No Calor Gas bottles
Bought a new Bailey Phoenix 440 and taking delivery next week. Dealer has no bottles due to national shortage at Calor. I'm a nearly-newbie (used to caravan 15 years ago) so I have no bottle.
I have been trying without success to find a bottle......what a strange time we live in! So new caravan and no gas.
I am in central Scotland so I'm hoping as we get out of lockdown I can go further afield and pick up a bottle somewhere then once I'm in the 'calor club' I can go and exchange it for a full one.
Until then, mains only......
Any ideas?
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Is that maybe because there is less and less places to fill them?!!
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I have had Calorlite since 2011 and over this time seen reports on shortages and a total lack of replacement of the bottles. Before the most recent lockdown I askd at my local dealer about a new bottle for the summer and they said I might be in luck, but could not guarantee it.
When the time comes I and I cannot replace I will go Flogas. The bottles are near as dammit the same size and weight.
Colin
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Thanks all, great welcoming advice! Will try flogas once I pick up the van and am sure of the regulator fittings.
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A Safefill refillable is the way to go. It's much lighter than a steel Calor, particularly now that Calorlite are discontinued. A worthwhile point given that payloads on caravans are pretty minuscule. For comparison purposes, A refill 6Kg of Calor will cost you around £25. The same amount of refillable will cost between £5 - £8 depending where you fill up. Add in the "rental" of a new cylinder at about £40+ and the initial cost of a refillable that "you" own starts to look very attractive. Additionally, you can get gas whilst abroad which you can't do with Calor.
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There seems to be a shortage of everything LPG related currently. Safefill’s website says due to demand from dealers they are not selling direct at the moment, you can only buy from a dealer. If of course they have any. Whilst significantly cheaper than Calor, I think you might struggle to get your 6kg for £5 at the moment. I topped up our Gaslow system yesterday at Morrison’s, which is about the cheapest I’ve found at 57.7p a litre, which equates to £6.78 for six kilos,
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Safefill devotees always use the "rental cost" of a Calor to try to convert prospective campers to Safefill, it is a total red herring. No one with a brain cell would ever rent a Calor when there are hundreds available on the internet for around £10 -15.
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I have a full calor lite that is ready to change (carried in car) When?the one on the c/van runs out ,which has been in use since late 2018
EHU rules
When the one on c/van runs out we can change over and exchange on a club site when available as they are normally the most easy/reliable source,no rush
And if no 6kg lites available then may then will get a calor 3.9kg
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"The way to go" In my case CY that is, quite literally, the problem-its along way to go!
If you use a fair bit of gas and you can access a fill point then Safefill is a great idea however, my nearest fill point, and that's a relatively new one, is 25 miles away.
Our MH buddies live in Basingstoke and have said that fill points, they have a Gaslow system, are disappearing.
As far as price goes I check yesterday, I was posting elsewhere, and at my nearest the price is 99p/litre so a 10kg would be £20 to fill.
This is of course much less than my £42 Gaslight refill but even so will take me, with my low usage, many many years to even break even and if I then factor in the cost of having to go out of my way-I use the Inland Revenue car allowance of 45p/mile to quickly calculate costs-then its a complete non starter for me.
So, like may things, what seems a 'no brainer' for some may be anything but for others.
Re the OP and obtaining a cylinder, I would scour the small ads-ebay, Gumtree, and recycling centres etc-to source a cylinder which I could then exchange rather than pay the hire charge.
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Facebook Marketplace is another very popular source of gas bottles. Don't forget you do not need to obtain the identical bottle for your needs as long as it in the same group. You can for example exchange a 4.5kg butane for a 6kg propane.
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One of the reasons that prompted many people to go for refillable route was the impossibility of swapping cylinders whilst abroad with the exception of Camping Gaz. People used to buy French or Spanish cylinders but I am sure that was a faff. Refillables solved that problem and it seemed to me that LPG was more widely available certainly in France. Be interesting to know if the same issues of site closing is also true abroad? I have looked at refillables but they have never seemed to be cost effective for the amount of gas that I use even when we went for two months at a time. We rarely go off grid so another reason not to bother. Fortunately I have two full 6kgs Calor bottle so should be OK for this year and maybe next depending on "events"
David
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The days of roadside LPG filling stations must surely be numbered because of the current villification of internal combustion engines. Even gas central heating for homes is now being targeted.
Our saviour seems to be the acceptance of bottled gas being used for temporary and mobile services. I just wonder at how big a furore will be created when gas for "patio" use is targeted . . . ?
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Hi PD, just had a look on mylpg website.
There are 3 fill points shown in Cornwall with one charging 79p/l and the others both 99p/l.Apparently Safefill at the moment are not selling direct to the public.
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For safe fill bottles, try here:
https://www.somerset-safefill.co.uk
last time they were supposedly not available in lockdown, got one overnight with a free hand wheel pigtail. Worth a call.
Filled first time at Morrisons on Cribbs Causeway, Bristol.
There is garage on the A303:
Stonehenge Filling Station
A303 High St, Winterbourne Stoke SP3 4SZ
69ppl on 21/3/21
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Interesting points and tips made here, thanks for input. For ‘armourer’ who asked about where I got the Bailey, not Duncan’s in Wishaw, but Wallace of Kirkcaldy........
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Best of luck with the new van, Alastair. Like many others, now that calorlite bottles are difficult to get, we've recently moved over to Safefill. Expensive to outlay, but at least we have light bottles which I know we can get refilled locally.
David
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SteveL wrote 'I topped up our Gaslow system yesterday at Morrison’s, which is about the cheapest I’ve found at 57.7p a litre, which equates to £6.78 for six kilos,"
Whilst not wishing to quibble about a pound or two, that is still about £20 per cylinder cheaper than Calor. If you only use a cylinder's worth a year then it's no significant difference other than the weight penalty. It does, however, remove the flexibility of being able to use non EHU locations. During what is anticipated to be a manic season, that may be significant. Refillables and solar are all about independence and flexibility and, when conditions permit, availability of gas "over there".
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In terms of LPG we can expect to pay a premium where there are few LPG fill locations, whether or not the area is remote.
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I just hope that the LPG users amongst the 4 million visitors that come to 'remote' Cornwall each year realise!
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For the ones who normally would be in France it will be like normal. It was between 0.90 and 0.99€ everywhere there in 2019. Although a lot easier to source. From a personal point of view if it keeps outlets supplying LPG I would not mind a 99p price tag. I was under no illusions that I would ever pay for our Gaslow installation. I wanted it so there would be no more humping of heavy bottles.😀
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Sledgehammers and nuts come to mind when I read about gaslow. Some of you seem to use an awful lot of gas.
I travelled for 40 years with two 4.5 kg gas bottles in the front locker - and only seemed to change one every three years. Rather than drive 20 miles each way to refill gaslow at a petrol station I swapped a gas bottle at the village shop. We were very modern 40 years ago - Electric kettle, electric heating and electric lights. I can’t remember a site without mains hook up in all that time- even though many of them were small out of the way sites.
And isn’t using green electricity from renewable sources much more eco friendly than burning fossil fuel gas?
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We certainly use more now we have a MH. Some because we never stopped on non EHU Aires before. Plus the fact if we stop off somewhere on route the gas cuts in to keep the fridge cold. Also as have we have refillable we have done away with the additional clutter of electric kettle, coffee maker and toaster. As I put above the main reason for having it wasn’t cost but to avoid putting my back out again, getting it in and out of the gas locker.
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