Gas advice please

[Oldgustaf]

We are planning a four week trip to France in September. We have 2 x 11kg gas bottles and I'm just wondering whether this will see us through the trip, or whether we need to be thinking about a refillable solution. We think we'll be using the fridge on gas quite a bit more. Advice from your experiences please. Many thanks.

 

[Mike800966]

Fridge doesn't use much gas but other appliances do.
Especially outdoor bbq and of course heating.
I guess you should be OK, if that's enough reassurance.
Have a good trip
Mike

 

[MisterB]

heads or tails?

if where you go isnt excessively hot, then you should be ok. we have refillables but have never emptied them yet after arriving with full cylinders, using your gas for bbq's etc will diminish your supply aswell.

Cadac have recently introduced a nifty little power pack, with gas cartridges - that might be worth considering to preserve your 'fridge supply'

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[Mike800966]

If you look up the details on your fridge it might give consumption figures in grammes per hour so that would give you an idea as well as my seat of pants advice!

Mike

 

[Lenny HB]

We normally don't use much heating in September, maybe a bit in the morning if up in the mountains. Mainly just hot water in September.

2 x 11kg should be fine in September a 14 kg bottle lasts us 15-20 days completely off grid but our fridge/freezer uses a about 10% more gas since I fitted an internal fan.

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[Oldgustaf]

heads or tails?

if where you go isnt excessively hot, then you should be ok. we have refillables but have never emptied them yet after arriving with full cylinders, using your gas for bbq's etc will diminish your supply aswell.

Cadac have recently introduced a nifty little power pack, with gas cartridges - that might be worth considering to preserve your 'fridge supply'

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Thanks for advice and suggestion. We do have a Cadac, so that's a great tip.

 

[Shrimp]

2x11kg bottles of gas should last about 8 (maybe longer) weeks, using for fridge, hot water & cooking.
I use the Cadac rather than the oven as Cadac doesn’t take ages to get to temp req so cooks quicker therefore will use less gas.

 

[Oldgustaf]

Fridge doesn't use much gas but other appliances do.
Especially outdoor bbq and of course heating.
I guess you should be OK, if that's enough reassurance.
Have a good trip
Mike

Thanks for reassurance!

 

[Oldgustaf]

2x11kg bottles of gas should last about 8 (maybe longer) weeks, using for fridge, hot water & cooking.

Sounds like we'll be good then. Thank you!

 

[The Wino]

I would go with full gas time the first to empty and if it looks likely that the second won't last look at a French bottle and pigtail. We only have a single 11 kg bottle it would last the 4 weeks just about so on two unless you need heating I would have thought you would be fine unless using a gas BBQ etc. If you were using a BBQ another option would be one of the cheap fold up canister powered rings they cost a tenner.

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[FIDGET]

We usually (before covid) went for 4 weeks in june & sept , I took 1 x11kg & 1x 6kg on board with a spare 6kg in locker , never used the spare , we mostly cook outside on bbq for which we have a 907 bottle of camping gas , as we dont eat out at bars etc ,
gas used for fridge & hot water & some meals cooked inside van also kettle for tea as mostly used aires , so no ehu available .
Terry

 

[Oldgustaf]

If you look up the details on your fridge it might give consumption figures in grammes per hour so that would give you an idea as well as my seat of pants advice!

Mike

That's getting a bit technical but thanks.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

We bank on 1 litre of gas per day, which includes fridge ,boiling kettle for brews,cooking on rings .
If you shower and have hot water then 2 litres per day.,in total you have approx 44 litres so worst case is 22 days ,ie circa 3weeks.
I would purchase a single burner camp stove which takes the small canisters of gas and use that for kettle brews and the odd hot water boiling for washing up etc.the gas canisters are available at home bargains for 4 for £3.99 and work out cheaper than calor.
Enjoy your trip.
Ps above assumes you not on ehu anywhere. But dont forget whilst driving your fridge will run on 12 v.

 

[Sapper520]

We’ve got a Gaslow system with 2 x 11kgs cylinders.

September / October last year we went to France for 3 weeks. Fridge runs on leisure batteries or EHU, but cooking (mainly on Cadac from external supply connection), hot water, heating (early mornings and chilly evenings in the North) used almost one cylinder.

Most of the time we were on sites so used their showers.

 

[Tina the Tourer]

We are planning a four week trip to France in September. We have 2 x 11kg gas bottles and I'm just wondering whether this will see us through the trip, or whether we need to be thinking about a refillable solution. We think we'll be using the fridge on gas quite a bit more. Advice from your experiences please. Many thanks.

I only had one tank in 7 years!

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[Tina the Tourer]

I only had one tank in 7 years! Did a top up back in October in a place in Wales which was a specialist supplier just so I could have a go at doing it with a bit of guidance. Cost me £3.60!

 

[simon harrop]

If it’s something you plan on doing regularly then for me peace of mind outweighed the cost and I had gas low fitted ! Availability in Europe is not an issue and a-lot cheaper ! Just don’t forget the adapters

 

[PrettyandFluffy]

If we stay anywhere with EHU included in the cost, we use hook-up rather than gas - you've already paid for it so why not? That covers the fridge, kettle, toaster and an electric heater if it's chilly in the morning; only the hot water and hob & oven to run on gas. Doing this makes your gas bottle last a long time, especially if you are stingy like me and only stay at the cheaper places.

