Thinking about getting a Safefill cylinder

Allan/Allan of course, youre both correct!

many factors go into making the decision to move to refillables or not and usage has to be at the top of the list....always EHU will negate a large gas demand. add in sparce availability and its not on the wish list.

of course, you are both caravanners who always use sites (and with ehu) whereas others (mainly MHers) might use aires or other 'non serviced' locations along with non-ehu CLs and temporary holiday sites where gas (and solar/12v) will be the primary power sources.

relying on bottled gas (for daily showers, bbq, cooking etc) will start to become pretty expensive as stays lengthen during the summer time.

then there are those who tour 'impromptu' abroad where cylinders arent exchangable and one either has to carry sufficient gas for the whole trip (3 months?) or find a way to get more while away...

the easiest way is to have refillables, where only a small adaptor is required to enable pump use all over europe...

so different usage patterns might steer folk in different directions and while we (hope to) tour europe extensively the flexibility we get with refillables there outweighs any 'potential issues' in the UK with supply. 

While im lucky to have a fill point close by, i think its ok to check ones route alongside the well known apps to verify availability.

one flexible way to to get the best of both worlds is to have one refillable bottle and one exchange one...see a fill point, top up....gas running down, switch to exchange bottle...

when in Spain my 2nd bottle is a large Repsol one which can be exchanged everywhere.....sites, petrol stations etc, and is as cheap as LPG.

France not a problem at the moment.

it's horses for course, ive had refillable for 10 years and, for our usage type/volume its been great. 

at least i dont flinch when paying as im sure i would with a large Calor exchange.....ouch!

I didn’t get the refillable  system in our MH installed to save money, more to save my back. However, given the amount of gas we have used, even though we generally use EHU sites, I think it might. The cylinders have a 10 year life, before they need testing and possibly replacing. In that time I am sure I will at least break even. It’s surprising how much gas is used by the fridge / freezer, if you are parked up visiting somewhere or shopping for food. Plus if we can get back to France, add in a few non EHU Aires and it increases even more. The equation would be even more in favour of saving money, if I had been starting from scratch, rather than having two Calor 6kg which I gave away.

agreed Steve, i didnt do it for money, more the fact that 3/4 of our touring is generally overseas a pair of Calors wouldnt be of much use once expired.

depending on the type of 'deal', some long stay continental sites charge for electric seperately and this can be quite expensive when compared to the usually cheap gas (pumped or bottled).

with solar taking care of ipad/phone charging, tv, water pump, heating fan etc, along with gas for kettle, water heating etc, leccy use can be kept to a minimum along with cheap as chips gas.

returning from western Portugal last time 'over' we had many one/two night impromtu stops along the Algarve and southern/eastern Spain where we had no need for electric but did for gas (hot water, cooking).

not for everyone but the 'combo' of one 11kg Gaslow and a 2nd slot for the large Repsol works for us for our winter tours.

if we found problems with LPG in France, and had a long Autumn stint planned there, id carry a French bottle in lieu of the Repsol.

similarly, if we get confined to UK for whatever reason, that slot could take a large Calor for flexibility here.

Just as an interlude in this discussion, if anyone wants to see how gas cylinders are manufactured have a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KGG3sIEkIY

David

Thanks for posting this David.  It makes one aware of how little 'human input' there is in production.  It would be interesting to see how Safefill bottles are produced 

David

safefill (or similar) are also very popular with caravanners using THS sites where along with their (often external folding) solar panels they enjoy lengthy stays with the convenience of popping out in the car for a top up.

as with my 'compromise' system above, long stayers may also carry an exchange Calor if LPG not close by.

I've now got 3 x 10kg Safefill bottles. One for the caravan, one for the BBQ and one for the Patio heater. I can swap them around a bit so when filling often I have two empty and one part-full.

There's a lot of noise about LPG becoming more difficult to procure but we have about 5 petrol stations within 20 mins drive all providing LPG and I haven't had a single refusal in the UK or mainland Europe.

Given in East Devon, I can fill a 10kg Safefill for about £12, and the garage nearby want £50 to SWAP a 13kg Patio gas, it's really not a difficult decision.

Personally, I'd like to see Calor investigated for price gouging...

They have used their market dominance to try and stifle competition. The name is so ubiquitous for LPG that consumers just buy a Calor cylinder without thinking about alternatives. Anyone just starting out would be crazy not to go for a refillable. Over their touring lifetime, it will save them a fortune.

"There's a lot of noise about LPG becoming more difficult to procure but we have about 5 petrol stations within 20 mins drive all providing LPG and I haven't had a single refusal in the UK or mainland Europe."

Hi, I looked at Safefill and decided against it due to the low number of fill points in my area-Cornwall.

I don't know where you are in Devon but a check this morning on mylpg.eu and filllpg.co.uk shows that in Cornwall there are, respectively, 5 pumps locations with LPG unavailable at 4 and 7 locations with LPG unavailable at 6.

I considered Safefill as friends have Gaslow systems but, for me, and I suspect an increasing number of others, there is no gain in convenience or costs unless using large volumes and have a fill point that does not involve additional travel.

For those that do it may well still be effective but, at £180 a cylinder and dwindling supplies its gone from a 'maybe' to a 'extremely unlikely'.

As well as the post from Allanandjean I would add a fresh warning for anyone coming down the A30 Cornwall and looking for LPG. The websites list Greenaways garage at Launceston as a possible source of supply - but just don’t even try to get to their pumps with a full sized motorhome, much less a car/caravan outfit, to drive through the town, to get on to their cramped forecourt, and then somehow to do a U turn to get back to the A30. Not possible.