Thank You Gaslow

[marrwyck]

Hi everyone.
Just thought I would post some info on Gaslow for you to read.

Gaslow at Loughborough in Leicester are a fantastic bunch of people.
Richard & his crew are invaluable to know.

Gaslow & us:
We had fitted by the place where we bought our motor home 1x11kg & 1x6kg refillable system along with gauge to tell us how much gas we had in our system.
We explained to them that we are shortly going off on a tour of Europe & would like to refill the gas ourselves & overcome any problems we have with knowing how much gas we have & overcome any filling problems whilst on our travels.

Well they carried out the work; we picked up the van & wondered why 2 weeks later we had run out of gas when the gauge showed we had plenty.
I then filled up with 33 litres of gas & a few more weeks down the line the gauge still didn’t move telling us how much gas we had in our bottles.

We then had the system checked by Premier of Chichester where we purchased our Knaus Sun Ti & we were told there was nothing wrong with the gauge & we didn’t run out of gas.

Now me being me doubted their findings as I was told that to know how much gas we had in our bottles we had to do the following:
Shut off the cylinder, open the gas hob burner & burn off residue gas in pipes & then when gas is all burnt off gauge shows RED – means were out of gas – but were not.

Now the Gaslow system is pretty straight forward, easy to understand.
If you have a refillable system with a gauge, the gauge works as simple as this:

Low Level Indicator:
The Gaslow gauge gives visual warning of low gas levels when gas is being consumed by your appliance.

So quite simply, as you use gas if you look at the gauge, when your cylinder is less than 50% full the gauge will give you an indication of how much gas is left.

http://www.gaslow.co.uk/pages/home.htm

Doesn’t say anything about burning off gas, or doing anything else daft.
Quite simple, quite straight forward.

So I made a call to Gaslow & explained to them that when we picked up our motor home we had a special fill carried out on the gas system.
We then run out of gas overnight on the 20-05-08. We put 33.34 litres of gas in on the 21-05-08 had the motor home checked on the 16-06-08. On the 18-06-08 we put another 23.43 litres of gas in the system, gauge still shows us as full up when I roughly only had 9 litres of gas left & according to the way Premier had told us to read our gas levels, we were out of gas.

So Gaslow asked me to carry out a simple check to determine if there was a cylinder fault. I did this & I had white mist indicating a fault on the 6kg bottle.
I then carried out the same check on the 11kg bottle & all was fine.

So it was then decided that Gaslow would like to see the system & put me straight on how the system works & how to tell your levels of gas.
So we took a drive up to Loughborough on the 19-06-08 & parked there overnight.
At 8am we were greeted by Roger offering us a brew & then Richard the boss turned up.

We explained how we were shortly off touring Europe & what our requirements were.
Boy oh boy, did Gaslow go through our system with a fine tooth comb or what.
They certainly knew what they were doing & understood our need for knowing how our gas system works & knowing our gas levels.

Anyway to cut a now long story a bit short, an hour and a half later we were sorted.
Gaslow had sorted out our cylinder fault, corrected our gauge problem, upgraded the hoses and supplied us with 2 adapters so we could run Butane as well as Propane without any problems or mixing of gases whilst in Europe, pressure tested & leak tested the system.
Everything was working 100% better & we were on our way back to Southampton.
We stopped of at the local BP garage; filled up with gas & hey presto everything was as it should be. Cylinders filled, gauges working & the hob was burning a solid blue flame without dancing yellow in it.

So from my short experience as a Motor Home owner the moral of our story is quite simply this:
A fully refillable gas system from Gaslow is a must for those who like me do not want the hassle of changing cylinders possible hose damage etc.
Read the description of Gaslow products directly from their website:

http://www.gaslow.co.uk/pages/home.htm

Give them a call & seek their invaluable advice.
They have some great products like simple adapters to electronic gas level gauges etc, They have everything to make your life comfortable allowing you to concentrate on the view where your parked, not worrying if your out of gas or if all is working well.

Gaslow even gave us advice on how our gas fridge worked & its consumption & how long you could run an 11kg bottle for on the fridge alone.

In my own opinion the best thing I have done lately was to call Gaslow.
Explain to them what we were experiencing & driving up to see them.
Richard & his team are terrific, very knowledgeable & true professionals.

Congratulations Gaslow, keep up the good work.

The most disappointing thing I have done lately is to rely on the Motor Home supplier to check & test a system they fitted & for the duff info they gave me regarding how the gauge works.
They got cobby with me when I was there as I questioned the gas workings.
Was my questioning justified?
I truly think so.

