Type of gas bottle

Hi I got two bottles 6.5KG calor lite from go outdoors total cost £109.00. But have just found out that I could have got another 10% of for being a C.C. member .

There will be many that will say that you should go for the Safefill option as overtime it will become the cheapest option. However the key word is overtime. It will very much depend on how much time you will spend in the caravan, especially in winter and whether you are likely to use sites with no electricity frequently. If on the other hand you are only likely to spend 4/6 weeks away always with hook-up each year it will take a long time to get the benefit and that makes the Calor Lite a better proposition.

David

David has it in a nutshell...

the main thing to consider (but as someone new to this, you wont yet have the experience....) is whether you might use sites without EHU, which would put a higher demand on gas (for heating etc) and therefore swing the thoughts to cheaper gas....like Safefill....or at least getting larger bottles (12kg) as these are cheaper to refill, per litre....though still eye wateringly expensive compared to pumped LPG.

BTW, i wouldnt call 6kg Calor bottles.....'large'....

 There are other options and I will place some of the arguments that might aid you.

Also 6 kgs is not the largest, most caravans are designed to accept 11 kg standard steel bottles and various companies but not Calor can supply these.

Buying as large an amount per exchange is always the cheaper way of buying gas.

Of the standard steel bottled alternative products Flo-gas I suggest is now the most widely available and supplies in both 6 and 11kg size bottles. They are extensive suppliers to the building trade so the network of sources also includes building/roofing trade suppliers [Builders Merchants]. There, discounts are IME commonly available for the asking. An 11 kg standard steel bottle will have an empty weight of about 11 to 12 kgs. The coupling in these bottles uses the left handed screw POL fitting as does Calor and other minor suppliers in the UK. A Flo-gas bottle rental is similar to Calor's or I found waived all together by my building merchant.

I now use a product that was originally brought to the market by BP, but has been acquired by Flo-gas. This is traded as BP Gaslight and comes in 5 and 10 kg sizes and like Safefill is not steel but a plastic composite; this offers a massive weight saving as the 10 kg bottle itself weighs just 5.3 kgs.

These have an advantage over most other products in that they use a 27 mm “clip-on” connection, making exchanging somewhat easier and quicker. Sourcing these exchanges is somewhat less flexible than either Calor or Flo-gas but a ready source is the Homebase network and there are other outlets that were originally BP gas traders that remain able to sell it. There seems that a restrictive contractual issue left over from the past means at present even Flo-gas's own dealers are not allowed to sell BP lights. A garden centre in the next village is my source. A bottle rental is about £33.

Then as identified there is Safefill another plastic composite bottle. The massive advantage here is it is a self fill bottle allowing the purchase of the gas at garage forecourt type prices. A down side here in the South is a quite extensively applied embargo on the free access to refilling at forecourt gas pumps. None of my viable forecourts will allow me to do so as the staff are instructed to not allow it, quoting company policy and insurance conditions, anyhow the end results is I can't without subterfuge, refill at any local forecourt. I can at a lorry depot but it is some 13 miles each way and out of our way. Safefill do the bottles in several sizes. I would be using them if not for the real refilling limitations both at home and possibly whilst travelling.

in addition to the above, and my point about where (non ehu?) you might stay, the other 'where' question is regarding touring outside the uk and how you would get your gas there...

there are many ways to do this, if you let us know the 'where' and the 'where', i can help with some pointers...

Like 'ocsid' I use a 10kg Gaslight and its a very good weight saving over the steel bottles. I am a user where I use EHU where possible and my 10kg Gaslight has seen 84 nights away so far with only about 45% usage. It should see me through next year but will probably exchange it at my local Hire place for approx £24, before next years 12 weeker across the water.

The Gaslight has the advantage of being able to see the level, so giving you plenty of opportunity in monitoring it, a lot of Hire places still sell the Gaslight and a lot cheaper than Sainsbury's who also are an outlet.

It does as others have implied depend on usage.  We have just comeback from 2.5 weeks abroad with ehu followed by 4 nights on a rally without ehu. During the stays on Ehu we used arround half of a 8.2kg safefil. That it is probably more than most people would use.   However I used the gas a couple of times to boost the hot water, cool down the fridge and BBQ was used a lot.  The gas bottle emptied just before we left the rally.  So about 4kg in 4 days.   

I refilled the bottle yesterday and it cost £8.18, which represents a tremendous saving over the cost Calorlites or Gaslites, but whether this saving is worth the initial outlay of the bottle and the hassle factor of getting refilled, is very much a personal decision based upon gas usage and where you can refil.  For me the answer is clear for others I would think less so , or even in favour of standard bottles.  

I probably should have said that we are very large consumers of LPG as we rally a lot,  tend to avoid 5 van sites with EHUs and push the season wide. Thus why if there was an easier access to refill I would have gone to Safefill rather than BP Gaslight, though having checked my refilling options that was not a practical route. I hope that access to refill at forecourts improves but I feel it is likely to go the otherway.

Astro is asking the right questions at the right time.

If the Safefill option is chosen, the cost to purchase the Calor bottles and the loan agreement (although there are ways to get bottles without paying the loan agreement) will go a long way towards the extra cost of a Safefill system.

I have worked it out that it takes about 10 to 11 fill ups with a Safefill 10kg before the full cost of the bottle is recovered.

You now have to work out how long it will take to use that much gas and that's a calculation only you can make depending upon how and when you use the Caravan.

I have to travel about 10 miles each way to fill up the Safefill but I have no problem doing that but it's certainly worth checking where you would fill up. The nice thing is you don't have to run the gas right out as you can see the levels in the cylinder and fill it up at any time.

Good luck

If starting from scratch Safefill will very quickly recoup your expenditure as you can see the gas level you can top up before you run out so could manage as I do with one bottle.  I have the large one and it is a fraction of the price to fill compared to Calor.  Do check the size of your locker first though.  Obviously your usage counts and if you like getting away from it all and not rely on EHU it really would pay to go refillable.  If you expect to stay on club sites forever then go for Calor.  The thread on How to Survive etc gives a lot of info.