Gas cylinders for cruising?

[Tim Good]

I currently have a calor 4.5kg and a CampingGaz 907 in my gas locker. We plan to go to Norway next year and then by November work our way down to the Canaries to cross the pond.

What is the general rule of thumb for gas en route for cruisers constantly moving between different countries?

I heard someone say that a 4.5kg calor could actually be refilled if you look hard enough in a reasonably sized town or city? Is that the case or is it likely the Calor will be unless once we leave British waters?

 

[GrahamM376]

Some people do refill but we use 907s, much cheaper to exchange in Portugal & Spain than in the UK.

 

[TQA]

At the cruising boat stops like the Canaries and Antigua or St Lucia you will get Calor bottles refilled.

But if you plan to visit the USA you will find it difficult and I would advise a change to the US style quick connect bottles.

 

[Heckler]

p

I currently have a calor 4.5kg and a CampingGaz 907 in my gas locker. We plan to go to Norway next year and then by November work our way down to the Canaries to cross the pond.

What is the general rule of thumb for gas en route for cruisers constantly moving between different countries?

I heard someone say that a 4.5kg calor could actually be refilled if you look hard enough in a reasonably sized town or city? Is that the case or is it likely the Calor will be unless once we leave British waters?

I was in the same position going to Portugal last year.. Had two Calor and one Camping Gaz full on board. We have found a garage in between Albufeira and Faro that has all the fittings and will fill the Calor.. The Camping Gaz, loads of places will swop them in the Algarve.
S

 

[BobnLesley]

We have an additional difficulty insofar as nothing bigger than 903's fits comfortably within our gas locker, but what we found:
No info on Scandanavia
Throughout Europe and on to the Canaries, the easiest, though rarely cheapest option is just to exchange CG903s, especially so if like us you'll be constantly moving on; there and invariably cheaper 'national' options, but whilst in theory you can return a 'local' bottle and reclaim the original deposit, it never happens that way. Throughout most of the Caribbean you can get the 903s filled in any yachting centre - some islands cheaper than others - the only exception being the French islands where they exchange (at a premium price) bottles, as in Europe. In the USA, Bahamas and Cuba, it was all US bottle connections - which I suspect may be a match to Calor? Strongly enough to be taking a Calor regulator back with me in February to check - getting them filled is reasonably easy (though at widely varying prices) in al three countries and we did (at a premium) get 903s filled in Cuba too, though I had to provide the GC bottle hose tail in most places; not a problem as we do have a rarely used set of hoses/connections for decanting gas bottles.

 

[vyv_cox]

p
I was in the same position going to Portugal last year.. Had two Calor and one Camping Gaz full on board. We have found a garage in between Albufeira and Faro that has all the fittings and will fill the Calor.. The Camping Gaz, loads of places will swop them in the Algarve.
S

In Portugal in a motorhome we found one garage 10 miles or so inland from Albufeira that would refill our bottles. The kit used was distinctly home made, quite dodgy looking brazed fittings and all done on the forecourt. Not confidence-inspiring.

 

[GHA]

I went for a couple of homebase GRP propane bottles & a "connect to anything" kit.

 

[Mistroma]

Common problem. We decided to go with Camping Gaz R907 and leave our Calor cylinders at home to save some space. It has worked out quite well as we don't use much and can get it pretty much anywhere in Europe. Only place we had a problem was Villa Real at mouth of the Guadiana and couldn't get a cylinder anywhere. Turned out the police had visited everyone selling these and told them to stop. I imagine they'd been filling them from local cylinders rather buying from an official dealer. Local gas shop was only place with equivalent bright orange cylinders (a few empty blue ones waiting to be painted). I think they'd probably decided to stop trade in 907s in hope people would buy their orange ones. I expect the situation will be back to normal by now.

We didn't have 2 R907s and RRP was about £55 per cylinder. You sometimes see people selling empties for £5-£10 and even new ones for £15 but none available locally when we needed to switch. Fortunately, I spotted several at local recycling centre when dropping off old oil. I asked a guy working next to the metal cage holding all the empties. He confirmed that they didn't sell them and thought they'd just be crushed. Shame to waste them but that was council policy and he couldn't give me any. Then he apologised, said he had to work at other end of the site for a while and would have a tea break after that. Made certain the cage wasn't locked and then walked off around the corner. I put 2 in the boot and left.