 

[t&s]

thanks for the info we are thinking of changing to gaslow and going by previous advice it seems easy to d.i.y rather than paying who you did a usless dealer
we will look for more comments and advice before buying

 

[guerdeval]

I second all of the above, I had a gaslow system dealer fitted and they had cross threaded the gauge, I was back in France by now and it was Xmas week, anyway, phoned gaslow ,boss answered the phone as he was catching up on paperwork, listened to my gripe, sent me all new parts at cost, unfortunately didn't fit (MY FAULTY MEASURING), sent second lot out FOC and said return 1st lot as and when, brilliant service!

 

[shortcircuit]

As they were cheaper, I purchased mine through

http://www.motorcaravanning.co.uk/shopuk/gaslow_refillables.htm

When I ordered, I ordered incorrectly and got an email to suggest the correct parts. Very impressed and it suggests that Gaslow have selected good dealers.

They are worth every penny as it is so simple to fill at half the cost. I installed myself and if you can connect a normal cylinder then it is not difficult

Would recommend

 

[Don]

Have to admit, I fit mine myself. Realy simple and got all my gear from the afore mentioned mail order.Bottles I got from gaslow stand at Peterborough show. No kid, a piece of cake.

 

[David Butcher]

I am thinking of of fitting the gaslow system in my motor home but I am unsure if it would make the warranty void, as I am not a qualified gas fitter, could any body advise me.

Thanks

Dave

 

[tan-all-over]

Gaslow

I fitted our gaslow about 18 months ago and found it quite easy. We would never go back to the old way and we always tell people the benifits. Anybody thinking of changeing just go for it. Its not just for the money saving its the ease of it all. instead of paying £15 or so for exchange bottle its a case of topping up with say one or two pounds and you know each outing its full... Fill up with diesel/ petrol and gas at the same time.

 

[Neckender]

I fitted mine myself 18 months ago, I am a gas safe engineer, but not qualifyied for lpg. I took my van down to gaslow where they looked in my gas locker and made a list of all the materials required. I purchased the materials and when I got home I fitted the gaslow system. It took me aprox 1hour to install. I would recommend using some leak detector fluid to check all the joints in the system, not washing up liquid as it's corrosive. The system as never jepordised my warranty.

John.

Ps whilst I fitted system I fitted a barbique point in locker at the same time.

 

[orian]

I fitted a single Gaslow bottle and filler system to my van and booked the van in for the habitation check in order to certify my installation. I made a point of mentioning that I had fitted this system and the workshop confirmed they undertook a full check of the gas system using a qualified gas enginneer.
When I went to collect the van they told me the gas system had failed and I assumed it was my Gaslow installation. I was wrong, the Gaslow was OK but the flame failure devices on my cooker were not working and the oven burner was incorrevtly aligned. The vehicle was only one year old and the gas engineer said it was lucky for me that I had brought the vehicle in for a check.
So I have a slightly different reason for thanking Gaslow.

 

[ian81]

......Gaslow had sorted out our cylinder fault, corrected our gauge problem, upgraded the hoses and supplied us with 2 adapters so we could run Butane as well as Propane without any problems or mixing of gases whilst in Europe, pressure tested & leak tested the system.

I also can thoroughly recommend 'Gaslow'. I fitted our previous motorhome with a single gaslow bottle and then transferred it to our new one and added a second. It is easy to do particularly if you mount the filler inside the bottle compartment. It is as simple as installing 2 exchangeable bottles -just an extra hose connection for filling.

My only observation is that the guage shows red when there is some 20% gas in the bottle so in summer when only using fridge cooker and water heating we can use the bottle for another week once it enters the red. Pity it just doenst indicate on the red.

I am interested in your quote above and wondered what they supplied you with? I suspect it was the 2 adapters for refilling on some continenetal sites. As I understand it the make up of the gas varies from country to country -in the UK it is 100% propane and in France a mix of butane / propane.

 

[John H]

I am interested in your quote above and wondered what they supplied you with? I suspect it was the 2 adapters for refilling on some continenetal sites. As I understand it the make up of the gas varies from country to country -in the UK it is 100% propane and in France a mix of butane / propane.

