Using refillable gas bottles in Spain

[PaulOH]

Ok, this might sound unusual what with my address being in Spain and all that - 'surely you should know this' kind of thing - but genuinely I don't and want to hear the views of the more knowledgeable about how you have (or have not) refilled gas bottles in Spain.

I have seen the vids online about people going to refill their gas bottles with LPG in the UK and it looks great - if only I could do the same thing here... not possible apparently.

Spanish gas bottles have a different connection to other countries (how difficult would it be to make them standard??), and coming to the MH bug while living here, my only experience is of Spanish bottles that you must exchange and cannot refill yourself.

How do those of you who want to refill here manage to get refills, if you do at all?? Online opinions were either silent or negative here until I saw the website of a Dutch fulltimer in Andalucia who intimated that petrol station attendants might look the other way if someone refilled from the LPG pump, but that this was generally prevented/illegal for safety reasons.

It's a practical issue - I ran out of gas last year in Sant Julia de Loria in Andorra and couldn't run the fridge or cook unless I paid about €50 for one of their off-the-shelf 11kg butane bottles... all this when I could have run 20minutes back into Catalunya to La Seu de Urgell and got LPG for for (at that time) 85cents euro per litre. The equivalent bottle exchange in Spain would have been about €15-16 and you need to find the right petrol chain as they don't take eachother's bottles.

All views appreciated!

 

[Northernraider]

You need a refillable lpg bottle. Then you can fill it anywhere. The ones you see refilling in uk are using refillable bottles.

Im sure they are also available to buy in Spain as i did see them in a few caravan shops there.

 

[PaulOH]

Great! I have since checked and there are such bottles available. It seems you buy them outright at a cost of between €315-515 each (GBP266 minimum) and they can be refilled. How much are the bottles in the UK? Is it worth coming over and getting a few?

 

[Northernraider]

It depends ... this is a 2 bottle kit available in the uk

<Broken link removed>

 

[bobandjanie]

Hi, we live in Spain and have one refillable and one Spanish, lots of Spanish that travel outside Spain have refillable bottles, far more convenient being able to fill we have had them since 2007, it's best to have an external filling point there's four adaptors they cover all the countries, in Spain it's this one.
https://www.mitortuga.es/ sell them in Spain, but my advice is to have a holiday to the UK and buy them there, the price is better. Bob.

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[Stealaway]

A stand alone 10kg (20 litre) Safefill bottle is around £180 into the UK.Each country has a different fill nozzle and adapter but they are very cheap.

 

[scotzsue]

We refilled our gaslow at home yesterday, have never had a problem filling up in Spain, not a cheap buy, but practical and we moved our system each time we changed vans. Has more than paid for itself over the years.

 

[jumar]

Hi, we live in Spain and have one refillable and one Spanish, lots of Spanish that travel outside Spain have refillable bottles, far more convenient being able to fill we have had them since 2007, it's best to have an external filling point there's four adaptors they cover all the countries, in Spain it's this one.
https://www.mitortuga.es/ sell them in Spain, but my advice is to have a holiday to the UK and buy them there, the price is better. Bob.
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A very practical set up I must say....we have two Gaslow..... wouldn't be without them....top up as and when, not waiting until you have an empty cylinder....at 0230hrs and having to go outside to swap over.....done that many years ago....

 

[nicholsong]

Ok, this might sound unusual what with my address being in Spain and all that - 'surely you should know this' kind of thing - but genuinely I don't and want to hear the views of the more knowledgeable about how you have (or have not) refilled gas bottles in Spain.

I have seen the vids online about people going to refill their gas bottles with LPG in the UK and it looks great - if only I could do the same thing here... not possible apparently.

Spanish gas bottles have a different connection to other countries (how difficult would it be to make them standard??), and coming to the MH bug while living here, my only experience is of Spanish bottles that you must exchange and cannot refill yourself.

How do those of you who want to refill here manage to get refills, if you do at all?? Online opinions were either silent or negative here until I saw the website of a Dutch fulltimer in Andalucia who intimated that petrol station attendants might look the other way if someone refilled from the LPG pump, but that this was generally prevented/illegal for safety reasons.

It's a practical issue - I ran out of gas last year in Sant Julia de Loria in Andorra and couldn't run the fridge or cook unless I paid about €50 for one of their off-the-shelf 11kg butane bottles... all this when I could have run 20minutes back into Catalunya to La Seu de Urgell and got LPG for for (at that time) 85cents euro per litre. The equivalent bottle exchange in Spain would have been about €15-16 and you need to find the right petrol chain as they don't take eachother's bottles.

All views appreciated!

There is a safety reason why normal exchange bottles cannot be refilled at LPG stations, but only by depots which do the exchange.

The reason is that bottles should only be filled to a level which leaves a % of gas in the top, so that liquid is not supplied to the regulator and possibly to appliances, e.g. cooker, which is a huge fire risk - think blowtorch!

The bottles sold as re-fillable have a safety device which shuts off the filling at 80% liquid, allowing 20% gas in the top.

Exchange bottles do not have this safety device, so it is impossible to know whether the bottle is being overfilled, thus the danger of self-filling an exchange bottle.

The depots ensure safety by monitoring the weight of the bottle and known weight of the gas filled.

 

[mikebeaches]

I have a refillable 11kg bottle and regularly use a filling station near Vera, Almeria, to top up.

Although I carry a set of continental adaptors, the pump attendant always seems to have (unsurprisingly) the Spanish one in his pocket and takes care of the whole operation.

Also carry a full 6kg Calorlite exchange bottle for emergencies, but to date have not required to use it.

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[jumartoo]

I have a refillable 11kg bottle and regularly use a filling station near Vera, Almeria, to top up.

Although I carry a set of continental adaptors, the pump attendant always seems to have (unsurprisingly) the Spanish one in his pocket and takes care of the whole operation.

Also carry a full 6kg Calorlite exchange bottle for emergencies, but to date have not required to use it.

In addition to jumar's post above.

We also have a Calorgas cylinder for emergencies!

 

[MartinandBev]

We are in Spain and I have one `alugas and one Spanish bottle in our adria, I got the alugas kit from here https://carbonzorro.com/en/menu/aluminium-bottles-200.html, worked out cheaper than going all the way to the uk and they shipped to pain with no taxes as coming from an EU location. Fitted myself and all done , I now have best of both worlds such as the poster above who has similar setup

 

[Orion]

Carbon Zorro are also trading in the U.K. as the LPG Shop.

I’ve found their range of products and prices to be very good. Being linked to the Polish operation also enables them to source items that are in short supply elsewhere, or at least give reasonably accurate forecasts of availability. I purchased most of my Alugas twin cylinder kit from them.

 

[PaulOH]

Thankyou all,
Shall set myself up so - might have to drag the whole rig to the UK to do it, but my mum will be delighted if I can get the distance of Belfast!

This is what I pay a subscription for - no one (not one MH-orientated/knowledgeable person) I spoke to in Spanish/Catalan told me the stuff you lot have helped me out with. It was entirely "no you can't/that's not possible/ it doesn't happen here".

And yet, it does happen here...

I wonder what things us continentals can do that absolutely, impossibly can't happen in the UK?!!