Gas bottles in France
We are planning to go to France in September. I understand you can't get calor gas on the continent, what kind of fittings do you need to get and what is the best kind of gas bottle. Do you know if I could get the fittings in the UK. Any advice wou;ld be most welcome.
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We have ran with a Calor or BP bottle since 2003 when we started caravanning in France. We also carry a Campingaz 907 bottle on a hose. We use this with our Cadac and it is the emergency back up if our main bottle ran out. It is not the cheapest way to buy gas but Campingaz is readily available. We usually swap ours over in the local supermarkets when it is empty.
Colin
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It’s a while since I researched this but we had the HP tail for the Homebase Gas Light (formerly BP Lite) cylinders which I believe is a 27mm (?) clip-on connector. It is compatible with the French bottle “Le Cube” which used to be reasonably available in France.
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Big Bear, If you think you might buy a Le Cube while you are in France (and if one will fit your gas locker) you can buy a clip on adaptor here in Uk from firms like Gaslow before you depart - an existing butane gas pigtail should screw to it. Photo below.
But we never needed to - like others have said we simply relied on Camping Gaz 907 as a reserve - and for summer travel we never needed that either. We never ran out.
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We have two 'Cubes', one propane and one butane. They're a handy 7kg size and readily available. When you first purchase a 'cube' you get a 'free' regulator (or you used to). the bad news is that you need to give a French address on the paperwork. Nobody looks at the details so just sign and put your uk or other address.
In September you are not going to need much gas for heating so just plug into the site electrical supplies: these will normally be 6 or 10 amp.
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Whilst the Le Cube indeed uses a 27 mm Clip on I think, solely from memory of what things looked like, you will find you need the adaptor with the "raised" take off version as shown HERE to achieve the necessary clearances.
Unless, ET, of course knows his horizontal one worked, as said I am only trying to visualise things; if so sorry to have mentioned it.
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If you are going for just a couple of weeks 2 6kg Calor will easily get you through.We have a redundant Prima Gaz bottle (we now have a built in LPG tank)which looks like a Calor Patio Gas bottle.A regulator was supplied when we bought it at Intermarche.Detendeur is French for regulator.It fitted in the gas locker of our then German caravan.It did not fit in the gas locker of our first/second UK motorhomes being too wide and stubby.Measure your bottle locker carefully before you purchase and consider if you really need a French bottle for short trips.
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I have seen several different gas bottles in France and, yes, they often have a regulator available, however, unless your van is ancient you will need a high pressure pigtail to the fixed bulkhead regulator (daft idea which I never saw the reason for). So you could use the gas bottle regulator but you would need to connect upstream of your bulkhead regulator which might be messy. Better to buy the pigtail and clip-on adaptor in the UK.
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I have a 10kg Antargaz Calypso butane bottle. Similar to the BP/Flogas lightweight see through bottle, though slightly smaller, 15kg total weight (same as Calor 6kg steel), about €29 euro deposit and about €30 for gas. You usually get a regulator free, but if you have a bulkhead regulator you will need a butane adapter. I usually get mine from Hamilton Gas Products. Good service.
https://www.gasproducts.co.uk/
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Hi, I simply will do what my old colleague did when faced with this type of question-Why? Why do you think you will need gas??
If you are sure you do, then you have plenty of suggestions.
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We have a Gaslow system, however when we went to France last in 2019 for 6 weeks, September / October we only used the equivalent of 2 x 6kg Calors. That was with a few nights on non EHU Aires and running the fridge freezer when parked up off site. You generally get at least a 6 amp provision in France. So unless you intend to use a lot of Non EHU sites, if you go with two bottles you shouldn’t have any problems re running out.
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Invest in a refillable bottle then you can get LPG anywhere. The bonus is you won't be paying Calor's ripoff prices either.
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Thank you all so much for your replies, most helpful.
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In all the years we have been going to France we have never run out of gas.
As the OP is a caravanner he will be on campsites not Aires.
We had the same gas bottle for around 2 years, we only had gas rings no electric plate but as we used sites we rarely if ever bothered to heat water in the van, heating was rarely required and if it was then use the sites electricity, you are paying for it.
Our trips are usually 8 to 10 weeks both in the spring and autumn.
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