I too have had gaslow bottles fitted and would recommend it to anybody both for ease of refilling and cost. On the point about the two adaptors which are supposed to enable you to refill anywhere in Europe I might add that when in Spain last winter neither of the adaptors would work in any of the refilling stations (at Cordoba, Granada and Valladolid). Fortunately, the locals were exceptionally helpful and spent ages searching for adaptors that would (a different one in each case!). On the other hand, the adaptors work in every other country I have tried them (Portugal, France, Italy, Germany).

 

[BedfordMJ]

You'd have to use loads of gas to ever get that money, back. What was it in the catalogue £344 for two cylinders? That's nuts.

 

[tresrikay]

You'd have to use loads of gas to ever get that money, back. What was it in the catalogue £344 for two cylinders? That's nuts.

Yes but work out the sums.......... mine cost about £300 back in 2007 for 1x11kg and 1x6kg plus auto changover, stainless pipes, fitted.
Since then I have been paying less than half calors (ripoff) prices and as I use loads of gas.... a 150ltr fridge and freezer..... cook on board nearly always..... hardly ever hook up if irs cheaper usually £2;£3 a night . I figure by next year I will be saving on my investment....... and the system will stay with me if I change vans.

 

[BedfordMJ]

I've 2 x13kg propane cylinders and i've not emptied one yet in two years use. I think also you need to bear in mind how cheap diesel used to be and how we were told it was good for the environment - people swapped and the price went up. I've a notion the same will happen when loads of people have gas powered cars.
My heating system id diesel powered so that may of course mean my useage is less as i've a large fridge/freezer too and always cook myself.

 

[bigtrev8xl]

I've 2 x13kg propane cylinders and i've not emptied one yet in two years use. I think also you need to bear in mind how cheap diesel used to be and how we were told it was good for the environment - people swapped and the price went up. I've a notion the same will happen when loads of people have gas powered cars.
My heating system id diesel powered so that may of course mean my useage is less as i've a large fridge/freezer too and always cook myself.

as i've a large fridge/freezer Full of "Strongbow"

 

[BedfordMJ]

as i've a large fridge/freezer Full of "Strongbow"

Trev i'm the same

 

[ian81]

You'd have to use loads of gas to ever get that money, back. What was it in the catalogue £344 for two cylinders? That's nuts.
...I've 2 x13kg propane cylinders and i've not emptied one yet in two years use. I think also you need to bear in mind how cheap diesel used to be and how we were told it was good for the environment - people swapped and the price went up. I've a notion the same will happen when loads of people have gas powered cars.

Having invested over £30k in a MH the price is relatively minor issue -it is the convenience of not having to lug bottles in and out. The same reasoning applies to the cost of the gas.

As to consumption a bottle runs for about 5 weeks (for cooking fridge and water). Over the past year we have 'wilded' -not been on EHU for 180 plus nights. I can only assume the 'BedfordMJ' has either been mostly on sites or at home??

 

[BedfordMJ]

Having invested over £30k in a MH the price is relatively minor issue -it is the convenience of not having to lug bottles in and out. The same reasoning applies to the cost of the gas.

As to consumption a bottle runs for about 5 weeks (for cooking fridge and water). Over the past year we have 'wilded' -not been on EHU for 180 plus nights. I can only assume the 'BedfordMJ' has either been mostly on sites or at home??

I don't see the cost as a minor issue, you may be different. As mentioned before my heating/water is diesel powered so I don't use much gas so I really cannot see the advantage - others may be different. A bottle may last you 5 weeks it may last others considerably longer.

 

[tresrikay]

I don't see the cost as a minor issue, you may be different. As mentioned before my heating/water is diesel powered so I don't use much gas so I really cannot see the advantage - others may be different. A bottle may last you 5 weeks it may last others considerably longer.

Well yes,,,,,, You fitting Gaslow would be like connecting Gas to an all electric house just in case there's a power cut...... total waste of money but to me with gas heater boiler, cooker and a huge fridge its the Dogs B******'s and I do not regret the cost.... and as a sufferer of an irrevesable back problem , never having to lift another of those bottles is wonderfull

 

[BedfordMJ]

Well yes,,,,,, You fitting Gaslow would be like connecting Gas to an all electric house just in case there's a power cut...... total waste of money but to me with gas heater boiler, cooker and a huge fridge its the Dogs B******'s and I do not regret the cost.... and as a sufferer of an irrevesable back problem , never having to lift another of those bottles is wonderfull

Rick,
Quite right and I guess when we recomend something it's useful to back up why something is a good idea. What is a perfect solution for one person could be a nightmare for others.