Calor. Gas.

[Lucy52]

Last year, a man on the gate at the local Calor Center said that they had furloughed their staff during lockdown, which is why they were closed.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

I don't know if it helps but I saw lots of Gas bottles at a B&M Store that had a garden centre today. They are only Flo Gas brand . I don't know if they are interchangeable with Calor.

I bought a 4 pack of butane gas cartridges for £5 which is the cheapest I have seen in recent years.

 

[snowbird30ds]

Morisons at Camborne had a 4.5kg butane Sunday.

 

[CliveG]

I had a big ring round to try to get a 4.5Kg refill and no one had any and did not have any idea when they may have some.
I am giving up on Calor and am investing in 2 Gaslow refillable 2.7kg cylinders.
Today I checked with Morrisons at Ipswich that they will allow these to be filled at their pump and they confirmed that they do.
By the way I may have a nearly full 4.5Kg Calor cylinder that I may be persuaded to part with.

 

[Bran]

I had a big ring round to try to get a 4.5Kg refill and no one had any and did not have any idea when they may have some.
I am giving up on Calor and am investing in 2 Gaslow refillable 2.7kg cylinders.
Today I checked with Morrisons at Ipswich that they will allow these to be filled at their pump and they confirmed that they do.
By the way I may have a nearly full 4.5Kg Calor cylinder that I may be persuaded to part with.

I may well go down that route but there is this advise that recommends not filing portable cylinders at a filling station unless fitted to a vehicle. I am happy to fill a portable cylinder but suspect the garage owner may not always be, depends who is onsite at the garage when you are filling the cylinder. So we have the quandary of spending a few hundred pounds on a cylinder that may be difficult to fill. :

 

[Bru]

Morrisons have a deal with Gaslow and permit refilling of Gaslow refillable cylinders (and only Gaslow refillable) on their forecourts

To the best of my knowledge, they are the only major forecourt chain that does, independents may or may not

Not all Morrisons forecourts have LPG and those that do may not have it in the future. It is horrendously expensive to install and maintain forecourt LPG systems and the demand for LPG has been declining for years - BP, for example, have been removing LPG from their forecourts when the installation comes due for a major overhaul for well over a decade now

I'm actually surprised Morrisons agreed to refill Gaslow cylinders. How does the staff member at the till know whether a cylinder is refillable or not before authorising the pump? Presumably they have this covered in their procedures but at the BP where I worked it would have been a nightmare (we had enough issues over containers as it was)

Update: looking on the Gaslow website, Morrisons no longer appear on their map of where to refill their cylinders. They used to specifically headline that they could be refilled at Morrisons, now they don't and indeed they imply that Morrisons are now aligned with the other chain forecourt operators

A further problem with Gaslow is that they don't do an equivalent of the 4.5kg cylinder. They do a 2.7kg and then a 6kg

And at £169.90 for a 2.7kg cylinder that's a heck of an investment for something that may realistically be a growing struggle to get refilled especially part way through the season when out and about

For me, refillable cylinders are a none starter.

I just hope Calor finally get on top of the 3.9kg propane (which is what we use) / 4.5kg butane cylinder problem as the alternatives do not fill me with joy!

 

[Bran]

Morrisons have a deal with Gaslow and permit refilling of Gaslow refillable cylinders (and only Gaslow refillable) on their forecourts

To the best of my knowledge, they are the only major forecourt chain that does, independents may or may not

Not all Morrisons forecourts have LPG and those that do may not have it in the future. It is horrendously expensive to install and maintain forecourt LPG systems and the demand for LPG has been declining for years - BP, for example, have been removing LPG from their forecourts when the installation comes due for a major overhaul for well over a decade now

I'm actually surprised Morrisons agreed to refill Gaslow cylinders. How does the staff member at the till know whether a cylinder is refillable or not before authorising the pump? Presumably they have this covered in their procedures but at the BP where I worked it would have been a nightmare (we had enough issues over containers as it was)

Update: looking on the Gaslow website, Morrisons no longer appear on their map of where to refill their cylinders. They used to specifically headline that they could be refilled at Morrisons, now they don't and indeed they imply that Morrisons are now aligned with the other chain forecourt operators

A further problem with Gaslow is that they don't do an equivalent of the 4.5kg cylinder. They do a 2.7kg and then a 6kg

And at £169.90 for a 2.7kg cylinder that's a heck of an investment for something that may realistically be a growing struggle to get refilled especially part way through the season when out and about

For me, refillable cylinders are a none starter.

I just hope Calor finally get on top of the 3.9kg propane (which is what we use) / 4.5kg butane cylinder problem as the alternatives do not fill me with joy!

A spot on reply!
Thinking about it I will either fill my own normal bottles or go to Flo gas.

 

[mattonthesea]

I suppose that the regs re refilling are onerous. Otherwise I would suggest that an entrepreneurial spirit starts a business sideline. Practically all it takes is a supply of gas, a tube and adaptor and scales. For propane I've found places in Europe and Carribbean fairly easily; why not in Blighty?

 

[Lucy52]

I expect to receive a 5Kg Safefill cylinder shortly. They are refillable at Morrisons. You have to show the cylinder to the operative to get the pump switched on.
As it is a refillable cylinder, then other LPG providers may be willing to refill it for you. I know one that will. LPG is about 1.96 litres per kg, dependent on temperature, and cost around £1.00 a litre, so that it will cost around £10.00 to refill a 5Kg cylinder.

Edited to correct price error.

