Calor Gas Prices

[ETS Jess]

Hi all,

 

Just out of interest, what are you paying for your Calor Gas? Please post the price, the size of tank, your approx. location and if possible where you purchase it from - I thought mine was a little expensive but it's around a £5er cheaper than anywhere else I've found!

 

Thank you!

Jess

 

- Mine is:

 

£21-23 for 13k in Cannock from Roofing Supplies

Edited July 21, 2014 by ETS Jess

[Ex- Member]

Western K&A £27.00 13k from The Boatyard

Edited July 21, 2014 by Julynian

[Machpoint005]

I thought Calor (as opposed to other suppliers, maybe) had a recommended retail price for cylinder refills?

[bizzard]

I paid £27-25p for a 13kg Calor at our local supplier last Friday.

Edited July 21, 2014 by bizzard

[Ex- Member]

I thought Calor (as opposed to other suppliers, maybe) had a recommended retail price for cylinder refills?

 

They probably do, but retailers can sell for what ever they like. The bottle price goes up and down depending on market price.

 

I'm not surprised it can be got for £21-23 for 13k in Cannock from Roofing Supplies as they probably sell a lot of bottles to flat roofers so buy in larger quantities.

Edited July 21, 2014 by Julynian

[Machpoint005]

I wonder whether the bottle price fluctuates according to 'today's' gas prices or the price the retailer paid for his stock?

 

Either way, if you get a bottle for less than Calor RRP, you're ahead.

A roofing supplier is no good if you are on the cut, miles from anywhere, and miles from your car.

In other words, you are paying for the convenience too (like a motorway service area at 3am).

[bizzard]

 

They probably do, but retailers can sell for what ever they like. The bottle price goes up and down depending on market price.

 

I'm not surprised it can be got for £21-23 for 13k in Cannock from Roofing Supplies as they probably sell a lot of bottles to flat roofers so buy in larger quantities.

Flat roofers? Are these flat chested women roofers or flat cap wearing flat roof flat roofers. Or have they been flattened by something.

[Machpoint005]

Flattened by your heavy attempt at humour, Bizz.

[bizzard]

Flattened by your heavy attempt at humour, Bizz.

Oh, I might of thought you'd pitch in.

[YamYam]

£22 90 from BJE gases in Brierley hill. 13K red. Was a pound cheaper for a couple of years but just gone up

[jodansgang]

£13 for a 13kg calor but I refill them myself at the local garage.

It's £7 for a 6kg.

It's a bit like dicing with death but it saves a few quid. The refill adapters are available on flee bay.

 

Edit to add you can only refill propane cylinders.

Edited July 21, 2014 by jodansgang

[Paul C]

I thought Calor (as opposed to other suppliers, maybe) had a recommended retail price for cylinder refills?

 

 

 

They probably do, but retailers can sell for what ever they like. The bottle price goes up and down depending on market price.

 

 

I thought bottle prices might vary slightly between retailers too. What we did last time a bottle needed replacing was ring round a bunch of marinas and boatyards in the local area and on the cruise home, which was about 8 different retailers. They all gave exactly the same price.

[Nightwatch]

Cropredy Marina. £27.25. Yesterday.

[Machpoint005]

 

 

 

 

>> They all gave exactly the same price.<<

 

Yes, RRP as displayed on a card somewhere (usually).

 

>>t I refill them myself at the local garage.... It's a bit like dicing with death but it saves a few quid. The refill adapters are available on flee bay.<<

 

It's exactly that. Dicing with death. Not worried about you, but what about the innocent bystanders? When propane goes bang it can do so in a big way, and spread shrapnel over a vast area.

Cropredy Marina. £27.25. Yesterday.

 

See Bizz, post 4.

RRP.

[Paul C]

£13 for a 13kg calor but I refill them myself at the local garage.

It's £7 for a 6kg.

It's a bit like dicing with death but it saves a few quid. The refill adapters are available on flee bay.

 

Edit to add you can only refill propane cylinders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's exactly that. Dicing with death. Not worried about you, but what about the innocent bystanders? When propane goes bang it can do so in a big way, and spread shrapnel over a vast area.

 

 

 

That's interesting, I looked at it in a bit of depth a while back. Basically, garages don't like it but it doesn't mean they won't let you.....BUT the actual rules are, they won't allow it unless the bottle has a device which prevents overfill of the bottle (I think its 80% full of liquid, at the defined safe 'fill' quantity). There is a bottle/system available, http://www.safefill.co.uk/ which does have the required safety mechanism on the filler. You'd personally need to do a capital cost vs running cost evaluation to see if its worthwhile for your own needs, ie a high gas user would make it worthwhile. And of course, it would need to be done at a garage, not canalside (so pragmatically, you'd need a car too, etc).