 

[Oldgustaf]

If we stay anywhere with EHU included in the cost, we use hook-up rather than gas - you've already paid for it so why not? That covers the fridge, kettle, toaster and an electric heater if it's chilly in the morning; only the hot water and hob & oven to run on gas. Doing this makes your gas bottle last a long time, especially if you are stingy like me and only stay at the cheaper places.

We'll certainly planning to stay at a few campsites along the way and several aires - and it's the aires where we expect not to use hookup.

 

[RobPullen]

As you have had many replies this is just to add to some of those.
We do 6 weeks in France July - August and 2x6kg has lasted us easily. We do use EHU at some campsites but a lot of the time we are off grid. Hot water is biggest gas user along with Cadac, fridge not so bad. This summer will be the same, but slightly more off grid planned, so may end up eating my words at the end of August. We don’t use heating much if at all, just occasionally on the last leg home sometimes.
Have yet had to consider getting any more gas whilst away and wouldn’t want to as it’s complicated. However, am considering refillable LPG convertor as much easier to get hold of it over there, but this is a completely different thread!
Have a good trip.

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[dhall26]

Your fridge will probably use about 400 gram a day and so 1 cylinder will run it for 4 weeks. so with 2 you should be OK . That is assuming of course that you have 2 full cylinders and is why we have refillable system (underslung tank) as we can just top up when we are passing a filling station and not have to worry about how much we use

 

[Delboyarapaho]

As others have said you can to a very large extent manage your consumption so you have enough. You can also take weighing scales with you to check consumption as you go along.
You chose how often to stay off or on grid and how often you have a shower with the on board tank heated. The alternative being a strip wash and a kettle full of water

 

[ljbarber]

I had a 6kg bottle and a 6kg Gaslow bottle for years and spent weeks and weeks in France with no problems. you use the Gaslow first and when it is empty or low top up, the red bottle should be used as a spare if you need it. There are plenty of garages selling propane in France.

 

[NoName]

Fridge doesn't use much gas but other appliances do.
Especially outdoor bbq and of course heating.
I guess you should be OK, if that's enough reassurance.
Have a good trip
Mike

Heating?!! In Europe we are experiencing 30 plus degrees

 

[K R B]

When we are wild camping in Spain in the winter we use between half and three quarters of a kg a day
That's fridge and freezer and cooking
No bbq
No heating as that is gasoil
So I would have more than enough

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[DDJC]

We are planning a four week trip to France in September. We have 2 x 11kg gas bottles and I'm just wondering whether this will see us through the trip, or whether we need to be thinking about a refillable solution. We think we'll be using the fridge on gas quite a bit more. Advice from your experiences please. Many thanks.

Done two weeks on a single 11kg refillable and used less than half of it.

I used the Weber gas BBQ every day for two weeks, and I use it as an outside oven as well, to cook my boys dinner, before doing our dinner, which was always BBQ. I thought we were using loads of gas, but no..
Water heating was on gas, but fridge was EHU.
It was summer, so the heating was not on.

I'm guessing that you will be more then fine for 4 weeks with what you have got. Easy for me to say, I can stop and fill up LPG at many French garages. I would suggest that if you were looking to do more longer trips in Europe, and out of summer, then refillables might be best for you.

 

[NoName]

Done two weeks on a single 11kg refillable and used less than half of it.

I used the Weber gas BBQ every day for two weeks, and I use it as an outside oven as well, to cook my boys dinner, before doing our dinner, which was always BBQ. I thought we were using loads of gas, but no..
Water heating was on gas, but fridge was EHU.
It was summer, so the heating was not on.

I'm guessing that you will be more then fine for 4 weeks with what you have got. Easy for me to say, I can stop and fill up LPG at many French garages. I would suggest that if you were looking to do more longer trips in Europe, and out of summer, then refillables might be best for you.

Sorry not France but anyone traveling to Turkiye LPG fill up of two 6kg gas low bottles TL 60 about £

If it’s something you plan on doing regularly then for me peace of mind outweighed the cost and I had gas low fitted ! Availability in Europe is not an issue and a-lot cheaper ! Just don’t forget the adapters

Not France but for those traveling to Turkiye I filled x2 6kg gaselow bottles for 60TL , about £3. I gave the attendant 70 TL and didn’t ask for the change. Really helpful with the adaptor .

 

[lonnie]

I had a 6kg bottle and a 6kg Gaslow bottle for years and spent weeks and weeks in France with no problems. you use the Gaslow first and when it is empty or low top up, the red bottle should be used as a spare if you need it. There are plenty of garages selling propane in France.

That's exactly the approach we took. Everyone's consumption obviously varies so to prevent second guessing, we just have one 6kg Gaslow and a calor backup. We've just finished five weeks in France and Spain and just took the opportunity to top up when filling the Diesel. It really took away any concerns that we'd run out as we spend most of our time away from EHU.

 

[RV-AL]

2x11kg bottles of gas should last about 8 (maybe longer) weeks, using for fridge, hot water & cooking.
I use the Cadac rather than the oven as Cadac doesn’t take ages to get to temp req so cooks quicker therefore will use less gas.

I am in the same position. Does 8 weeks include two people showering in the van each day or do you use site facilities?

 

[andyt21]

I used to use a 6kg calor bottle over four weeks mostly just Cadac each night. Currently two months in Spain and Portugal and haven’t finished one 11kg bottle.