Calor Gas currently not supplying new fills

[Mike Tee]

You two need to get together! (Socially distanced of course?)

[mrsmelly]

12 hours ago, Liam said:

 

Other way round for me, 19kg and 6kg a plenty but another very short delivery on the 13kg.

Nip down with a few 6kg please ?

[Guest]

Just checked at our local DIY place where I get mine from and he has a few 6kg in too. Don't need one yet though.

[Momac]

Is the shortage of cylinders thought to be temporary and if so when will normal service expected to be resumed ?  Maybe in 2022 ?

 

 

[PeterF]

With COVID a lot of people were at home last year and the good weather resulted in lots of sales of patio gas heaters and BBQs, us caravan and motor home sales increasing, but I think it is the garden stuff that has used up all the spare stock. It may have relaxed a bit over winter but with a dry April, it has become a problem again. It will improve I hope as I would expect Calor to be having new cylinders made, but I do not know at what rate. With overseas holidays probably being restricted, I see the demand remaining high for garden use throughout 2021. If Calor are reluctant to buy lots of new bottles because they think it is temporary, then it may take longer to return to normal. The only way of knowing is if you have inside knowledge about the rate of new cylinder manufacture and demand for them.

[Guest]

Called in our local caravan dealer this aft. for some bits and they had good stock at the time of posting. It's obviously for some reason not a national problem.

[PeterF]

They may have a stock for refills, but will not let people have a bottle if they are not returning an empty. Once I had my empties off ebay I had no problem getting a refill but nobody would let me have a bottle without an empty even if they had plenty in stock.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, PeterF said:

They may have a stock for refills, but will not let people have a bottle if they are not returning an empty. Once I had my empties off ebay I had no problem getting a refill but nobody would let me have a bottle without an empty even if they had plenty in stock.

 

I have two 6kg propane cylinders, one is 'legit' bought with a rental agreement the other started when I got a very small butane bought off eBay for a gas camping BBQ. I found a sympathetic dealer who later let me swap it for a 6kg propane, I seriously doubt such a swap would be allowed now.

 

But yes eBay seems to be the only way some people are going to be able to get bottles, seemingly Flogas in 'caravan' sizes are also in short supply now too.

[Momac]

The caravan dealer I phoned had nothing - I had the empty cylinder to trade in.

 

I  have another spare empty - wondering if I should grab a refill while there  are some available even  if it is at the expensive marina price. Would that be panic buying or a benefit overall by  introduction of an  empty spare into use ??

 

 

[Naughty Cal]

Filled the Gaslow bottles from empty yesterday at our local lpg station. Not the cheapest place for lpg at 75ppl, but it was the closest and most convenient for us at the time. Came to a shade over £31 to fill two 11kg bottles.

 

We are happy with that.

 

Now we just need to figure out how long that will last us! 

[Tracy D'arth]

Scuttlebutt from a coal boat.  A yard with over 200 cylinder but no gas to fill them. Calor are shipping empties to Scotland for filling for some strange reason.

 

Is it a shortage to jack up the price?

 

Cheshire builders merchants have none, chandlers and marinas say no stock.  Not even refills of any boaty size.

[frangar]

Interestingly a chap with a calor bulk tank at his house in the village has been asking on a local Facebook group about alternative suppliers a calor keep mucking him about for a bulk tanker delivery so maybe it’s not just the cylinders in short supply. 

[Guest]

https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/lpg_market_faces_global_shortage-18-jan-2021-164360-article/

 

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by The Happy Nomad
To add a better link

[blackrose]

Bought another gas bottle from Oundle marina last weekend. The woman running the place had never heard about any shortage of LPG.

 

We are out in the sticks here but you'd have thought someone supplying the stuff might have heard about it. That's two different suppliers now and I haven't had any problem.

[Liam]

If they're official Calor stockists, then they should have had at least a few emails and also I've had a couple of letters about it all. There's also information plastered all over the Network Portal (online account management for stockists).

 

Still waiting on a delivery placed on 14th June here, and it isn't expected until next Tuesday at the earliest.

[Tracy D'arth]

Fuel boat Bargus has been quoted August before they can get any gas supplies.

[mrsmelly]

1 hour ago, Liam said:

If they're official Calor stockists, then they should have had at least a few emails and also I've had a couple of letters about it all. There's also information plastered all over the Network Portal (online account management for stockists).

 

Still waiting on a delivery placed on 14th June here, and it isn't expected until next Tuesday at the earliest.

We are still getting supplies, however much reduced in sizes as some are unobtainable. We received a letter from calor stating strictly only like for like bottles and not the usual groups that are interchangeable and we are not allowed to sell to new customers without an empty. Any one selling calor without such limitations must be a cowboy.

[Keeping Up]

If anybody would like an empty 13kg FloGas cylinder, and can collect from here in Milton Keynes, they are very welcome to it.

[Momac]

Just got a refill from Lowdham  Caravans with no problem and at the usual price ...cheaper than the marina.

