Calorlite Availability

Hi Surfrider. Look on Gumtree or Ebay and get yourself an empty cylinder for £20 or so (or around £35 for a full one) and save yourself a packet on taking out an agreement. I've never had a problem getting replacements - always been plenty in stock wherever I've gone. 

Rick

What has always puzzled me is that with the lites you pay more per litre for the gas when you purchase a refill than you do with the ordinary ones. Originally it was rumoured that this was to cover the production of the cylinders. Don't know what the real reason is, are they more expensive to fill? Maybe now it covers the cost of the recent recall. Through the years though there have been times when providers have been willing to swap different ones. This was certainly the case a few years ago at the Peterborough motorhome show. Lots of us were at it!

The ordinary non lite cylinders are more readily available in my experience - but now I have gone for Safefill I wouldn't dream of going to Calor for that agreement.  If your gas usage is light though the figures may not  stack up unless you go for the freedom of rallies and THS sites. 

I think the higher cost of Calor Lite is associated not only with the additional cost of manufacture but also the very limited turnover of cylinders. Those that use a lot of gas tend to go for a refillable solution but there are many caravanners who hardly use one full cylinder a year. In which case the additional cost of a Lite cylinder hardly makes a big dent in annual expenditure?

David

If you are starting out from scratch, I would seriously consider a refillable. The initial cost won't be that substantially more than starting a new contract with Calor and gas will be about a quarter of the price. I wish I had thought to do it but am, to some extent, locked in with two calorlites in my locker.

I have had my, present, van for 10 years and I am on only my 3rd Calorlite bottle. A refillable for me would be madness. We usually use CC sites and we eat out a lot.

I also wonder whether LPG will always be available at garages. Originally it was installed for LPG powered vehicles, which have not caught on for various reasons, and, with the decrease in fuel costs, are even less attractive now.

My guess is that they are not economically viable for just the odd caravanner filling his bottle.

We're not that odd . Motor homes are increasingly moving to fillable bottles and becoming the main users of LPG pumps. Some manufacturers are now fitting tanks underneath the body. The freedom to use non electric sites and rallies as well as wild camping is the big draw for refillables. When I had a caravan I used a calorlite and a 13kg calor bottle, but lifting the big bottle in and out of the locker was difficult. For people who always use EHUs the high gas cost of calor is acceptable and the low weight of calorlites a bonus. If you never camp offgrid carry on with the calors.

Good for you. No doubt time will tell.

We have Calor, one lite one ordinary. Mainly because they want me to pay to change the second one (first changed free at Sandringham). We only get through about 1.5 bottles a year as we always use EHU, so refillables would take to long to pay off the investment. Occasionally the site may not have had a replacement lite, but with two bottles and small usage there is no rush. We just wait until we get to a site that has some.

I used calorlight bottles in the past and never had a problem finding refills. I say in the past because I now have Cepsa 12.5kg bottle which is Spanish and a refil for this was 13.78 euros in January this year ( in Spain) so think we get a poor deal in UK.