A Milestone has been Reached!
Comments
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Can I just put the brakes on this a little. Because this is literally 'breaking news' it may be that, as seen, people will start to think seriously about owning a Safefill cylinder now. That's fine but the news is so fresh that even the forecourts might not be aware of the changes yet so please, don't rush out and buy a cylinder and find out that your local still won't fill it!! That's why I asked for folk to get a copy of the changes and have a word with your local LPG supplier if possible. It's in all our interests. The more we do for ourselves the quicker Safefill will be accepted Nationwide and become the go to cylinder. Thanks.
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Thankyou merve
. I follow your never ending passion for moving "caravaning" forward to being off grid with admiration , i enjoy all your posts and have learnt a lot from them , i hope there are going to be more lpg filling stations as there arent many in my area (doncaster) keep up the work ,you are so right about not having the orange umbilical cord lol ..... Ill follow future posts with interest cheers mrs black caviar 0 -
Hi Dave. Yes, the more gas you use, the quicker you get your money back. I am non EHU so I use more than someone who can't live without the orange umbilical. I have already recouped the cost of 2 cylinders (different sizes) and am now using gas at about 25% of what I was paying with rental charges. - Speculate to accumulate comes to mind. Don't forget too that I never have to hand gas in partly filled cylinders back to Calor as I have in the past - something that is immensely satisfying!
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Dave, as TG mentioned upthread, the other main advantage with this type of system (Safefill, Gaslow, etc), is that those who use gas abroad will be able make use of local LPG supplies without having to 'plan' how to maintain supply while away.
its just another 'flexibility' benefit of the system.
no one will convince a non gas user that this is a great system, the numbers and extra 'flexibility/convenience' dont add up.
...but i think Merves thread is more aimed at those who have already moved to Safefill, and have experienced resistance to filling, or to those considering it.
all in all, its good news that the industry looks set to be more inclusive with Safefill and that users find it as easy to fill as Gaslow users have over the past years...
well done, Merve.
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Nothing extra needed David - same pigtails as any other propane. It isn't for everyone - but for the convenience of being able to see the level of the gas and to fill up when you pass a fill up point it's worth a lot for me. For those who are starting from scratch and getting new cylinders its another saving. Just to make life easier I have swapped to a stainless steel pigtail with a hand wheel making changing over even easier.
Merve's passion seems to have been mistaken for something else - I guess some people don't realise it for what it is - and I certainly am very grateful as he well knows. Thank you Merve!
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Even though we don't use an awful lot of gas, I was thinking of going for a refillable system because it means that for our type of caravanning we would only ever need the one cylinder. At the moment we use 3 cylinders so that when we go away for a long break in Europe I know I've got 2 full bottles. The part used bottle stays at home. With a Safefill 10kg bottle I could simply top it up before departure. I may do this if the fillability improves as predicted by the op.
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Hi David, depending on the age of your C'van. Modern vans have the regulator fixed to the bulk Head or to the van anyway- older vans- if one is not fitted will need a regulator. It's exactly the same as a propane Calor cylinder except much lighter, you can see what gas you have and it's so so much cheaper
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But are your three months over the winter David? On the last winter trip I did, using gas for heating and just electric for the fridge and to keep the batteries charged, my average daily electricity consumption was 5.5Kw. Factor in electric heating and the bill could be much higher than 5 euros a day. I have seen references to using as much as 30 to 40Kw a day with electric heating.
peedee
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Merve thanks for all your work on this. We have a Safefill and are very pleased with it. We do a couple of weeks a year off grid and when abroad use gas for outside cooking, I have no idea if, all costs taken into account, we save money or not and frankly I don't really care, for us that's not the point. For us the shear convinience of always knowing that I can fill up the bottle wherever we are far outweighs the trivial cost of the bottle. I have never had a problem filling the bottle but if this makes it even easier then so much the better - well done to all involved.
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It is designed with portability to a pump in mind, but take it out of the boot first and only charge it when it is upright.
Its ability to possibly topple over during a re-charge far more readily than say a car can is and remains its main risk issue IMO as its safety over filling protection device is a simple float valve.
