tank, and a French adapter, so although €0.71 per litre seems a bit expensive, it is easy.
Click to expand...

Thanks Hairydog! That pressure stuff is interesting, I had no idea. It really helps to know this sort of useful background technical stuff. Off to google Mr Bricolage...
 
st3v3 said:
LOL, we've been before a couple of times and quite liked it :)

It's just this work/school rubbish that gets in the way...
Click to expand...


I know right??! I'll let you know how chucking it in and living in abject poverty goes for me :D
 
LindsayH said:
Yes, I certainly thought it would be a lot easier than this. I'm sure the language barrier is a huge problem. Have you bought a propane regulator yourself at Intermarche? If so, what gas hose fitting do you have? I think my next step is to try another Intermarche for the regulator. Unfortunately I'm not staying on any campsites and I need to get the gas sorted quickly before I run out. I ideally want to leave some in the Calor bottle for between foreign bottles.

I have looked at Narbonne, they look helpful. There isn't one near me unfortunately though, so it would mean waiting until I set off again and trying to sort it on the road/while using the gas. Might be the best option though...
Click to expand...
never bought propane in France.

you can call into a campsite for help witthout staying.
when we travelled, i'd take 2 x15k gas bottles and dispose of them when empty. but i also kept a campingaz bottle and regulator which i would only use between bottles. expensive but you can buy this gas anywhere , even little grocers , and it takes the panic off when finding a bottle or when you have a problem like yours . the regs are all the right pressure for your appliances
 
regulator collection

I've got a box of various regulators and bottle connections and to simplify matters, I've adopted a standard method that allows me to connect any type of bottle into the external filler point of my gaslow system.

So I use Spanish REPSOL bottles and Spanish connectors in Spain, GALPE bottles and connector in Portugal, 47kilo CALOR propane in UK etc etc.

By using in-line, self closing quick connectors on each different regulator, on a short length of pipe, I can connect directly into the filler point on the side of the Hymer, preserving the on-board, gaslow bottle 2 for use while travelling between fillups.

Exchange bottles are far easier to come by than a forecourt with GPL/LPG.

The challenge of local negotiations when in a new country to get "their" bottle and regulator doesn't go away.

I'm undecided yet, but I'm heavily leaning towards heading south east this winter, heading south to Marseilles and following the coast into northern Italy and into Slovenia, then along the Adriatic down to Greece.

I have a nagging suspicion that I would learn a lot about each countries' LPG standards and practices.
 
Lindsay, if you've got a smart phone download google translate when you have wifi. It'll come in really handy. Good luck with the gas - hope it's sorted soon and it'll become another thing to laugh about!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top