French Gas bottles
We will be in France for several months at a time in our motorhome and want to use the French gas bottles. We use 6 kg Calor propane at present. How do we convert this to bottles that we can purchase at Intermarche? Do we need a butane pigtail? Do we need a different regulator or is there an adaptor or that we can buy? Where do you get these from?
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notwithstanding DD's excellent suggestion (many regulars to france/spain etc have switched to refillables), this is from another forum
The French gas bottles such as Butagaz and those sold in Intermarche are 21.8 LH thread....std Butane hose....
A Calor 4.5 kg butane bottle is also 21.8 LH thread.
The Le Cube are clip on.
if you have a bulkhead regulator and you change your normal 'propane' hose for a 'butane' one you should be OK to use a French butane bottle.
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"A Calor 4.5 kg butane bottle is also 21.8 LH thread."
dont know where this came from.....though i posted it.....its rubbish, lol.
calor butane bottles have a 'clip on' adaptor or regulator......
anyway, not relevant, just enclosed in the text i copied.....
sorry for any confusion.....
just get a butane hose and away you go......
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Isn't there a problem actually buying a French cylinder is you are of "no fixed abode"? I think that was another reason I went for Safefill plus French and Spannish adaptors. I could be out of date though and maybe you could use a campsite address th acquire one?
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I am told that Le Cube uses the same clip-on connector as (BP) Gas Light and since we used to have Gas Light I checked suppliers for Le Cube whilst in France and there seems to be good availability.
This question has been asked before but I never saw a satisfactory answer as to where in France you could buy a tail for a bulkhead regulator to fit particular gas bottles. I guess they should be available but if you know which bottle you are going to buy then you could buy a tail or adaptor in the UK. Of course, if you have the older style regulator you can just by the regulator with the gas bottle and swap them over.
Never understood why the UK industry decided it was better (safer?) to have a bulkhead regulator and HP hose when the rest of Europe manages perfectly with the standard regulator.
If you need an address to buy a bottle have a word with the site proprietor.
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I checked the French web for different bottles. Butagaz is commonly available (e.g. Carrefour) and uses a 27mm clip-on connector.
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We use Le Cube propane all the year round in France. They are widely available at all the main super/hypermarkets. You can get the 27mm clip on end and or pigtails from many UK caravan accessory shops or online. Alternatively, they are used by BP so can be obtained from their suppliers in the UK.
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We have both propane and butane 'le cube' bottles. When you first 'buy' your cube you get a regulator or clip included. Subsequent refills are of course cheaper. We had to use our daughter's French home address when completing the paperwork; however, we could have put down any address as far as the disinterested kiosk attendant was concerned.
The purchase of gas bottles may well become more strictly controlled in light of the Barceleona gas bottle bomb conspiracy.
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We bought the propane as a reserve to our uk bottle when were winter camping in the Alps and using a lot of gas to keep warm! (minus 20 C). Our daughter bought us a gas BBQ ( for summer use
) which had a built-in butane regulator, and which was clipped on to the top of le Cube.0 -
Many French and Brits who live in southern France drive into Spain to get their gas refills. As DD says bottles are picked up cheaply, or even free, at the local dechetterie. Everyone around here seems to use Spanish bottles rather than French because gas refills are half the price in Spain, compared to France.
We just got two 13kg refills for our portable gas heater, (for the house) for 28 euros. In France the cheapest we found was 29.90 euros for one.
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Just checked our motorhome documents and found that it was 2004 when we filled in a simple form at a Carrefour supermarket paying the bottle deposit and for the gas. Therefore, I have no useful info on how to get one now, sorry. However, if others can tell you how to get one we can vouch for the ease with which refills can be obtained.
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We bought an Antaragaz 10kg bottle last year from Intermarche in Picardy & was not asked for address, he was more concerned in making sure I had the correct adapter. I bought 2 clip on adapters & the hose from Gaslow before we left so I had 2 options. Paid €32 which included €10 deposit. Lasted over 6 months last year. Exchanged it at the beginning of May this year for €21 & still half full here in the Loire at the end of August. Gaslow website has all the info on continental adapters.
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Is that the Antargaz Calypso? It looks very lightweight, similar to Gas Light.
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We looked at using French gas cylinders in our Bessacarr E480 which came with two 6 kg Calor cylinders.
Virtually all the French cylinders were the same diameter (300 mm from memory) and our gas locker door was - 295mm
I did ask Swift if they thought about this when designing motorhomes but did not get a reply!
So might be as well just to check the size of your locker door.
The only one that would fit was Le Cube but we decided to have a refillable system fitted by Autogas 2000 and it has been excellent.
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We have and use all year round a French Le Cube , had it about 5 years. When we purchased it from one of the big supermarkets they gave us the correct adaptor and they still do at certain times of the year I think. Filled in the form with our UK address when we purchased the first bottle. Cost to exchange bottle is about 17 euros at most supermarkets all over France.
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A far better looking product than Calor. We are ill served in this country.
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Calypso lightweight bottles are widely available throughout the French Hypermarket network (if you have the locker space for 10kg plastic cylinders) and represent good value for money. You would normally take out a rental agreement with the forecourt staff, pay the initial deposit per cylinder (10E in 2015 as I recall) and then, if you decide to return them, you present your rental agreement and get your 10E back!
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First of all the Le Cube will fit in the same space as a 6Kg Calor. We have a Auto Trail Tracker that holds 2 bottles Calor or Le Cube but in our case we have one each and they fit fine. The Le Cube we use is the Red which is Propane (same gas as Calor). You need 2 pigtails one for each as both are different. Get one from France no problem at any caravan spares/dealer not sure of cost but about the same as in the UK or cheaper. Look up on line places like Narbonne caravan accessories or large supermarkets like E'Leclerc etc. Takes less than 60 secs to change from one to the other. You need a regulator to fit the Le Cube , it sits on top of the French bottle. Our regulator was free when we first purchased the Le Cube, they do this offer many times in the year as they want you to use the gas un like calor who try to obstruct us (remember calor lite problems ))). We are in France or Europe for 6 months of the year and have done for 5 years in fact on way back to France in a day or 2 from Switzerland. Have fun.
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