Don't lose the carrying handles. You can get new ones at a silly price of around £5.

Camping gas is poor value vs. local cylinders and tends to cost 15 - 24 euro (latter in Balearics where you expect that sort of thing).

Suggest you buy a cheap electric kettle and twin hob for use in marina over the winter. They will pay for themselves very quickly.

 

[chrisb]

I sailed from UK with camping gaz cylinders plus a 6kg propane. Always got one or the other filled until New Zealand where local rules meant expensive testing or local replacement .
It is not always possible to obtain butane . You can fill a propane cylinder with butane but not vice versa .
camping gaz cylinders tend to rust at sea .
I found an international adapter kit useful . This did not have a filling adapter for the camping gaz which prevented filling in some places ie St Kits Samoa and the local adapter failed in Nieafu,Tonga so you can't fill there
Composite cylinders can be difficult to fill and I have seen them in the 'skips at various ports around the globe for this reason

 

[tcm]

I currently have a calor 4.5kg and a CampingGaz 907 in my gas locker. We plan to go to Norway next year and then by November work our way down to the Canaries to cross the pond.

What is the general rule of thumb for gas en route for cruisers constantly moving between different countries?

I heard someone say that a 4.5kg calor could actually be refilled if you look hard enough in a reasonably sized town or city? Is that the case or is it likely the Calor will be unless once we leave British waters?

Part and parcel of cruising I think - you won't be the first to find ingenious solutions. Converters and pipe adapters etc, and rule-bending of refilling regs. One of my favourite was a gas supplier guy who tipped the stuff from one tank to another on the pontoon, yeehah! A cruising pal found there was a date limit for tanks, so he got out some letter/number punches and re-lifed his tank. Don't worry - you'll sort it.

 

[Ashman]

We have two red 4.5kg Calor cylinders that we've managed to get refilled in the Canaries, Cape Verde, Brazil, Trinidad, Granada, Bahamas and many times in the USA. We have an adaptor kit but never needed to use it to refill the bottles.
The USA valve connection is slightly different from the UK but none of Propane suppliers we have dealt with have a problem connecting to our bottles. One tip for the USA is write the imperial filling weights on the side of the bottles as the filling stations don't understand metric values.
We now also have a grp bottle with a USA valve, we can store in on deck without going rusty and it is great for running the Barbeque although I think it is sensible to make a canvas cover for the grp bottles to reduce possible UV damage.

 

[jdc]

We found that the best thing to do in Norway where we were in 2012 was to buy a grp cylinder of the type marketed in the UK by BP and now sold in Homebase (as mentioned by GHA above). Available in 5kg and 10kg sizes, of which the 5kg fits in our gas locker which was nominally made for 4.5kg Calor cylinders but I observe that the 10kg bottles are more commonly stocked and a better deal on gas price per kg.

The ones you get in Norway have a slightly greater diameter in the spigot to which you attach the regulator than do the cylinders available in the UK, so you need to get the right 'jumbo' adapter: try Will Hayward (http://www.whayward.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=539). Probably best to get this in the UK before you go.

One great albeit unexpected advantage is that these exact cylinders and so the same adaptor are standard in Portugal and Madeira so you once there you can simply swap the now empty Norwegian one for a filled one (they're still sold in BP garages in Portugal). A slightly different but entirely interchangeable bottle can be got in Repsol garages which seem a bit more common in Spain and Portugal than do BP. Not sure about the Canaries - currently in Madeira but plan to depart for Canaries this coming Saturday so I'll let you know in a week or so!

