Gas in France (1 Viewer)

[tonyl]

Evening all,

We bought our MH abroad last year (Rapido 666) and it has the fancy rupture type Truma gas tails in the locker, fitted with G12 ends (for German cylinders). In order to use up various Calor butane cylinders I have hanging around, I bought a G12 to 21.8LH (female) adapter (this one - http://www.socal.co.uk/toolbox/regu...r-for-use-with-calor-gas-4-5kg-cylinders.html), together with a cheap and cheerful 21.8 LH to clip on adapter to fit the Calor butane cylinders.

I thought I'd switched the regulator over to use the butane cylinder. However, in checking the van over prior to our trip to France next Friday, I notice that the cylinder supplied with the van (see through propane cylinder with G12 outlet), is nearly empty and nothing has been used from the Calor one I put in. I thought it was doing well!

That leaves me with a dilemma. I have three Calors (a 15 and two 7s), none of which is full. Fitting the best two would give me just under 13kg of gas, which might be tight at this time of year for a fortnight most of which is expected to be without EHU.

So I might have to buy a cylinder in France. I've read on a couple of older threads here that some French cylinders (Intermarche for instance) have a 21.8LH thread on the cylinder, which should fit the adapter I already have if I remove the clip on adapter.

Does this sound right?

I don't really want to buy anything else at the moment, as the longer term plan is Gasit/Gaslow/Alugas. I also read that the deposit on a French cylinder is nominal, unlike the Calor charge.

Even if it is correct, I might not chance it with the 13kg but will refill the 15kg Calor, giving me just over 20kg. It will be annoying giving half a cylinder of gas back to Calor but that's life.

Thanks in advance for reading this. I realise it's a bit long!

Tony

 

[Emmit]

Morning Tony,

I can confirm that some if not most of the french steel bottles, be they 10kgs 11kgs or even 13kgs will have the UK lh 21.8 Male outlet.
I have an Intermarche one at the back of the garage (outside) right now.
You buy/hire them from any Intermarche/Bricomarche outlet and they come in either butane or propane. Butane apparently burns hotter but does not 'gas' off at temps below 5 degs C which is why the majority of us run on Propane for the winter.
The Hire charge isn't an arm and leg as it is here in the UK. It can be as low as €1
We've just completed our first winter trip using Gaslow and I can inform you that a 10Kgs bottle lasted us about a month but we didn't use much in the way of heating as that was the use that used the most. We relied on a 1000w blown air heater when on hookup.

Hope the above is of some use to you

 

[Stealaway]

I fitted a tee piece onto the van gas supply.
I have a UK gas regulator on one flexible pipe to the Calor Butane.
I have a French gas adapter on the other flexible pipe to a free bottle from Super U.
Both are 13Kg and we use the one relevant to the country we are in and save the other for use as the emergency bottle.

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[tonyl]

Excellent, thanks.

I realise propane is the way to go but being from 'oop north' originally, I don't want to waste the butane I've paid for or buy an adapter just for one or two outings if I'm going to get a refillable system installed later in the year. After this trip, we'll be pottering about locally for a while, so whatever I do now is a stop gap. I'll probably get a single system with the other input able to take a variety of cylinders for countries were lpg might be a bit more difficult.

Had (half) a result on the 15kg Calor. My neighbour had an empty, so I didn't have to give away my half full one. It was only half a result because our local petrol station charged £38.99 for a refill, higher than the Calor website, which at £36 almost took my breath away. I suppose it's 15kg in butane, as opposed to 13kg in the propane ones, but we only ever seem to pay £26 or £27 for those on the canals. Still, it's done now and I have a fallback plan if I run out. If the temperature is as mild in France as it has been in the last couple of weeks, we won't need it.

Tony

 

[Allanm]

We have been in France since early November, we can easily use 13kg of gas in less than a fortnight, cooking heating and hot water ( we never use Mains hookups)
You are going to be a bit tight with just 13kg, even though it's a tad warmer here than the U.K.
Just for the record, our 22litre (13kg) Gasit tank costs less than €13 or £11 to fill from empty

 

[rosalan]

I realise that you are not yet feeling ready to go refillable but it seems as if you are throwing good money away by having part filled bottles and perhaps adding to them with extra French bottles. My thought would be to have a single refillable bottle and use a second connection to attach to your propane bottle(s) so that you could make good use of any remaining gas.
Butane is not always a good option anywhere it can get cold, like the UK.

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[EX51SSS]

You are going to be a bit tight with just 13kg, even though it's a tad warmer here than the U.K.
Just for the record, our 22litre (13kg) Gasit tank costs less than €13 or £11 to fill from empty

I thought Gas it cylinders were 11kg as Gaslow. Isn't it Calor type that are 13kg?
22 litres at our local LPG supplier would be around £9.00 whereas in Luxembourg we filled 20litres for around £7.00

 

[EX51SSS]

I realise propane is the way to go but being from 'oop north' originally, I don't want to waste the butane I've paid for or buy an adapter just for one or two outings if I'm going to get a refillable system installed later in the year

Unless you're from Yorkshire, you can't blame tightness as being originally from Oop North.
If they are Calor cylinders, there's a good market on eBay to get some money back off them and that will also offset the cost of replacement. Regulators sell too

 

[Allanm]

I thought Gas it cylinders were 11kg as Gaslow. Isn't it Calor type that are 13kg?
22 litres at our local LPG supplier would be around £9.00 whereas in Luxembourg we filled 20litres for around £7.00

Of course, you are right, too many 1's and 3's in my post I got confused!

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