Gas bottle testing....?

Swap them at a Gas Centre for new ones. They are checked carefully everytime when refilled.


Is there a special reason to keep your 'own' bottles ? They don't in fact belong to you: they re on loan.
 
+1.

Perhaps you mean having the gas system tested? Your first check should be the condition of any flexible hoses. Rubber ones perish over time and armoured ones also have a rubber content. They should be changed after 5 years and show a date stamp of manufacture on them to help you check. Your second check would be for any leaks. This can be done using soapy water at every fitting. A change of regular is a cheap service item when changing flexible hoses. Additional remote solenoid valves may be worth fitting. The final things to check are the appliances, like the cooker. This will be the biggest expense, but worthwhile if it is not functioning like a new one.
 
Thanks for your responses, perhaps a bit of background would be in order........ They ARE my own bottles and they are glassfibre, possibly epoxy/glass. When we were cruising we found that when the boat heeled to Port a small amount of water could enter the gas locker via the breather pipe and this caused the old gas bottles to rust round the bottom. In Australia we found these plastic bottles which have been entirely satisfactory and of course solved the rusting problem. The boat has been laid up since we got back in 2013 but now I am re-commisioning her and the gas bottles are well out of test....... If the worst comes to the worst I will just have to go back to steel bottles and change them regularly but I would like to continue using the plastic ones........ particularly because they are transparent and you can SEE how much gas remains!

Paul
 
Personally I have not come across plastic gas bottles, but I doubt if your insurer, or any surveyor, would be impressed with your reasoning for having them - even if pressure tested. My advice would be to ditch them and use the metal gas bottles, and then find a way to stop water entering the breather pipe or accept some rust marks in the locker.
 
Concerto said:
Personally I have not come across plastic gas bottles, but I doubt if your insurer, or any surveyor, would be impressed with your reasoning for having them - even if pressure tested. My advice would be to ditch them and use the metal gas bottles, and then find a way to stop water entering the breather pipe or accept some rust marks in the locker.
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No reason for any insurer to oppose the use of properly engineered plastic gas bottles, such as Safefill, except the scarcity of (properly engineered) refilling stations in the UK. Outside the UK, this is a decades old technology, proven to be as safe as steel bottles. It always slightly surprises me how slow we Brits are to learn from others, we seem to carry on doing everything in the same old ways regardless of the success of new ways in other parts of the world, leading to the "not invented here" syndrome. Worse still. it goes beyond that so that new ideas which were invented in the UK are more likely to be developed and commercialised in another country than here in the UK, and that's a proven fact.

Sorry, rant over.

Peter.
 
As far as I can see, my bottles are very similar to the "Safefill" bottles mentioned by Sandy, mine just have a different plastic outer casing. 'Trouble is that Stoke-on-Trent is a long way from Ipswich! Australia (where I bought them) has extremely high safety regulations and I would be surprised if they are any less safe than steel ones. There has been no problem refilling them in various places as they have a standard fitting on the top. However they are now about eight years old and I would like to get them re-tested before recommissioning the boat. 'Not sure why the picture came out on it's side but anyway, you can see what it looks like........ Does anybody know anywhere a bit closer to Ipswich where I could get them tested?
 

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Take a look at this on the Safefill website:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewe...w&ll=52.28173492730674,0.6995909023437434&z=8

Your nearest refiller is Sudbury and the nearest supplier Norwich. On refillers the site does include a caution that some LPG car filling stations (which covers the vast majority of refillers) may refuse to allow you to refill "until they get the Safefill message", so be prepared to be turned away. For testing, any decent engineering test house will do you a pressure test, but I suspect their fee would be considerably higher than new bottles from Safefill. Alternatively, all companies spplying LPG bottles must have test facilities (e.g. Calor, Safefill) so you could try them, but I suspect they would prefer yu to buy their product.

Sorry not to be more helpful.

Peter
 
Many thanks for your responses, I will call Safefill and Diveline and see if they can do it. One problem may be that one bottle is still about half full.......

Paul
 
On a Pacific crossing, we used Aluminium bottles that lay on their side and we had bought in the Caribbean. they worked quite well and we had no problems having them refilled in either Tahiti or Australia.

On my own boat I use the standard Calor 4.5Kg bottles that I have two set up for use in the lazarette, which in the ocean has quite a bit of sea water swirling through it as waves come over the stern or the stern quarters. I carry up to 5 bottles so that I don't have to stop and have them filled and scatter the 3 spare bottles around various cockpit lockers. I take them to my favoured gas bottle exchanger in the Chiltern Hills and they swap the old rusty ones over without a comment and give me nice blue painted ones in return.. On one occasion they were out of bottles and I had to change two at a nearby local store and the owner did say at first he couldn't take mine as they were two rusty - but when I mentioned that another supplier quite happily changed them over for me, he swapped mine.

What I'm really trying to say is I agree with the poster who suggested that you change to local Calor bottles. Britain isn't really set up for refilling as they are in other countries and mainly relies on bottle exchange.
 
If you do change to 4.5kg Calor, you have to 'buy' the cylinder AND pay for the gas so a new bottle is £61.99 including cost of gas - if just exchanging an empty cylinder for a full one it is £17.00. Your cylinder looks similar to a 7kg Calor and the cost is £67.99 and £23. These are Butane but they do Propane for a similar cost. Look on ebay for empty bottles which are much cheaper!
Calor also did a Calor-Lite bottle but has been discontinued due to a possible safety issue.
 
It's entirely possible I'm wrong (as the blessed Mrs T points out to me on a regular basis ;) ) but if the OP's reason for composite bottles was that of rust, is it not the case that Calor bottles are alloy? Certainly Camping Gaz bottles do indeed rust like an Austin Montego but I don't recall seeing a rusty Calor bottle.
 
tugger said:
It's entirely possible I'm wrong (as the blessed Mrs T points out to me on a regular basis ;) ) but if the OP's reason for composite bottles was that of rust, is it not the case that Calor bottles are alloy? Certainly Camping Gaz bottles do indeed rust like an Austin Montego but I don't recall seeing a rusty Calor bottle.
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I think in this case Mrs T is entirely correct.;):encouragement:
 
tugger said:
It's entirely possible I'm wrong (as the blessed Mrs T points out to me on a regular basis ;) ) but if the OP's reason for composite bottles was that of rust, is it not the case that Calor bottles are alloy? Certainly Camping Gaz bottles do indeed rust like an Austin Montego but I don't recall seeing a rusty Calor bottle.
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Camping Gaz bottles are made from recycled Renaults.
 
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