Gas cylinders - Flo Gas?

[Peanut]

The shortage in supply of Calor 3.9 kg propane bottles led me to buy a refillable Safefill bottle.  I can fill up at Morrisons or other gas supplier, about 90p per litre.  A third the cost of a Calor bottle exchange.

[Paul C]

I am personally amazed Safefill is not more popular.

[Guest]

Just now, Paul C said:

I am personally amazed Safefill is not more popular.

 

I think the initial outlay puts people off and what with the canals not being adjacent to where its easy to re fill one boaters probably find them inconvenient, unless they are leisure boaters or have access to a car.

[Peanut]

I think you are correct, Calor have been a dominant player with many outlets.  You have to go and find an LPG filling station.  With the fewer LPG cars, filling stations are closing, you need to plan ahead.  But, you can top up a partially filled bottle when passing an outlet, you don't need to run it out.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Peanut said:

But, you can top up a partially filled bottle when passing an outlet, you don't need to run it out.

 

This is a key advantage.

 

Im sure lots of folk who have a single Calor bottle exchange them when there is some LPG remaining in their bottle.

 

In case they run out at a critical moment.

 

[Liam]

I've recently had a visit from my Calor rep, and he too said that the 3.9 and 4.5 cylinders would be phased out. No mention of the same for the 13 and 15kg cylinders, but he did say that they'd invested £17m in new cylinders so I think they will still continue to be around for a while yet.

[magpie patrick]

8 hours ago, Peanut said:

The shortage in supply of Calor 3.9 kg propane bottles led me to buy a refillable Safefill bottle.  I can fill up at Morrisons or other gas supplier, about 90p per litre.  A third the cost of a Calor bottle exchange.

 

I think the smallest Safefill is 5kg - I'm trying to look up how tall it is to see if it will fit (Calor 6kg won't) 

They do look a good idea so long as refilling remains practical 

[Naughty Cal]

13 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

But very few could accommodate 13kg bottles,  what does that tell you about Calor's target market?

Ours comfortably fits two refillable Gaslow 11kg bottles.

 

I have every confidence it would fit two 13kg Calors if it had to.

[Naughty Cal]

8 hours ago, Paul C said:

I am personally amazed Safefill is not more popular.

In hindsight we should have bought a pair of the little 2.7kg refillable bottles for NC. It would have worked out much cheaper than the Camping Gaz 907 bottles we were lumbered with as the gas locker wasn't very big.

 

The 2x11kg Gaslow bottles we have in the van are well on the way to paying for themselves already. 

[magpie patrick]

45 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

 

I think the smallest Safefill is 5kg - I'm trying to look up how tall it is to see if it will fit (Calor 6kg won't) 

They do look a good idea so long as refilling remains practical 

 Apparently about 40cm - it would fit

 

What's the teams view on the long term viability of refills - say next five years? (A timescale over which Calor 3.5kg are likely to disappear) 

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

 Apparently about 40cm - it would fit

 

What's the teams view on the long term viability of refills - say next five years? (A timescale over which Calor 3.5kg are likely to disappear) 

 

Places where you can fill LPG tanks around where live have reduced over the last few years. One of the reasons we opted to stick with Calor.

 

I personally cant see that trend changing given the situation around energy.

 

(Cant comment on your area though)

 

Also be aware some LPG retailers wont let you fill Safefill ones as they dont grasp the diifference between them and std. cylinders and think you are just trying to fiĺl one of them.

[Chewbacka]

12 hours ago, Paul C said:

I am personally amazed Safefill is not more popular.

A 13kg bottle if only used for cooking will last ages, and it’s easy to swap at lots of places.  Just not worth the fuss of refilling.

[Naughty Cal]

4 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

 Apparently about 40cm - it would fit

 

What's the teams view on the long term viability of refills - say next five years? (A timescale over which Calor 3.5kg are likely to disappear) 

We have no worries about the future of LPG filling stations. Certainly not over such a short timescale as 5 years. If we had we wouldn't have fitted refillable bottles.

 

We have five LPG refilling stations within a few miles of where we live with another opening soon at the motorhome dealership where we bought our van.

 

Even during the period earlier in the year when LPG was harder to come by we still managed to find some locally and we have had no bother finding places to refill while we are out and about. We use the My LPG app to find places to refill on our route. We tend to let the first bottle run down and then when it has switched over to the second bottle start looking for places that are close to or on our route in the next 3 or 4 days .

[Naughty Cal]

4 hours ago, The Happy Nomad said:

 

Places where you can fill LPG tanks around where live have reduced over the last few years. One of the reasons we opted to stick with Calor.

 

I personally cant see that trend changing given the situation around energy.

 

(Cant comment on your area though)

 

Also be aware some LPG retailers wont let you fill Safefill ones as they dont grasp the diifference between them and std. cylinders and think you are just trying to fiĺl one of them.

It seems to a bit pot luck as to which areas are losing stations and which areas have a decent choice.

 

Lots of people seem to claim that BP has stopped selling LPG, yet our most local station a mile up the road is BP petrol station and they have no intention of stopping the sale of LPG.

 

They are a more sensible retailer as well. They allow the refilling of Safefill bottles but stop people from refilling Calor bottles.

 

With a 13kg Patio Gas coming in at £54 for an exchange bottle we are now seriously considering getting a Gaslow bottle for at home as well!!