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Calor gas to French bottles


dikyenfo

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I did not realise until now that if the snap-on fitting on the end of the pigtail to the installed regulater that the thread is the same as Bottogas/Primagas/Butagas/Totalgas/whatever so you can just bung a French bottle in the locker and away you go.

Info for this was from the kind attention of Peter from Socal who declined to sell me needlessly an adapter as its the same thread.

Hope this is useful for those like me who spend a long time in France and worry about gas supplies. It gets away from the permanent installations which have a query hanging over them at the moment.

Come back home and screw back on the snap-on and put the calor bottle in.Simples.

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The threaded outlet of standard steel French gas canisters (butane or propane) is the same as the threaded outlet of a UK Calor 4.5kg butane bottle. As you rightly say, if you are using a Calor 4.5kg-suitable 'pigtail' with an adapter to connect to a different size (or different gas) UK bottle, removing the adapter allows a French steel bottle to be connected straightforwardly (assuming you can get the beggar in your gas-locker of course).

 

http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=2819&posts=1

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Derek

Considering the No. of times new threads are created regarding mainland Europea Gas Bottle connections, your linked thread is a prime candidate for a "sticky" label in Hints & Tips.

 

Anyone know how we apply for making it a "sticky" ?

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Regarding the size of the locker did not occur to me as my compact van[5.9 metres] has space for a 6 and a 13 Kg set of bottles.

I have removed the 6Kg and substituted instead a set of crawlers for sand or mud and a roll of 50 metres of mains lead with adapters for international and French mains connections.

The one bottle previously used was a Calor 13Kg and over 3 months gets a lot of use even though we have a cooktent with separate French bottle approx the same size as the Calor one.

It makes absoloute sense to me to therefore bung another French bottle in the locker and change both back to English types when I return and go rallying.

What I never realised was that the original fitting sans adapter is the standard French one. This is why I put it on here as it totally removes all the questions repeated endlessly on the forum regardind the continued gas supply when out for long periods.

Regarding smaller French bottles which are available and would no doubt be the equivalent of our 6Kg type it is more than likely that the threads will be the same BUT Intermarche and LeClerche make their own variants so you have to replace them at their supermarkets.

If I had not got the space to fit the larger bottle I would consider cutting a hole through the wardrobe or WHY and open up the room a bit as the larger bottles are considerably cheaper.

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dikyenfo - 2011-02-08 1:32 PM

 

Regarding the size of the locker did not occur to me as my compact van[5.9 metres] has space for a 6 and a 13 Kg set of bottles.

I have removed the 6Kg and substituted instead a set of crawlers for sand or mud and a roll of 50 metres of mains lead with adapters for international and French mains connections.

The one bottle previously used was a Calor 13Kg and over 3 months gets a lot of use even though we have a cooktent with separate French bottle approx the same size as the Calor one.

It makes absoloute sense to me to therefore bung another French bottle in the locker and change both back to English types when I return and go rallying.

What I never realised was that the original fitting sans adapter is the standard French one. This is why I put it on here as it totally removes all the questions repeated endlessly on the forum regardind the continued gas supply when out for long periods.

Regarding smaller French bottles which are available and would no doubt be the equivalent of our 6Kg type it is more than likely that the threads will be the same BUT Intermarche and LeClerche make their own variants so you have to replace them at their supermarkets.

If I had not got the space to fit the larger bottle I would consider cutting a hole through the wardrobe or WHY and open up the room a bit as the larger bottles are considerably cheaper.

 

Your current pigtail will screw directly on to the male-threaded outlet of a UK Calor 4.5g BUTANE cylinder (otherwise it would not screw on to any French steel bottle). Your pigtail is commonly refered to as a "21.8 LH hose".

 

As I understand it, you have a 'snap on' adapter that you screw on to the end of your pigtail and this adapter allows you to connect to a Calor bottle.

 

You say that your Calor bottle is 13kg, which means that it's either a 13kg (green-painted) "Patio Gas" PROPANE bottle or it's actually a 15kg (blue-painted) BUTANE bottle and your 13kg statement is in error. Calor's 13kg "Patio Gas" and 15kg butane bottles both have snap-on outlet fittings (though different diameter) As far as I'm aware, the only other 13kg bottle in the Calor range is a (red-painted) PROPANE canister that has a female-threaded outlet. There is an adapter that would allow your type of pigtail to connect to 'standard' 6kg and 13kg Calor PROPANE bottles with female-threaded outlets, but plainly that's not what you've got.

 

Traditional French steel bottles have a nominal 13kg capacity and their outlet fitting is the same whether they hold butane or propane (and also the same as a UK Calor 4.5kg BUTANE bottle's outlet fitting). There are now some slightly smaller capacity French bottles (around 10kg) and I believe these have the same outlet fitting as a French 13kg steel bottle.

 

Any French bottle that isn't made of steel (Antargaz "Calypso", Butagaz "Viseo") or has a capacity in the 6kg/5kg range ("Le Cube", "Malice", "Twiny", "Elfi") will have a 'snap-on' type outlet fitting not a threaded one. If you wanted to connect to one of those containers, you'd need the correct adapter to add to your current pigtail.

 

A useful means of checking what (if anything) is required to adapt a 21.8 LH hose to permit connection to non-UK gas bottles is to refer to the information in the (downloadable) Gaslow brochure.

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Good advice dereck and of course I have the 15 Kg bottle and have tried the installation out and would advise anyone who is not sure to do the same.

However the simple soloution,for me, as to the fitment of a standard French steel bottle available at all garages and campsites is a boon I did not expect.

At the moment I have a Grey Primagas bottle and a green Totalgas bottle and both will be renewed once I get over the Hoggin.

Roll on April. ;-)

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