Filling gas bottles in spain

temptress

temptress

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We are in Bayona just now.

Last time we were here I was able to get my UK calor bottles refilled at the gas local depot. We have calor and camping gaz on board but the calor bottles are the much larger 7kg ones

This time around the depo seems to be shutdown.

Anyone know what the current process is in Spain now?
 
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Last time I was in Bayona (2007) they wouldn't fill my 15Kg UK gas bottles as they didn't meet EU safety recommendations, I also found this was the case in Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Greece. If your only there a short time get some Camping Gaz, or buy some Spanish/Portuguese bottles with the usual European push on fitting. Cheaper in the long run, and better than spending days running around looking for a fill.
 
You could buy one of these and fill them yourself at a petrol station selling autogas. There's a range of opinion on these adapters and associated hazards from over-filling - essentially the possibility of flammable liquid jetting from an appliance or cylinders exploding from expansion-induced hydraulic pressure. You need to decided if you trust yourself not to overfill.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Save-LPG-...Caravan_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27d788af59
 
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Very few filling stations would allow you to fill a free-standing bottle on a forecourt. It is technically illegal in most countries in Europe, although I dare say plenty get away with filling one inside a vehicle. Filling station attendants in Italy and Spain will refuse. I have refillable Autogas cylinders as fixtures in my motorhome, which they will usually fill but may take some persuading.
 
vyv_cox said:
Very few filling stations would allow you to fill a free-standing bottle on a forecourt. It is technically illegal in most countries in Europe, although I dare say plenty get away with filling one inside a vehicle. Filling station attendants in Italy and Spain will refuse. I have refillable Autogas cylinders as fixtures in my motorhome, which they will usually fill but may take some persuading.
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My experience differs. It's technically illegal for a non-Calor depot to refill Calor bottles - and yet it happens.
 
Reply to the query from Calor

There are two parts to this question. Our first priority with refilling cylinders at Autogas pumps is safety.
Although a person with an Autogas vehicle is not trained, the system within the car itself is much more advanced and the person is not directly in contact with the fuel storage compartment as the same way as if you were filling a petrol car and the pump itself is also designed so that customers can fill their own cars without trained assistance. When refilling a cylinder the person would be in direct contact with the cylinder and doesn't make it as safe. It is much safer for our cylinders to be returned to us so that our trained engineers can refill them and safety procedures can be followed.

Our cylinders are also not designed to be refilled in this way, so if you were to fill a Calor cylinder at an Autogas pump, you would have no way of knowing how much gas was going into the cylinder and when to stop.

Some LPG providers do have specially designed bottles so that you can refill a cylinder at an Autogas pump but unlike with a Calor cylinder, you purchase the cylinder and it belongs to you, so that you can refill it as and when. When you buy a Calor cylinder, the cylinder remains our property and therefore if our cylinders could be filled at pumps, they would not be returned to us after usage and we wouldn't be able to retain our property.

I hope this answers your question!

Jodie, Calor

Also see http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/lacs/52-20.htm

I realise that these are UK regulations but I know that the same apply in both Spain and Italy. No doubt people break the rules there as much as they do in UK.
 
vyv_cox said:
Reply to the query from Calor

There are two parts to this question. Our first priority with refilling cylinders at Autogas pumps is safety.
Although a person with an Autogas vehicle is not trained, the system within the car itself is much more advanced and the person is not directly in contact with the fuel storage compartment as the same way as if you were filling a petrol car and the pump itself is also designed so that customers can fill their own cars without trained assistance. When refilling a cylinder the person would be in direct contact with the cylinder and doesn't make it as safe. It is much safer for our cylinders to be returned to us so that our trained engineers can refill them and safety procedures can be followed.

Our cylinders are also not designed to be refilled in this way, so if you were to fill a Calor cylinder at an Autogas pump, you would have no way of knowing how much gas was going into the cylinder and when to stop.

Some LPG providers do have specially designed bottles so that you can refill a cylinder at an Autogas pump but unlike with a Calor cylinder, you purchase the cylinder and it belongs to you, so that you can refill it as and when. When you buy a Calor cylinder, the cylinder remains our property and therefore if our cylinders could be filled at pumps, they would not be returned to us after usage and we wouldn't be able to retain our property.

I hope this answers your question!

