derek pringle Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Hi, wonder if anybody can advise. My wife and I take delivery of a new motorhome next week(our first) and intend travelling both in this country and Europe both in the summer and winter. We would like advice and views on which gas system to use in the motorhome taking in to account availability, temperatures etc. thanks in advance for any response. derek and lyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Gaslow is our preference, but any refillable system is more convenient and cheaper to refill, though Gaslow has the advantage that it is easier to change to another van. Also allows you to refill in Europe so you don't have to worry about not being able to get a new cylinder or messing about with foreign ones or overpriced Camping Gaz. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkc Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Hi Derek, To add to Basil' good advice, the Calor propane ( red bottle) should be fine winter or summer in the UK, and for shorter trips to the Continent, assuming you have a gas locker that takes 2 cylinders. If you are thinking of over wintering in Spain, where refillable GPL stations are rare it is best to buy a Repsol ( orange ) bottle and regulator, this is subsidised and very good value compared to UK prices, you are supposed to give a home address but a camp site is usually OK, I find the Gaslow system great. Regards PKC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 DerekIt might help if you can say:a) how large your gas locker will be, in terms of No of cylinders it can hold, and size of same (generally 7Kg or 13Kg nominal capacity)b) How long you intend to be away travelling at a time.c) How often per year you think you may go.d) Whether your winter trips will be to winter sports areas, or to warmer countries.e) What van you are getting.The detail will help the answers. For example, whether your winter trips will be into the Alps (very high gas consumption) for a couple of weeks, or down to Southern Spain for a couple of months (lower consumption, but for an extended period). For the former, you would almost certainly need re-fillables, or at least one Foreign cylinder you can exchange locally. If the locker only takes 7Kg max you will probably need re-fillables, but if 13Kg then you may not. If you will stay on campsites with electric hook up, and use the site facilities, you will use much less gas than if you will not use campsites, and so use your on-board facilities all the time. There are many trade offs. The re-fillable cylinders are initially a lot more expensive, but are cheaper to fill, than exchange cylinders. If your use of gas will be light, it will take you a long time to break even on the cost of a re-fillable installation vis a vis exchange cylinders.We use sites, and the site facilities, usually with a hook up, spring and autumn, on mainland Europe. Used in this way, 1 13Kg cylinder lasts us for about 12 weeks of continuous travel time. The van takes two cylinders, and we have one UK Calor, and one French Butagaz. All trips start from/return to UK, so the Calor is exchanged when we are home. Almost all trips pass through France somewhere, so the Butagaz is changed en-route. Our last Calor was bought July 2008 for £22 and our last Butagaz June 2009 for 27 Euros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RupertGS Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 If it were me I wouldn't even worry about the time it takes to recoup the cost of a refillable gas system. If you did all your sums like this you probably wouldn't have bought a motorhome in the first place. After all, caravans and tents are a lot cheaper but you've decided that a motorhome is best for you despite it being far more expensive.Assuming that you are not going to Spain for a year or any of the other examples given by some of our real experts and that, like most of us, you'll simply go to Europe for a few weeks at a time then this is my advice:Go for it! Buy a refillable system and enjoy not having to scrape your knuckles removing a very heavy cylinder, lugging it to a dealer for replacement and then putting it back in the locker.My Gaslow is one of the best things that I've ever bought for my 'van but I must add that I'm not recommending Gaslow, mine is fine but as it's all I've had I really cannot tell you that it's the best. There are other makes that forum members swear by but, whichever system you buy, I promise you, you won't regret it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 RupertGS - 2009-08-25 4:31 PMIf it were me I wouldn't even worry about the time it takes to recoup the cost of a refillable gas system. If you did all your sums like this you probably wouldn't have bought a motorhome in the first place. After all, caravans and tents are a lot cheaper but you've decided that a motorhome is best for you despite it being far more expensive.Assuming that you are not going to Spain for a year or any of the other examples given by some of our real experts and that, like most of us, you'll simply go to Europe for a few weeks at a time then this is my advice:Go for it! Buy a refillable system and enjoy not having to scrape your knuckles removing a very heavy cylinder, lugging it to a dealer for replacement and then putting it back in the locker.You couldn't have put it better Rupert, best thing we ever did having refillable bottles on the Motorhome, cost doesn't compete with the easy of use & lack of worry where you are going to get your next gas bottle from.We do use a lot more gas with the refillable bottles in spring/summer 20 lt (11kg) lasts us about 2½ weeks & costs approx £10 to fill. Two reasons:a) it's easy & cheap to fill up we don't worry about it, the hot water is on every morning for 2 showers.b) we hardly ever use hook-ups these days. Go for it, it is one accessory you will never regret spending the money on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Having twice used vans with underslung tanks thats what I'm going for on new van. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herdsmangs Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 An interesting question which poses more questions than answers I suspect. When we decided to go around Europe for 3 months I did not know how much gas I would use so I bought a Gaslow system. As it turned out we need not have. I now know we use 6kg a month continuous travel so our 1x13kg+1x7kg would have been enough. It is worth noting that we rarely wildcamp, use the electric hotplate on our cooker when possible as well as our electric inbuilt heater. The only gas we use is gas BBQ and the odd oven meal. I do not regret the Gaslow as the gas is so cheap and it is easy to fill. Herds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Just shows difference if you use sites with mains & showers, when we had a caravan & used sites 6 kg would easy do a month or more now with the Motorhome & rarely using sites we are using 11kg in 2½ weeks & it is still very cheap energy compared to gas & electric bill at home. We don't wild camp much, mainly use Sellaplaz, Aires, CL's & CS's often not near shops so carry a stock of part baked rolls & bread, so as well as the hot water on every morning the oven is on as well for the breakfast bread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 RupertGS - 2009-08-25 4:31 PMIf it were me I wouldn't even worry about the time it takes to recoup the cost of a refillable gas system. If you did all your sums like this you probably wouldn't have bought a motorhome in the first place. After all, caravans and tents are a lot cheaper but you've decided that a motorhome is best for you despite it being far more expensive........................................My Gaslow is one of the best things that I've ever bought for my 'van but I must add that I'm not recommending Gaslow, mine is fine but as it's all I've had I really cannot tell you that it's the best. There are other makes that forum members swear by but, whichever system you buy, I promise you, you won't regret it.Absolutely, totally agree.lennyhb - 2009-08-25 8:10 PMJust shows difference if you use sites with mains & showers, when we had a caravan & used sites 6 kg would easy do a month or more now with the Motorhome & rarely using sites we are using 11kg in 2½ weeks & it is still very cheap energy compared to gas & electric bill at home.We don't wild camp much, mainly use Sellaplaz, Aires, CL's & CS's often not near shops so carry a stock of part baked rolls & bread, so as well as the hot water on every morning the oven is on as well for the breakfast bread.We also are high users of gas, rarely use an electric hook up (unless forced to pay for it) so contrary to some observations our Gaslows are well into profit and have been for over a year now!But as usual you have to make YOUR decision base on YOUR justification.BasP.S. Don't base your decision on the quotes you get for installing Gaslows, if you can change your own gas cylinder you can fit your own Gaslow and the DIY prices to buy the componants can be quite competetive though much dearer than when I installed ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek pringle Posted August 27, 2009 Author Share Posted August 27, 2009 hi Brian, the model we are getting is a bessacarr 630 and it has a locker that takes 2 x 6kg cylinders. Our winter hols are expected to be a bit if both ie winter resorts and some sun. Any advice as to where is te best place to purchase gaslow products for a diy fit would be appreciated. cheers derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 derek pringle - 2009-08-27 11:15 AM hi Brian, the model we are getting is a bessacarr 630 and it has a locker that takes 2 x 6kg 2 x 6 kg is a little bit on the small side for winter use but if you never spend more than a few days in one place it is easy enough to fill up while travelling. Worth checking to see if it will take either 2 x 11kg or 1 x 11 kg & 1 x 6 kg cylinders, the 11 kg is quite a bit smaller than UK 13kg. One point worth a mention, our installation has 2 regulators one on each bottle with the outputs joined by a TEE piece, you don't have to mess about changing bottle connections or it saves the cost of a changeover valve, it works well for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 That's a shame that you can only use 6kg as whilst looking on E-bay this morning I spotted this see:- http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Gaslow-Gas-Bottles_W0QQitemZ190331039709QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Campervan_Caravan_Accessories?hash=item2c509d2fdd&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 and thought of you! Might be a bargain for somebody if the price stays low. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek pringle Posted August 27, 2009 Author Share Posted August 27, 2009 my apologies all, the spec. says 7kg not 6 as i previously stated. thanks for all your help derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 6 kg Propane & 7 kg Butane are the same size cylinder, also 13 kg Propane & 15 kg Butane are the same size. Gaslow & Stako refillable cylinders are made in the German sizes of 6 kg & 11 kg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkc Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 Hi Derek, Plenty of info at this link, http://www.motorcaravanning.co.uk/shopuk/gaslow_refillables.htm Also if you resold them at a later date, the financial point is a no brainer, I would guess that the ones on the earlier ebay link will go for well over £150. Fitting is not rocket science if you are DIY savvy, I made up my own L bracket to mount the filler inside the gas locker, at £20 the real one is rather expensive. Hope this helps, Regards PKC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 pkc - 2009-08-27 12:00 PM Also if you resold them at a later date, the financial point is a no brainer, I would guess that the ones on the earlier ebay link will go for well over £150. Yep you are quite right, they have already reached £102 but that is still half price, but as you say they will no doubt reach a much higher figure. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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