 

[Aquaboy]

No to refilling gas containers is just one of those quirky no no's that.s a GB thing. Same as undertaking or filtering right (left in our case) on a red traffic light. ' J ' walking in Germany etc.
I imagine it came about because the industry when asked what they were going to do after some accidents said "Oh we'll take care of it and only let our selves fill cylinders. That way we can inspect them each time and make sure they're safe. And by the way we wont fill a competitors brand either........that funny looking cylinder may not be to our specs..

 

[Daverw]

As a refrigeration engineer we are transferring gas from bottles to bottles and between bottles and systems all the time, nothing hard or complicate, some gasses more challenging than others due to ambient temps and pressures, propane by the why is used as a refrigerate. You just need good hoses and connections, good scales and don’t do it inside. you put a quite volatile fluid in you car all the time with no worry, look what’s happens when petrol goes up. It’s about familiarity with proccess.
do agree though about checking cylinders fir corrosion etc though

 

[oldgit]

All I ever wanted to do was to go into a hardware shop/camping emporium/ boating outlet/chandler /bottled gas supplier/caravan shop/marina/ camping store, plumbers/ garage/ main Calor dealer etc with a empty gas cylinder and come out with full one .........over the past couple of years
Whats so difficult about that in 21 st Century ?

 

[Concerto]

I keep hearing that retailers are not letting their empties be collected unless they have the same number of full bottles delivered. The whole Calor bottle scheme is just so wrong on so many levels, especially for the customer.

You buy a bottle, but can only get your money back within 2 years. Why? You have paid for the bottle, but after 2 years, if you no longer want it, Calor do not want it, so they get scrapped.

When we had the Covid lockdown, people realised that foreign holidays, so demand for caravans, motorhomes, static caravans and boats went through the roof. There were just sufficient bottles in the current stock for all this new demand. This left none for refilling, besides many Calor depots almost fully closing during lockdown. But the bottles are made in China and Covid caused problems there in manufacturing, not to mention the shipping problems or the Suez blockage. So, only a very limited number of new bottles have reached Calor stock, that does not satisfy the demand for bottles.

This year we have faced massive increases in energy prices including potroleum based gas. Then at the end of February this gets more complicated by the action of Russia invading Ukrane.

All of this could have been so different if Calor had a different business model for gas bottles. Just so glad I do not have Calor onboard. Not that I am that happy with Camping Gas with such small bottles.

 

[harvey38]

Safefill every time.

I've had a 7.5KG for years and waiting for a 5kg to become available for use on the boat for the barbeque.

Okay £200 initial outlay is steep but they are easy to fill, very light even when full, don't cause damage if you bump them against something and they have a non-return valve fitted so won't leak if the tap isn't fully closed without a regulator fitted.

 

[CliveG]

I had a big ring round to try to get a 4.5Kg refill and no one had any and did not have any idea when they may have some.
I am giving up on Calor and am investing in 2 Gaslow refillable 2.7kg cylinders.
Today I checked with Morrisons at Ipswich that they will allow these to be filled at their pump and they confirmed that they do.
By the way I may have a nearly full 4.5Kg Calor cylinder that I may be persuaded to part with.

I may well go down that route but there is this advise that recommends not filing portable cylinders at a filling station unless fitted to a vehicle. I am happy to fill a portable cylinder but suspect the garage owner may not always be, depends who is onsite at the garage when you are filling the cylinder. So we have the quandary of spending a few hundred pounds on a cylinder that may be difficult to fill. :

I successfully filled both my new Gaslow Cylinders at Morrisons, Cambourn, Cambridge this morning.
I just held up one of the cylinders for the casher to see and he gave a thumbs up and switched on the LPG pump.
£8.15 to fill both cylinders!

 

[Daverw]

Just done my first transfer to 4.5kg bottle, connected hoses, sat 15kg upside down on chair, small one on floor, opened up and 20 minutes later scales showed 4.3kg transfer. Little bit of release when removing hose. Job easy and now covered cost of hoses and 50% of new gas, next one break even and next one free.

 

[harvey38]

Just done my first transfer to 4.5kg bottle, connected hoses, sat 15kg upside down on chair, small one on floor, opened up and 20 minutes later scales showed 4.3kg transfer. Little bit of release when removing hose. Job easy and now covered cost of hoses and 50% of new gas, next one break even and next one free.

How much are you paying for the 15kg cylinder vs a 4.5kg cylinder?

 

[Daverw]

If I could have got a 4.5kg they quoted me £32, the 15kg was £51.
the problem I was really avoiding was having to hunt a long way to get the 4.5 kg which is the only one I can fit and also having to either swap a partial full one before trips or run out whilst away, this way I can fully fill if needed before I go as well as saving money.
SWMBO does not take well to running out or being told to be careful with usage, it can have a slightly negative effect on trips

 

[harvey38]

If I could have got a 4.5kg they quoted me £32, the 15kg was £51.
the problem I was really avoiding was having to hunt a long way to get the 4.5 kg which is the only one I can fit and also having to either swap a partial full one before trips or run out whilst away, this way I can fully fill if needed before I go as well as saving money.
SWMBO does not take well to running out or being told to be careful with usage, it can have a slightly negative effect on trips

Wow, 4 x 15kg bottles and you have a safefill cylinder, assuming that would fit, infinitely cheaper to refill.

 

[Daverw]

Unfortunately we cannot use larger than 4.5kg already made it deeper as it was designed for camping gaz which must have gold dust in for the cost and also LPG is getting scarce at garages here, camper vans are having to travel guide a way to get filled I’m being told.