And Now For Something Controversial

[Biggles]

A while back there was a big HooHa about refilling propane bottles.

 

I said I'd comment when I'd done it.

 

So I purchaed my adaptor on ebay I chose one with a nonreturn valve which means you dont need to remember to turn off the bottle vlave before removing the pump nozzel.

 

I pitch up at the petrol station and conected it all up, however the pump wouldn't start. Out came the cashier to show me how to do it. It turned out the pump nozzel was broken so HE moved me to another pump.

 

A few minutes later I had 22L (this is 80% of the capacity of the bottle) of propane in the bottle. Total £18.45

 

 

LPG is at about 6bar the bottle is designed and tested to 29bar

 

Discuss

Edited April 28, 2012 by Biggles

[PhilR]

What is the equivalent weight of 22 litres of LPG at 6 bar?

 

It would be interesting to know the conversion factors in order to work out how economical it is.

 

What size bottle did you refill?

 

It should be interesting to read replies before others (like myself) think about taking the plunge and buy an adaptor................

Edited April 28, 2012 by PhilR

[dccruiser]

Fair play to you , one of my cars runs on lpg and my local station is always filling propane bottles when i call in to juice up and at 70p a litre i am also going to purchase an adapter as it works out nearly £10 cheaper to fill rather than exchange a bottle...... in my case 22litres would be £15.40.

If you have a link for the one you bought i would appreciate it.

cheers

 

Rick

 

I will also add, i dont see why this should be controversial, i have been running lpg cars for years, filing the tanks through the same style of adapter to a holding tank, the only difference being a length of hose between the filling point and the tank and frankly i have felt safer running LPG than petrol

Edited April 28, 2012 by dccruiser

[ditchcrawler]

I was at our local Shell garage the other day and a chap was filling one of the refillable bottles, it was sat in the back of his estate and his misses was sat in the front which I didn't think was a great idea.

He had trouble filling it and a lady came out and told him how to do it, I expected her to say something about it being in the car while he did it. What she did say was that she came out a couple of days earlier because someone was trying to fill one in the back of a motor and because it was not a pucker refillable cylinder she refused to serve him.

[Biggles]

What is the equivalent weight of 22 litres of LPG at 6 bar?

 

It would be interesting to know the conversion factors in order to work out how economical it is.

 

What size bottle did you refill?

 

It should be interesting to read replies before others (like myself) think about taking the plunge and buy an adaptor................

 

It has nothing to do with the weight its the volume you need to work with. In fact a 11kg bottle will take more than 22L but its seems to be the rule of thumb to halve the weight to get the volume.

 

Fair play to you , one of my cars runs on lpg and my local station is always filling propane bottles when i call in to juice up and at 70p a litre i am also going to purchase an adapter as it works out nearly £10 cheaper to fill rather than exchange a bottle...... in my case 22litres would be £15.40.

If you have a link for the one you bought i would appreciate it.

cheers

 

Rick

 

I will also add, i dont see why this should be controversial, i have been running lpg cars for years, filing the tanks through the same style of adapter to a holding tank, the only difference being a length of hose between the filling point and the tank and frankly i have felt safer running LPG than petrol

 

Can't find the link now as I've had it a while, but will post ASAP.

 

I fitted and LPG tank to the MH I built and have filled it as required with no problem over 2 years.

 

Hell,, my air compressor at home is 200L at 10bar. That would make a bigger mess if it went west and I work by that all the time without a second thourght.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Biggles

[Chris Pink]

Given that calor want to steal £20 from me to fill a 6kg bottle I am tempted. This piss take has really annoyed me.

 

Though I must admit the faff to refill my domestic gas which is £35 for 3 months doesn't seem worth the effort.

[Guest]

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

[Arthur Brown]

Caravaners used to use bathroom scales to check the remaining weight of gas in a cylinder, you could easily weigh the empty cylinder and then add the marked weight of lpg on the scale.

 

Don't fill a damaged cylinder or one past it's test date.

 

Remember that you have propane in a fill from Calor but LPG from the petrol station, LPG is a mix of propane and butane which may not suit all the appliances you could want to use. Does LPG have the mercaptan smell?

[Rod a mod from Tod]

Given that calor want to steal £20 from me to fill a 6kg bottle I am tempted. This piss take has really annoyed me.

 

Though I must admit the faff to refill my domestic gas which is £35 for 3 months doesn't seem worth the effort.

 

£20 for 6kg That is extracting the urine!

