Why has my new (used) motorhome got both butane & propane bottles?

daventess

daventess

Joined
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Fleurette Wincester
Exp
Since Jan 2023
Is it just because butane is not much good in winter (I read that elsewhere on the forum) so you have the choice depending on the season? Or is there another reason why I'd have both?
 
Can see no reason other than that’s what the previous owner had available. It makes no sense really both ideally would be propane.
 
Could have liked a cheeky trip round spain etc, with butane
 
Phill D said:
Can see no reason other than that’s what the previous owner had available. It makes no sense really both ideally would be propane.
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I assume it was installed that way as the connectors are different. Though I suppose that might have been an afterthought.

In Europe, is one more available than the other in any particular country? What I'm getting at is would it make any kind of sense to keep the options open rather than turn both spaces into one type of gas?
 
You won't get either in Europe.....nobody has Calor bottles.
You need new regulators for French and Spanish bottles.

In the UK propane is most popular but both propane and butane are widely available

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As said ,its probably what the previous owner had available and installed them at different times as they became available. If they haven't been used in the wintertime then both butane and propane would be OK.
They are no use to you abroad, except if you exchange before you go to full bottles and use till they run out. You cannot exchange or get them filled outside of the UK.
If they are other than calor you need to find the distributor that supplies that bottle.
As said you can replace them with French or Spanish bottles with the correct regulators butvthen you will be carrying additional bottles, and french ones are not exchangeable in Spain and vice versa.
If you really want versatile bottles ,it's best to go for refillable, which are expensive initially but soon pay themselves back in gas cost, convenience and refillability in the eu with the addition of 3 adaptors which are approx £10 each.
There are 2 main refillable, gasit and gaslow.
Plus the flogas bottles.,just check them out on the Internet to review each type.
Best of luck.
 
pappajohn said:
You won't get either in Europe.....nobody has Calor bottles.
You need new regulators for French and Spanish bottles.

In the UK propane is most popular but both propane and butane are widely available
Click to expand...

Oh, so if we spend 3 months in Europe and need to replace a bottle, we can't do that?
 
Jimbohorlicks said:
As said ,its probably what the previous owner had available and installed them at different times as they became available. If they haven't been used in the wintertime then both butane and propane would be OK.
They are no use to you abroad, except if you exchange before you go to full bottles and use till they run out. You cannot exchange or get them filled outside of the UK.
If they are other than calor you need to find the distributor that supplies that bottle.
As said you can replace them with French or Spanish bottles with the correct regulators butvthen you will be carrying additional bottles, and french ones are not exchangeable in Spain and vice versa.
If you really want versatile bottles ,it's best to go for refillable, which are expensive initially but soon pay themselves back in gas cost, convenience and refillability in the eu with the addition of 3 adaptors which are approx £10 each.
There are 2 main refillable, gasit and gaslow.
Plus the flogas bottles.,just check them out on the Internet to review each type.
Best of luck.
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Thanks, that's very useful to know (I knew none of that).
 
In the past a lot of cavanvers used butane in summer and propane in winter, perhaps with the previous owner couldn't kick the old habit.
Butane does have a higher calorific value so more bang for your buck but not really worth the hassle.
 
daventess said:
Oh, so if we spend 3 months in Europe and need to replace a bottle, we can't do that?
Click to expand...
That's why most of us who travel in Europe have re-fillable bottles.

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Lenny HB said:
In the past a lot of cavanvers used butane in summer and propane in winter, perhaps with the previous owner couldn't kick the old habit.
Butane does have a higher calorific value so more bang for your buck but not really worth the hassle.
Click to expand...

The person I bought the van off of bought it from new, were first timers, and only did a few miles in the UK. I can only guess at the reasoning.
 
Jimbohorlicks said:
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Click to expand...

How do you work out what size bottle to get? Is there a formula (eg this size gives you X days at Y usage) ?

I'm probably mostly going to be hooked up to the leccy at a camp site, so I'm not sure how much usage the gas will get. That said, it's parked on neighbours land at the moment and probably getting more gas usage than I expected.
 
Depends how you are going to tour in the future but the difference in price of different size bottles is not that great. I would fit the biggest you can get in the locker. I have 2 x 14kg one bottle lasts about 15 days a lot less in winter but we don't use EHU.

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Lenny HB said:
Depends how you are going to tour in the future but the difference in price of different size bottles is not that great. I would fit the biggest you can get in the locker. I have 2 x 14kg one bottle lasts about 15 days a lot less in winter but we don't use EHU.
Click to expand...

Something like this?

https://www.gasit.co.uk/13kgtwingasgen-2.html

(only 11kg but the biggest i could find on that site)
 
Previous replies mention changing the regulator, looking at your avatar it says you have a Fleurette Florium, if that is the case you will not have bottle mounted regulators, you will have a bulkhead mounted single unit.
If wishing to change bottle types you will only need to renew / replace the flexible hose (pigtail) to suit the bottle fixing.
If travelling in the EU the best bet will be refillables as advised earlier.
 
As Lenny has said, caravaners tend to swap between butane and propane depending on the season. Butane is useless below a certain temperature.

Butane exchange bottles were slightly bigger so more gas for a similar price so slightly more cost effective. I did the same when we had a Caravan 20 odd years ago tbh.
Might also have been because Butane was possibly more available in the summer than Propane but probably not.

It’s also a fact that more motorhomes are used all year round whereas the majority of caravans were mainly for the summer months. Better insulation and heating systems fitted to caravans now means they are also being used throughout the year.

Personally, and probably like the majority on here stick with Propane/ LPG and have some form of refillable bottle/ bottles. I have 1 Safefill 10kg refillable and 1x11kg Flogas Propane bottle as a back up. I find that works for me.

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I fitted a single gaslow just over 12 months ago and kept the 6kg calor as a back up, never needed it so decided to add another 11kg just this month as decided I'd rather have the ability to carry more and fill up less often and of course for longer trips especially in the colder weather.
 
Definitely go for the largest you can fit into your gas locker. We fitted two Gasit 11kg cylinders with an external fill point. We hardly ever use EHU (unless it’s thrown in with the cost) and we’ve found that the gas has been very economical. IIRC we used about £6-8 worth for a 10 day trip last February.
 
Someone has a Gaslow 11kg for sale at a very reasonable price in the classifieds section.
 

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