Refillable gas systems - for beginner (back to the dumb questions)

jennyp19

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After spending silly money on exchanging gas bottles, & them not lasting long we have decided we definately want to go for one of these systems

Can someone explain to me Flogas, Gaslow etc (don't even know if I am spelling correctly)
Which system to use
Where to refill etc.
Also we travel a lot abroad so do they still need different fittings etc
Is cost roughly £400 ish

& any other tips/advise re above welcome
 
We have 2- 11kg refillable Gaslow cylinders and 3 adaptors which cover, as far as we know, all of Europe. We travelled through France, Germany Spain and Portugal, refilled in all these countries without problems. LPG, or GPL or Autogas etc as its know in some countries is available in some service stations, get the LPG Europe POI list for locations.
We also have a monthly account with Countrywide stores, with a special key which allows us access to their LPG pumps, some are available 24 /7, the cost is preferential as we only pay 59p/litre.Most of their locations are in west Midlands, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Avon, but we think more are planned.

The cost of the installation was £520, in 2011, this included an auto changeover so you never need to run out, both cylinders have capacity gauges on them.
Hope this helps. :cheers:
 
Gas Refill

Hi jenny19,

We bought the Gas it refillable 6kg before our trip to Europe with discount through Wild camping discount and at £130 with adaptors it's all I needed but also carrying a 6kg Calorlite.I may expand to a second refillable bottle and fittings at a later date but it is just as easy with the one at the moment.Try the FES Autogas website they are very helpful with next day delivery We were away for two months travelling 2,900 miles in France, Spain Portugal using one Calorlite and two refills on the Gas it using Aires and camp sites.

Regards Snowbirds.







jennyp19 said:
After spending silly money on exchanging gas bottles, & them not lasting long we have decided we definately want to go for one of these systems

Can someone explain to me Flogas, Gaslow etc (don't even know if I am spelling correctly)
Which system to use
Where to refill etc.
Also we travel a lot abroad so do they still need different fittings etc
Is cost roughly £400 ish

& any other tips/advise re above welcome
Click to expand...
 
Hi

We have a Gaslow system but I think they are all comparable. It cost us just over £400 to install but, as you say, the exchange cylinders are so much more expensive than filling up with LPG that it repaid itself inside 18 months (we virtually full-time in our van). The only country in Europe where you might have difficulty filling up is Spain but the number of outlets here has been steadily increasing and you are never very far from a filling point. As for adaptors, we have two (one of which has only been of use in France and the other we have never used!). However, we have frequently turned up at filling stations and scratched our heads before the attendant has emerged with an adaptor that fits. Thus we have never had a problem, so don't worry if you haven't got all the adaptors they tell you you need!

Happy travels
John
 
We went with the underslung gas tank rather than the bottles. Cost was about £700 from Autogas-2000 up in York. We needed this option to free up storage space. We have filled up a fair few times on this trip and not had any probs anywhere (Western and Eastern Europe and Scandinavia).

Worth considering if you have the budget as those bottles are really bulky!
 
Another dumb question can the gas freeze in an underslung tank? OH thinks this is probably our best way to go + empties a locker for storage.

We want to do this right first time - too many times we have altered something, then altered again later:idea:
 
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Maybe in -40deg or so, can't remeber the points, but basically its extremely unlikley under typical use :D
 
One thing to bear in mind (though it's always difficult to know how much of a problem these things genuinely are) is that i've read quite a few reports of people being refused LPG/Autogas at garages when they have attempted to refill refillable cylinders directly.

I think the issue is that people have attempted to fill none refillable bottles in the past, so garages have started cracking down. As one cylinder looks much like another it sounds as though some are just refusing all direct fill cylinders.

So may be worth fitting an external filler point for the bottle(s). Or, just wait to see if it is even an issue where you are.

I went with an underslung, again from autogas2000 near york, frees up some space inside the van
 
hextal said:
One thing to bear in mind (though it's always difficult to know how much of a problem these things genuinely are) is that i've read quite a few reports of people being refused LPG/Autogas at garages when they have attempted to refill refillable cylinders directly.
Click to expand...

As you say, it is difficult to know how much of a problem these things genuinly are but all I can say is that our filler is inside the gas compartment and we have never had anyone refuse to fill us up. There are lots of scare stories out there and most of them you need to take with a pinch of salt!
 
There are no 'dumb questions' only 'dumb answers'
One point to think about is I don't think you can go on Eurotunnel with a tank of over a certain size (47 kgs I think)
 
John H said:
As you say, it is difficult to know how much of a problem these things genuinly are but all I can say is that our filler is inside the gas compartment and we have never had anyone refuse to fill us up. There are lots of scare stories out there and most of them you need to take with a pinch of salt!
Click to expand...

I suspect it's probably a bit like the issue of bikers being asked to remove their helmets. Reading forums/media you would swear all garages were doing it, whereas in 6-7 years i've never experienced it once.

Just thought i'd throw it into the pot though.
 
I was recently refused gas because Shell have a policy of not allowing ANY kind of bottle to be filled on their forecourts. The fact that it only happens once in a blue moon does not alter that. If you check the Autogas pump, it tells you that.

It is more liable to happen nowadays because they have started employing staff to help customers fill their vehicles with fuel. It was one of these employees who stopped me.

If you have an external filling point, you will probably get away with it. These employees only seem to work day shift (at my local Shell), so go off peak as I do now. They could stuff their gas where the sun don't shine if there was elsewhere convenient ... but there is not. :mad1:
 
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hextal said:
Half a day. they ran us into town then picked us up when it was done. nice bunch too.
Click to expand...

Yep same for us. Gave us a lift to the train station so we could visit York. Email them, they are helpful and quick to respond.
 
We use a gaslow tank with a calor or camping gaz bottle as a spare (in case we run out somewhere obscure). No problems with filling it. though the contents gauge (old style) is almost useless - it only shows 'low' when you've almost run out... The new ones are better by all accounts.
 
We are back to square one. After working out what space we have for an underslung tank, we have found that we can't get as much gas in a tank than if we carry 2 11kg bottles which will fit in the locker!!! It would have been nice to free up the locker - & we may think about it at a later date, but cost far outweighs the gain.
 
I also considered having a tank fitted, I went to Fes in Caernarfon & tried everywhere we could under the van but the biggest I could fit would have been 20 litres. In the end settled for a single 11 kg Alugas bottle. On our new van I could quite easily fit a tank but as I kept the refillable bottle (I had fitted the filler inside the locker) I didn't see much point. Also the new van has so much space that I doubt that we will have any issue with storage capacity.

We also carry a 6 kg Calorlite I use for the bbq which also is there for emergency if we run out, up to now we have never had a problem. The new van has a changeover system where both bottles can be connected so I am no considering fitting an external bbq point & running it also off the 11 kg refillable bottle. The only place where there can be a problem getting gas is Spain but I reckon that the 11 kgs + 6 kgs (34 litres) should just about last a month if we were desperate.
 
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