 

On the safefill website they have a list of retailers/garages who are happy to fill the bottles, but this doesn't include (well, in my experience) garages nearer me, and if I committed to it and found that my local garage didn't want me to fill the bottle, then it wouldn't work out economic because I'd have to take a 20 mile round trip to fill the bottle - thus wiping out any savings in the fill cost over a Calor bottle.

[Phil Ambrose]

In a former life I was commercial manager for an Elf-Flexigas filling plant and in common with all other suppliers we had a minimum price, however our retailers were able to buy stock at a discounted price (obviously) as they themselves needed to make a profit. Retailers are able to set their own price so depending on their turnover the price might be more or less than the bulk supplier.

Calor as a major supplier both direct to the customer and through retail outlets (garages building suppliers etc) supply at a fixed price whatever they themselves pay "at the pump" so to speak.

In short yes you can get gas at a lower price than say Calor charge by going to a retailer with a quick turnover.

The downside is you may need to travel to get it so weigh up fuel costs for the car for a round trip plus your time,wear and tear on the vehicle. Me? Can't be arsed and pay £27-25 to Calor to deliver to the boat.

Phil

[Ricco1]

If you can buy gas 'loose' for around £1 a kilo no doubt those who make it their business can buy it for less. And then, they sell it for £2 a kilo. The customer provides the bottle and the transport. They just fill the bottles and take the profit. To me that sounds like a rip-off of monumental proportions.

[Paul C]

If you can buy gas 'loose' for around £1 a kilo no doubt those who make it their business can buy it for less. And then, they sell it for £2 a kilo. The customer provides the bottle and the transport. They just fill the bottles and take the profit. To me that sounds like a rip-off of monumental proportions.

 

Gas isn't £1/kilo though, its about £1.27/kg (70p/litre) and there's significant capital cost in the equipment and licensing etc to transport, store, and put the LPG into bottles, mainly due to the safety requirements of the process. I'm sure they do make a profit, but I bet its not that big.

[Ricco1]

 

Gas isn't £1/kilo though, its about £1.27/kg (70p/litre) and there's significant capital cost in the equipment and licensing etc to transport, store, and put the LPG into bottles, mainly due to the safety requirements of the process. I'm sure they do make a profit, but I bet its not that big.

 

OK but petrol retailers have significant capital costs too, and appear to do quite well on margins of less than 10p a litre. A mark up of over 50% for repackaging a bulk product is very high. Perhaps the industry needs looking at by the monopolies and mergers people.

[Phil Ambrose]

 

OK but petrol retailers have significant capital costs too, and appear to do quite well on margins of less than 10p a litre. A mark up of over 50% for repackaging a bulk product is very high. Perhaps the industry needs looking at by the monopolies and mergers people.

Millions of litres of petrol sold every week compared to, how many litres of LPG?

High turnover = lower price

Low turnover = higher price.

Phil

[Richard10002]

I motor the mile or so to Stretford Marina and pay about £26 for 13kg.

[gazza]

Think yourselves lucky. We only have space for 2 X 4.5kg butane.

 

Last bottle was £16.75 at Bridge Boatyard Ely.

 

Rip thru a bit between fridge and cooking too.

[Phil Ambrose]

I motor the mile or so to Stretford Marina and pay about £26 for 13kg.

So to save a quid you need to go to your car, drive, park up, buy a bottle of gas, get back to your car, load full bottle into car, drive back to your boat, get bottle out of car and return to boat. If you are just using gas for cooking you save £3 or £4 a year so that's a saving of about 6p or 7p a week.

I would rather pay the extra and get Mr Calor to deliver it to my boat

Phil

[Ex- Member]

So to save a quid you need to go to your car, drive, park up, buy a bottle of gas, get back to your car, load full bottle into car, drive back to your boat, get bottle out of car and return to boat. If you are just using gas for cooking you save £3 or £4 a year so that's a saving of about 6p or 7p a week.

I would rather pay the extra and get Mr Calor to deliver it to my boat

Phil

 

Well we use The Boatyard on the W K&A they deliver direct to our boat, and diesel too, I think their diesel is now down to 78p as well which is a pretty decent price, certainly cheaper than any other outlet in this area.

 

I would happily pay a couple of quid more for gas delivered, it's such a pain collecting the stuff.

[Richard10002]

So to save a quid you need to go to your car, drive, park up, buy a bottle of gas, get back to your car, load full bottle into car, drive back to your boat, get bottle out of car and return to boat. If you are just using gas for cooking you save £3 or £4 a year so that's a saving of about 6p or 7p a week.

I would rather pay the extra and get Mr Calor to deliver it to my boat

Phil

 

You've got the whole wrong end of the stick here.

 

I motor in my boat. It's a nice little trip that I quite enjoy every now and then. I pop the old bottle ashore, and the new one on the boat.

 

I'm not doing it to save a quid.... I'm actually paying a bit more than I need to. I used to do the car trip to Go Outdoors and pay about £23, but decided life was to short to save £3 a few times a year.