Jodie, Calor

Also see http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/lacs/52-20.htm

I realise that these are UK regulations but I know that the same apply in both Spain and Italy. No doubt people break the rules there as much as they do in UK.
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You'd almost think Calor had a vested interest in continuing to sell LPG at £2+ / litre rather than letting people pay 80p / L at a petrol station:) Not sure what Jodie means by "...fill a Calor cylinder at an Autogas pump, you would have no way of knowing how much gas was going into the cylinder and when to stop." All the pumps I've used have a dial showing how much has been dispensed.

BTW, Gasit, Gaslow et al have a system which prevents filling over 80% which is lacking in standard bottles. Some forecourts are still suspicious of them though. I know several people who carry their LPG installation certificate with them to show they can be refilled with Autogas.
The bottom line is, do you trust yourself to take your finger of the fill button when the dial reads 12. If no, then don't try DIY refills.
 
HiAndDri said:
You'd almost think Calor had a vested interest in continuing to sell LPG at £2+ / litre rather than letting people pay 80p / L at a petrol station:) Not sure what Jodie means by "...fill a Calor cylinder at an Autogas pump, you would have no way of knowing how much gas was going into the cylinder and when to stop." All the pumps I've used have a dial showing how much has been dispensed.

BTW, Gasit, Gaslow et al have a system which prevents filling over 80% which is lacking in standard bottles. Some forecourts are still suspicious of them though. I know several people who carry their LPG installation certificate with them to show they can be refilled with Autogas.
The bottom line is, do you trust yourself to take your finger of the fill button when the dial reads 12. If no, then don't try DIY refills.
Click to expand...

Considering Calor is a partner in Autogas I suspect any sale is a good sale. On the other hand one suspects most forecourt owners are not that keen on the idea of a big gas fire on their forecourt and are quite aware of the numpty factor with the great British public. They are equally aware that not all their staff are as smart as they might wish so simple easy to follow rules seem the safest for them.
 
Only place we managed to get Calor Propane filled last year was Madeira. I heard that you can get Calor filled in Parc Nacoes marina in Lisbon.

No probs here in the Caribbean
 
maxi77 said:
http://www.gasit.co.uk/index.php?_a=product&product_id=263

I have just fitted one of these to my motorhome. Not perhaps the answer for a boat especially as the the smallest is still 6kg but shows it can be done legally
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I have Gaslow bottles in my motorhome. Have only had a small problem with refilling them once, in Italy, when the girl on the pump thought I was trying to get her to fill a free-standing bottle. Once she realised they were installed she went ahead.
 
rickym said:
Only place we managed to get Calor Propane filled last year was Madeira. I heard that you can get Calor filled in Parc Nacoes marina in Lisbon.

No probs here in the Caribbean
Click to expand...


There is also a place in Boliqueme on the Algarve but it is a fair way from even the closest marina in Vilamoura
 
in one of the 'sailing with senta' books they describe how you hang the 'foreign' bottle upside down and connect it to your bottle then open the valves, as the gas is liquid it flows into your bottle
 
My bottle is designed to be filled at a garage. It can't be overfilled as it has a pressure cut off valve built in. It is no less safe than an LPG car.
Getting normal major petrol stations to let you fill them is never going to happen. I go to the local garage that sold me the bottle. It last all season on my boat as it holds 20 litres of gas.
 
geem said:
My bottle is designed to be filled at a garage. It can't be overfilled as it has a pressure cut off valve built in. It is no less safe than an LPG car.
Getting normal major petrol stations to let you fill them is never going to happen. I go to the local garage that sold me the bottle. It last all season on my boat as it holds 20 litres of gas.
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Most garages have this rule partly because they do not trust their staff to tell the difference between a bottle designed for such filling and a normal bottle and because they neither trust all their customers either. When the downside from their point of view is a filling station on fire you can almost understand
 
We had a similar problem in the US

Nice man at Calor in Southhampton had provided us with an adapter to enable us to fill our cylinders in foreign parts. But US filling stations would not play, so we had to buy new cylinders. having done so, fills were from metered pumps at a fraction of the cost charged in Europe (especially for Camping Gaz exchanges).

Remote places on Caribean and Pacific Islands did not worry too much about such niceties, but Oz did, so we had to buy yet more cylinders (although, to be fair, our US ones were by that time suffering from corrosion).
 
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