 

[jdc]

We have two red 4.5kg Calor cylinders that we've managed to get refilled in the Canaries, Cape Verde, Brazil, Trinidad, Granada, Bahamas and many times in the USA. We have an adaptor kit but never needed to use it to refill the bottles.
The USA valve connection is slightly different from the UK but none of Propane suppliers we have dealt with have a problem connecting to our bottles. One tip for the USA is write the imperial filling weights on the side of the bottles as the filling stations don't understand metric values.
We now also have a grp bottle with a USA valve, we can store in on deck without going rusty and it is great for running the Barbeque although I think it is sensible to make a canvas cover for the grp bottles to reduce possible UV damage.

A mite nit-picking but are your Calor cylinders not 3.9kg since red? The same size metal cylinder takes 4.5kg of Butane (and is painted blue) or 3.9kg or Propane (and is painted red).

http://www.calor.co.uk/3-9kg-propane-gas-bottle.html
http://www.calor.co.uk/4-5kg-butane-gas-bottle.html

 

[Ashman]

A mite nit-picking but are your Calor cylinders not 3.9kg since red? The same size metal cylinder takes 4.5kg of Butane (and is painted blue) or 3.9kg or Propane (and is painted red).

http://www.calor.co.uk/3-9kg-propane-gas-bottle.html
http://www.calor.co.uk/4-5kg-butane-gas-bottle.html

Yes you are right they are propane and so 3.9 kg......we went for the propane because we've also been able to use them for butane.

 

[LadyInBed]

Suggest you buy a cheap electric kettle and twin hob for use in marina over the winter. They will pay for themselves very quickly.

and a Halogen Grill / Oven

 

[saab96]

Dump the camping gaz – too expensive. Carry more than one calor bottle. I have filled at a gas depot in Denmark, in the Canaries, in Senegal and in Trinidad. I find the local gas depot and they have all the fittings for all the bottles. In Trinidad the cruisers organise a weekly gas run and you see bottles from everywhere in the world going off to be filled, including US bottles.

 

[Tim Good]

Dump the camping gaz – too expensive. Carry more than one calor bottle. I have filled at a gas depot in Denmark, in the Canaries, in Senegal and in Trinidad. I find the local gas depot and they have all the fittings for all the bottles. In Trinidad the cruisers organise a weekly gas run and you see bottles from everywhere in the world going off to be filled, including US bottles.

:encouragement:

 

[vyv_cox]

Dump the camping gaz – too expensive. Carry more than one calor bottle. I have filled at a gas depot in Denmark, in the Canaries, in Senegal and in Trinidad. I find the local gas depot and they have all the fittings for all the bottles. In Trinidad the cruisers organise a weekly gas run and you see bottles from everywhere in the world going off to be filled, including US bottles.

The difference, at least throughout Europe, is that camping gas-type bottles can be exchanged within a short walk of just about every port I have ever been in. Whereas having 'unusual' bottles refilled is going to cost at least a taxi ride, perhaps after extensive research as to where it is done. Although camping gas is expensive in UK and France, it is quite cheap in other places, e.g. Spain, Italy and Greece.

 

[[3889]]

I refill 6kg calor propane in France, UK and Spain using garage Autogas plus adapters from Ebay. Have only been challenged once in 10 years (in France) and blagged it as a refillable bottle. 8 euros Vs 22 pounds plus Europe wide refillability.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LPG-GAS-A...814524?hash=item25b08ce87c:g:xOsAAOSwpDdVWldk

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LPG-Autog...732551?hash=item2ed8704747:g:DWEAAOSwEppURpj-

 

[vyv_cox]

I refill 6kg calor propane in France, UK and Spain using garage Autogas plus adapters from Ebay. Have only been challenged once in 10 years (in France) and blagged it as a refillable bottle. 8 euros Vs 22 pounds plus Europe wide refillability.

It is illegal to refill bottles on forecourts throughout Europe, even if they are of a type designed to be refilled. Officially the bottles should be installed in the vehicle, not just standing in the boot. You may well get away with doing it but you may not. They seem particularly keen on this in Italy, where I had to persuade a forecourt attendant to fill my Gaslow ones that are installed with the filler mounted inside the gas locker.

However, these are in filling stations that may be a very long way from ports and marinas. Until quite recently there were only five Autogas stations in the whole of Greece, all in the Athens area. There are now a few more but none that I know of near the sea.