[Arthur Marshall]

Long post about this from fuel boat Halsall on FB:

CALOR GAS SHORTAGE

for the best part of a year the supply of Calor Gas has been poor & sporadic, but during the last 3 months supply & communications for Calor Gas has be abysmal. Calor official statement is:- https://www.calor.co.uk/cv-statement

 

Despite them stating they are working tirelessly to deliver gas across the UK, week after week Calor have not delivered our orders, we have spoken to the sales reps, customer managers & numerous other staff, but no one seems interested in improving the situation or explaining to us in detail why they are not collecting the thousands of empty cylinders waiting collection at every stockist across the country, no-one within the company seems to realise that many customers are not holiday makers having a bit of fun, or drinkers in a beer garden, they're ordinary everyday people needing to cook, heat their homes or have hot water, we have many elderly & vulnerable customers that we are trying to prioritise, but our deliveries are so rare & sporadic even this is difficult to arrange. Many customers are now getting quite agitated, upset & angry with us that we are unable to supply, Calor have been keeping the gates of their depots shut & not allowing customers in, distancing themselves from customers & letting stockists like us take all the direct flack from the customers. This lack of supply is causing us to loose £1000's of pounds a month, but no one with in the Calor organisation seems to care, with staff just shrugging their shoulders & seeming total despondent as they can't seem to work out what the companies actual strategy & improvement plan is, so they cannot tell this to us the stockist.

 

Some of the reasons for the lack of deliveries we have been.told are:-

 

1. During Lockdown 1 despite being an essential service, Calor furloughed staff that test & recondition the bottles, causing significant delays.

 

2. Last summer many of the 13Kg orange Calor gas bottles were converted into green patio gas bottles & sold with barbecues & pario heaters in deals with the large stores DIY chains. Patio gas is much more profitable for Calor to sell as they effectively charge nearly 20% more for the same product (strangely this us one of the few products Calor still regularly supply, with high & profitabledemand from hospitality)

 

3. Last summer lots of people had staycations & found old cylinders in gardens etc that they exchanged for new ones, many of these cylinders were old & failed safety checks & had to be scrapped 

 

4. Due to last summer staycations many new bottle rentals were taken out & this combined with above old unsafe cylinders meant there where less cylinders in stock to get refilled 

 

5. Calor were very slow in ordering replacement cylinders, also Covid-19 & brexit have contributed to further delays such as a shortage of steel for cylinders, reduced capacity for manufacture, increase steel, manufacturing & importation costs, as well as delays with valve manufacturer. 

 

6. Back in March withour warning or negotiations Calor increased to wholesale purchases price of 13Kg Propane to stockists by approximately 10% with a similar increase in there suggested retail price, meaning that stockists effectively had their margins cut. 

 

7. Most stockists have to sign an exclusivity agreement with Calor to agree to not stock any other brand of LPG bottles, Calor have an effective monopoly on the caravan & camping industry & especially on the UK network, they maintain this stranglehold on the market by buying any companies that start to challenge their nationwide distribution network. 

 

8. Calor have been saying for months that they are increasing the supply of new gas bottles in the system, but refuse to give any date when we can expect normal regular supplies

 

9. So in summary, we're doing our best to supply Calor Gas within the constraints we're currently having to work under & it's likely this situation will continue until the Autumn. Please don't rant, argue, swear at or berate our team, we're trying our absolute best to supply Calor Gas, but we're dealing with a company that doesn't seem to care about dealing with us as their customer, their being unhelpful, uncommunicative & increasing our costs all at the same time as failing to deliver the stock we have ordered weeks & months in advance, with orders being constantly wiped if the system without notice. So if you deal feel aggrieved, feel free to contact Calor's Managing Director Mathew Hickin directly with your complaints, we do know of some customers that have previously complained vehemently to Calor & to their local MP, who Calor have then made a direct delivery to. I know I'll get it in the neck for this post, but honestly we're at the end of our tether & loading £1000's of lost sales every month & don't know what else to do other than our usual response of keeping on carrying on the cut........ Cheers, Brian -

[Jim Riley]

"Working tirelessly..."? Now where have I heard that anodyne twaddle before, who's example are they following?

[Machpoint005]

Working tirelessly ie not getting tired, because they are sitting on their arses?

 

As an old mate of mine used to say, "Thumb in bum, brain in neutral, doing a mental freewheel".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by Machpoint005

[Naughty Cal]

It isn't a problem that will go away any time soon I don't think.

 

We are members of a Benimar owners group and the number of people with new vans who can't use them due to no gas bottles is astounding. And that is just one manufacturer. The same is happening with all manufacturers of motorhomes and caravans ?

 

We are glad we opted for a refillable system now. Yes the initial outlay was expensive but it will pay for itself in no time and where we are availability of LPG isn't an issue.

[Momac]

A marina neighbour just obtained a refill with no problem.

I guess its an issue  if you dont have an empty to trade in .

 

[gatekrash]

We're moored near our marina gas storage cage and have noticed a steady stream of camper vans and cars arriving at the marina with empties in the boot swapping for fulls. Guessing that word got around that there was gas available here. We're on 6kg bottles, but we have numerous so we have a few bottles worth of 'spare' once one empties, and if all else fails the local petrol stations at home don't seem to have the same issues with supplies.