 

Just exchanged a 13kg one for £25ish.

[Chris Pink]

Exactly

[by'eck]

In remote parts of the Caribbean small propane bottles were regularly filled from large ones. After obtaining suitable adapters the small empty bottle was cooled in a fridge. The large bottle was then placed above smaller one & connected to let the liquid fill the smaller by gravity.

 

Enterprising Americans falling into the equivalent category of continuous moorers over here would make a business providing this service.

[Chris Pink]

....and in Africa FLA batteries are routinely restored and reused.

 

although maybe that's a conversation for another time.

[Biggles]

I will only ever fill an empty bottle, I have an auto change over I should empty the bottles completely. I don't think I would mess with topping up a part filled bottle.

[ditchcrawler]

Caravaners used to use bathroom scales to check the remaining weight of gas in a cylinder, you could easily weigh the empty cylinder and then add the marked weight of lpg on the scale.

 

Don't fill a damaged cylinder or one past it's test date.

 

Remember that you have propane in a fill from Calor but LPG from the petrol station, LPG is a mix of propane and butane which may not suit all the appliances you could want to use. Does LPG have the mercaptan smell?

The weight of the empty cylinder and its test date should be stamped on the bottle.

[lesrollins]

A while back there was a big HooHa about refilling propane bottles.

 

I said I'd comment when I'd done it.

 

So I purchaed my adaptor on ebay I chose one with a nonreturn valve which means you dont need to remember to turn off the bottle vlave before removing the pump nozzel.

 

I pitch up at the petrol station and conected it all up, however the pump wouldn't start. Out came the cashier to show me how to do it. It turned out the pump nozzel was broken so HE moved me to another pump.

 

A few minutes later I had 22L (this is 80% of the capacity of the bottle) of propane in the bottle. Total £18.45

 

 

LPG is at about 6bar the bottle is designed and tested to 29bar

 

Discuss

 

Have you got a link for this item on ebay cheers

[chazzy]

Search 'LPG adaptor' on ebay

[Giggetty]

Search 'LPG adaptor' on ebay

There's a huge variety there- is it UK bayonet, and can you refill standard 13kg bottles?

[Chris Pink]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LPG-Propane-Gas-bottle-filling-adaptor-autogas-Standard-/261010734151

[chazzy]

You got there before me Chris I have just been reading through the listings and came up with the same item

[Biggles]

Mine is different to that on. Mine let's you have the bayonet pins where you want them. That one they end up where the thread bottoms out. Mine has a free spinning nut so you not screwing the sealing point into the joint.

[bluegreencanal]

And if LPG is a mix of propane and butane, am I right in thinking that propane has a better freezing point for our colder winters? Probably wouldn't really be an issue as I think propane freezes at -40

[alan_fincher]

And if LPG is a mix of propane and butane, am I right in thinking..............

LPG is Liquid Petroleum Gas, not specifically edither type or a mix.

 

Butane is LPG (Blue Calor Cylinders)

Propane is LPG (Red Calor Cylinders)

A Butane/Propane mix is still LPG (Some "Patio" gases, I think)

 

AFAIK what is sold on forecourts is Propane, but I'm happy to be corrected if it has any Butane content.

[the grinch]

And if LPG is a mix of propane and butane, am I right in thinking that propane has a better freezing point for our colder winters? Probably wouldn't really be an issue as I think propane freezes at -40

 

yes but butane will freeze at approx 5 degrees but for temps below 10 degrees propane is advised

 

LPG is Liquid Petroleum Gas, not specifically edither type or a mix.

 

 

 

almost, its Liquified rather than Liquid

depending on the application it may burn the liquid (fork lift trucks for one) or more commonly will burn the vapour

[larkshall]

A while back there was a big HooHa about refilling propane bottles.

 

I said I'd comment when I'd done it.

 

So I purchaed my adaptor on ebay I chose one with a nonreturn valve which means you dont need to remember to turn off the bottle vlave before removing the pump nozzel.

 

I pitch up at the petrol station and conected it all up, however the pump wouldn't start. Out came the cashier to show me how to do it. It turned out the pump nozzel was broken so HE moved me to another pump.

 

A few minutes later I had 22L (this is 80% of the capacity of the bottle) of propane in the bottle. Total £18.45

 

 

LPG is at about 6bar the bottle is designed and tested to 29bar

 

Discuss

 

 

Couple of the service stations here specifically bar you refilling gas bottles.

[PaddingtonBear]

I always get 100% for 20.78 so what is the big deal?