BP-Gas-Light LPG bottles

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

There are regular magazine/forum enquiries about use of gas bottles abroad (eg. Pete's posting of 26/02/2006), so I wonder if anyone visiting the NEC show noticed BP's "Gas Light" exchange-only bottles being showcased. (I believe there was also a presentation on the NCC stand at 0900 on Wednesday 22 Feb.) BP Gas Light containers are 'plastic' composite-construction and much lighter than traditional exchangeable steel bottles. They are to be marketed in two capacities - 5kg or 10kg (propane) - and, at least for the UK, use a 27mm 'clip-on' connector that presumably matches that of Calor's "Patio Gas" and "Barbecue Gas" cylinders, the French "Le Cube" and certain Portuguese bottles. Dimensions are H393mm x D305mm for 5kg, or H587mm x D305mm for 10kg, and. filled weights are respectively 9.5kg or 16.7kg. (Note that a standard diameter of 305mm may make it impractical to use a BP Gas Light bottle if your motorhome's gas-locker has been 'sized' to the 256mm diameter of a 6kg Calor canister.) The gas vessel itself is translucent and this is claimed to allow the gas level to be viewed "at a glance". (A half-truth if my experience with a composite refillable bottle is anything to go by. For leisure vehicle applications, having transparent liquid gas in a translucent woven-GRP container will make it near impossible to detect the gas level unless a strong light is shone through the bottle's side or the bottle is removed from the vehicle's gas-locker. This limitation will be more important for a refillable bottle than for an exchange-only one, but it's still worth highlighting.) The initial 'hire fee' and subsequent exchange 'refill' charges will roughly match Calor's, but the significant difference is that (APPARENTLY) the BP bottles will be exchangeable outside the UK. These bottles have been marketed for some time in certain European countries and the BP website seems to indicate a cross-borders exchange capability (see www.bpgaslight.com/EN/ContactUs.shtml). The BP guy I spoke to (having a lonely time near the Truma stand) told me BP Gas Light bottles were introduced in France last year, but I can find no evidence to support this and I've never seen them advertised during my late-2005French travels. Does anyone have more details about BP Gas Light bottles, please? If BP are serious about Europe-wide distribution and exchangeability for these lightweight containers, then the motorcaravanner's Holy Grail of a pan-European exchangeable gas bottle may finally have been found.

[Guest Gillian]

Going into www.bpgaslight.com throws up the omission of France, Spain and Portugal from the area they currently cover. This being the area which the greatest number of British motorhomers visit and in particular for the winter I would be interested to know if you have any further information for southern Europe.

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

Nope, all I know is what the BPGaslight rep told me at the NEC, what's in the leaflet he gave me, and what's on the BPGaslight website and on other websites mentioning the product. The BP website map shows current BPGaslight coverage, to which the UK will soon be added. The rep informed me the bottles were also available in France but I've seen no sign of them and another forum member (Bill Ord) who has just returned from there tells me he hasn't either. So the rep's information was probably wrong. One thing's for sure, if BP is, or will be, marketing this product in France, the initial hire-fee is going to be a whole lot less than the 35 Euros equivalent being demanded in the UK. I raised with the rep the question of the bottles' gas-valve type, saying that international exchangeability must surely depend on the bottles being identical. If the 27mm valve used on a BPGaslight bottle obtained in the UK differed from the valve used on, say, a 'German' BPGaslight container, then one could hardly expect a BPGaslight outlet in Germany to accept a UK bottle in exchange (or vice versa). The rep told me that this was being discussed (though I think he'd lost heart by then and wished I'd just beggar off!) In fact, if you look at www.bpgaslight.com/EN/SafetyStatement.shtml, the requirement for adapters to connect, say, a German-norm gas-system to a Swedish or Norwegian BPGaslight bottle seems to indicate there are already 'national' bottle gas-valve differences. It needs saying that the leaflet I obtained at the NEC makes no mention of international bottle exchangeability. The BPGaslight container is being promoted in the UK for its lightness, visible content level, safe construction and ease of connection. It's being aimed at the caravan market where 'noseweight' really matters, rather than at motorhomes where a few extra kilos are seldom critical. Following the NEC UK launch, there will no doubt be leisure magazine articles about the product, so perhaps there will be more details about exchangeability abroad then.