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Thanks to all for your continuing comments and interjections. Some negative, but in the main, hugely positive. This is nothing less than a monumental move within the LPG industry. An industry that has really remained unchanged for what? 50, 60, 70 years?? As I have said on many occasions, What would our forbears have given for what we have now? The only thing the LPG companies had to do was produce lots of lovely cylinders knowing that they would be rented out hundreds of times each and make sure they charged inflation every year. Oh, and don't forget the rental agreement charges!! There was nothing else, and no one could do anything about it. Thats how it was! That's where we had the problems of people filling the cylinders themselves which, IMHO is madness- and a crime to boot! I well remember a cylinder spinning around a forecourt on the M1 motorway because some muppet wanted gas and not at the rented price charged by the big LPG companies. Yes, I can understand why they would do it but now they don't have to- there is absolutely no excuse. We now, thanks to Safefill and others have a choice. That is the difference they have made. For me, I would buy one anyway even if I was addicted to the orange cable as was the case a few short years ago. I still used gas for cooking and BBQS in those days. I would buy one for the flexibility, the lightness, the convenience of seeing how much gas I had at a glance but mainly to remove the strangling fingers of the big LPG renters from around my throat!! Yes, it's a personal choice, but for me, I've paid them enough money down the years- now it's time to stop the bleeding of cash from my pockets on rental cylinders. The LPG market has changed forever - I have seen and experienced the success of offgrid caravanning and Safefill is a vital part of that together with the Solar Panel providing free power. LEDs are another wonder. It still amazes me when I am on site that people have never heard of Safefill- Solar Panels yes but not refillable cylinders. Their interest is palpable and they often go away saying "I'm having one of those". This website serves to inform and educate as I have found out and I have benefited massively from it. I am glad to note that others feel the same. I'm just sorry that some folk try to pick holes in the progress that has been made when it should be celebrated, but as is regularly pointed out- each to their own!
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Now that the red guide has been changed and these cylinders accepted, you should literally be able to take them to a full point and and fill them. How they would topple over is a mystery as they are quite stable on the ground. This was one of the banana skins thrown at Safefill by UKLPG. Safefill response was to suggest a holder which could be plastered with adverts as to what it was and how they worked- the objection was very quickly dropped!! I have been filling for 4 years and never had one fall over and even if it did with the poltergeist on the forecourt what is going to happen with all the safety features these cylinders have? I think the biggest thing would be that you would have to stand it up again!
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what is going to happen with all the safety features these cylinders have? I think the biggest thing would be that you would have to stand it up again!
Over on its side, it has then no working over filling safety feature and overfilling has potentially serious consequences.That is why they put an over filling valve into it.
Re standing it up right after the event, that will not correct it being over filled.
I think it is a good product in safe hands and could join the owners club if I could more readily refill it.
Unfortunately though, here we have an example of the lack of understanding of how one of its main safety features work and what to do in the event of such a quite possible incident happening. That you have never dropped one over is no argument others could not.
If it has been over filled then it is imperative it is safely and quickly vented off to reinstate an adequate gas space.
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ive chatted to many 'over winterers' while away and the canny ones use local gas (or refillables) for heating/cooking as it works out far cheaper than paying a separate electric bill.
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Ocsid. I know your job is something to do with safety but really my friend- you insult the intelligence of us all! Why on earth would we fill them lying on their sides?? I think we can all read and I think we all have the intellectual nonce to realise that a cylinder stands on its bottom! Perhaps I'm wrong but in 25 yrs I've never heard of anyone tipping it over to fill it. For one - it would roll around all over the place. I really do think you are finding or trying to find problems that don't exist.
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Normally, gaslow gets fitted to Motorhomes husky but not exclusively, while Safefill are for the caravan owner. There is the difference that the gaslow is fixed in the vehicle with a filler on the outside where the Safefill is as we have all been used to- removable cylinders and filled at the local LPG point directly.
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safefill operates without an external filler point....its on the bottle and the bottle can be removed to fill it....hence good for caravanners using a car to transport it.
Gaslow (generally) is set up with the filler in an external position (cill etc) and, when installed in a MH (or caravan, like Kjell) the outfit is taken to the pump.
gaslow also market a cylinder with the filler on the bottle but i dont think is plastic and relies on a guage for the contents level.
with an external filler point, i think filling refusals have been extremely rare. my Bolero had the filler inside the gas locker but now i have it in the aluminium cill.
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