Type of gas bottle

We have the middle size Safefill and it lasts us between 11 - 14 days when not on EHU  and costs between £7.50 and £9.00 to fill up.  We don't regret it at all but do wish we had perhaps gone to a safefill retailer to see if a large one would have fitted easily enough into our locker so we could comfortably last a fortnight.  (we bought ours online.).  We also didn't realise you can get a different pigtail with a wheel on which we should have bought when we got the bottle but didin't realise until later)

There are some long term questions as to whether gas will be easily available from filling station in years to come. The gas powered car has dropped out of popularity and as numbers reduce so might the demand with fewer places stocking it. This may not happen but it is a consideration when looking at the options.

If you use Calor etc where you replace when empty you really need two bottles. With the likes of Safefill you can see the gas level and better still don't have to wait until it is empty. You can refill it at any point. I did a 3 weeks trip round Ireland last summer on about 9 kgs of gas and there managed with one 10 kg Safefill. Although there is an outlay of about £165 the refills cost a quarter of Calor. Furthermore if you don't have any cylinders you can put the cost of renting Calor etc to owning your own Safefill.

Astro76 does not say what type of heating system his van will have. Some of the newer models can be very energy hungry. If so, refillable bottles give greater options both here on sites and CL's with low amperage, and abroad.

I don't know that the heating system is in my Caravan (don't pickup the caravan until until the 10th september. What I do know is that it's got a 2Kw max on the electrical setting.

I'm really leaning towards getting the biggest Safefil that will fit into my carvan locker.   From the measurements that I saw on the Safefill website, I think that the 10Kg bottle should fit without any problems.    I like that once the bottle has been paid for, refilling will mean that it's cheaper in the long run... and if for some reason it becomes impossible to get a refil, they I can always switch to calor lite or something like that until I can find a new refil location.

beg your pardon chaps - and especially Tirril, I'm sure years ago when I first started vanning I read somewhere that you should always disconnect before towing so I've been doing it ever since, however I can't find any ref to it now so I bow to your superior knowledge - one thing less to worry about when I pack up next week! Thanks, 

I've just been reading up on that and have just completed the club practical carvaning course.  The instruction given to me loud and clear is the "Make sure that the gas is off".

There wasn't any mention of disconnecting the bottle.

Now reading between the lines, if the only way that you can be sure that the gas is off is to disconnect the bottle. Then that's what you need to do.   For some just turning off the regulator is enough (I was told to do this when I hired a motorhome earlier in the year).

Turning off the gas at the bottle is fine. You do not need to disconnect it.

Not even for Eurotunnel

Sorry Astro but I am not following your logic. Every removable cylinder has a valve to turn it on/off. Without a valve there would be a leak when changing a cylinder unless it was completely drained. The valve is obviously capable of retaining the gas when closed otherwise there would be leaks all over the stockists supply yard. The reason you need to close the valve when travelling is that in the case of an accident a rubber hose maybe cut or a brass pipe severed allowing to escape if the cyclinder valve was open. If you keep disconnecting the supply you are encouraging air into the pipe work around the caravan which then needs pushing through (just like when changing cylinders). I don't see any safety merit in disconnecting and infact believe it justs adds work and possibly more wear on the thread of your coupling.

I think I owe everyone an apology - again!  I put the earlier apology on the wrong thread, I was arguing on the nose-weight discussion that I alway disconnect. I think I may have misread "isolate" for "disconnect" in an instruction years ago. Reading all of the above I'm now quite sure turning off is sufficient. As Tirril says, it's one less thing to worry about and less wear and tear on the valve.

Sorry Astro but I am not following your logic. Every removable cylinder has a valve to turn it on/off. Without a valve there would be a leak when changing a cylinder unless it was completely drained. The valve is obviously capable of retaining the gas when closed otherwise there would be leaks all over the stockists supply yard. The reason you need to close the valve when travelling is that in the case of an accident a rubber hose maybe cut or a brass pipe severed allowing to escape if the cyclinder valve was open. If you keep disconnecting the supply you are encouraging air into the pipe work around the caravan which then needs pushing through (just like when changing cylinders). I don't see any safety merit in disconnecting and infact believe it justs adds work and possibly more wear on the thread of your coupling.

What I'm planning on doing is turning off the valve, but leaving everything connected for the reasons that you said.

All I was saying was that if you feel that it is safer to completely disconnect the bottle then do it.  Yes, you have points on wear and tear, I get that.  My logic is that if someone still doesn't feel safe unless the bottle is disconnected why should I tell them off?   That was my logic, nothing more to it than "whatever makes you happy".