Filling Safefill Gas Cylinders in Europe
Has anyone with a safefill gas bottle filled it at LPG garages, in which country and was there any problems. Except for the initial cost, it seems to get around the problem of refilling UK bottles or looking for local bottles in each country. It also gets around the problem of UK bottles only lasting a couple of years!!
Moderator Comment - Title edited to avoid confusion with other threads with similar names.
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I have one and have the Adapter for France. However, I've never had to fill in France as went with it full and never got near using it all, despite a month away, BBQ etc most nights and often using for breakfast and stir fry etc. However did look when at the garage filling up and it didn't look any difference to the uk.
Do note I bought a UK filler extension adapter due to many garages now having a plastic collar fitted to the pump which makes clamping it on difficult. £20 from Safefil and I would recommend you get this. The euro/french adapter then screws on
Ive had it 6 years and really pleased with it. No chopping in half empty bottles before going abroad.
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I recently bought a Safefill and had a bit of a wriggle connecting the hose. I can't see the extension adapter to which you refer on the Safefill website. Are you able to post a pic and also advise where you bought it?
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If you e-mail Safefill they can post 1 to you, I think it is £18-£20 including postage.You can pay by credit card or PayPal if you have an account with them.Hope this helps.
Mike
The extension piece is about 2 inches long and screws into the bottle like a regulator and you then attach the lpg pump as usual.
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Now I am confused. After paying £170 you still can't fill it up unless you pay £20 for adapter. I also thought that the all seeing EU would have insisted on a standard LPG connection at all garages. So why the need for all the adapters for each country.
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Thanks, MJ730.
I must say that I find the photos of all the adapters for different countries a bit confusing, as I wonder how the actual gas-tight connection is made or are the lugs on either side a universal feature of connecting hoses? Perhaps those of you who have filled Safefills abroad could enlighten me.
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there are two issues here.....
1. the LPG pumps were originally designed for filling against a flat sided opening like a Gaslow filler in the side of a MH or the filler of an LPG car. now we have stand alone cylinders being refilled (from safefill, Gaslow and others) where the shape of the cylinder 'may' compromise filler nozzle access (should any plastic guard be fitted to the pump nozzle) and this is what is being found. the extension piece just moves the receiving cylinder 'hole' away from the cylinder wall, making access straightforward. this issue is more likely to be found in the UK as there is no need for a continental adaptor which would, in itself, provide a measure of 'extension' away from the filler 'hole', see below.
2. the safefill continental adaptors look identical to the Gaslow ones i have. the safefill filler 'hole' has a hidden female thread inside it (same as a Gaslow filler) and any of the continental adaptors can be screwed in giving a gas tight fit, and also (to a degree) 'extending' filler outwards which may alleviate the above issue when filling abroad. once the adaptor is in place, the local pump nozzle is fitted and the cylinder filled as normal.
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Re Point 2 above. Do the adaptors for the safefill bottle fit the POL bottle thread? If they do it is worth bearing in mind that this is a LH thread so an adaptor from another source might not fit. This is speculation not an authoritive comment btw.
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Boff, interesting point...
from memory (though pretty confident on this) the adaptors for Gaslow are RH thread as they are designed to fit only into a Gaslow filler hole, NOT directly onto a UK propane cylinder.
i thought for a minute, from your question, that safefill might have just a single hole for filling and for pigtail connction.....in which case the question of the direction of thread would be applicable.
however, re Safefill, it looks like (from web pictures) that there are two holes on a safefill cylinder....
one (POL LH) is used as the connection point for the std propane pigtail and the other (directly opposite) for the filler gun with the std UK bayonet fitting which looks to have the same female internal threaded connection for a continental adaptor.
in this case, the adaptors would be the same as for Gaslow, ie RH threaded.
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No, the Safefill filler is through the POL fitting.
No-oner has answered my earlier question though - how does a continental French/Spanish hose clamp on to make the gastight connection?
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Not sure about the euro adaptors as I only use in UK but looking at them 1 seems to have a thread outside with rubber washer inside and the other has a wide opening with a lip on the inside.Will try to add a photo of the UK adaptor.
Mike
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When I bought my European adaptors for gas low it stated that they were not compatible with safefill as they were L/H thread.
https://www.gasit.co.uk/gas-it-3-part-european-fill-point-adapter-kit.html
THESE ITEM ARE FOR RIGHT HAND THREADED FILLPOINTS ONLY (99.9% of fill points are Right Hand )
THESE DO NOT WORK WITH SAFEFILL BOTTLES AS THEY HAVE A LEFT HAND THREAD ONLY
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sorry, CY, i dont have a safefill so just looked at the web pictures and it appeared to be a two hole affair, but i was obviously seeing something that wasnt there.....apologies.
so, if the same hole is used to fill and to connect the POL fitting for the pigtail then the thread on the safefill supplied adaptors MUST be different to mine as they need to be LH threaded...
AH, JUST SPOTTED PG9's Post.......lol..
re the continental pump nozzles, like the uk they first have to have something to clamp onto....in the uk its the bayonet fitting, in France its the inside of a dish shaped adaptor...in both cases, this is just somewhere to 'hold tight to' before using a lever on the nozzle to drive in the centre section which provides the gas tight connection via a rubber washer.
all pump nozzles have a similar sort of lever to drive the centre section home, they just use a different way of clamping to the 'object container' (cylinder, car fuel tank, gaslow filler, etc)
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Thanks for that BB. BTW, what sort of fuel consumption are you getting with your Carthago? It is the Compactline 138, isn't it?
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yes, it is CY, how astute of you....
(cant change my avatar, though.....)weve done coming up to 4k miles since January and engine staring to loosen up a bit now....
current MPG is a just shy of 27 MPG and gently getting better...
im not saying that we'll be doing 30 MPG but heading in that direction.
the 150 bhp motor fairly fizzes along, very easy to find that you're just 'keeping up with Mway traffic' and doing 70!
normal cruise is around 62-65, just to avoid lorries and caravans
havent been window shopping at Southdowns, have you?
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Not yet.
. I was having a meal with my mate in Spain a couple of weeks back and he was claiming he gets 40mpg from his Elnagh Baron 580 so if you're sub 30mph, that's a bit disappointing. His is the 130bhp engine though.Off to Stratford in a little while so planning to visit the Show there and at Kenilworth the following weekend. Still can't make my mind up whether to switch.
...meanwhile back at the gasworks, dragging the thread screaming and protesting back on topic.
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I was wondering if anyone had are more recent experiences with Safefill, especially filling in Germany. Thanks in advance.
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Cy is this what you were looking for?
https://www.lpgshop.co.uk/safefill-bottle-uk-bayonet-extension-adapter/
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It was a couple of years ago, but thanks anyway.
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