gas,light v heavy

[tonyishuk]

Colin Leake - 2013-01-26 7:13 PM

 

How do we use so little gas. Simple being poor pensioners we cook meat on the Cadac on alternate days eating it hot one day and cold the next or if the weather is cold the wife chucks the meat with some sauce in a saucepan and heats it up. With the meat we usually have a salad and spuds cooked in the microwave . If want vegetables they are cooked on the one electric ring on the cooker.

 

BBQ-ing on the poop deck of the ferry seems more sensible than taking sandwiches.

 

or am i getting confused

 

:D

 

Rgds

[Mel B]

mirage - 2013-01-25 8:12 PM

 

I can`t believe I`ve just read all that, £40/50K + for a van and you are discussing £2 for a Gas Cylinder, it reminds me of the discussion whether or not you should take sandwiches to eat in a Cabin of a Brittany Ferry to avoid the cost of a meal on board.

 

It's not the cost as such but the fact that it is such a large proportion more for the same thing! I agree that the extra costs are probably associated with the bottles being more prone to damage and therefore not lasting as long, and obviously there won't be as many as them kicking around as the standard steel ones which were probably made at a time when they were cheap as chips to produce and in vast quantities, whereas the lighter bottles won't have had such an 'economies of scale' reduction in the manufacturing price. I also suspect that these types of cylinders (ie non-refillable ones) are less in demand generally as more and more people fit the refillable ones, or fixed gas tanks, again less throughput makes each individual bottle more expensive.

 

As for taking sarnies to each on board a ferry rather than buy a meal ... quite apart from the extortionate cost of the food itself, I really wouldn't want to touch, never mind eat, some of the stuff I've seen being served up! 8-)

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

Me neither Mel, but I think the calor light bottles were more aimed at caravanners, to help with nose weights, and the weight of course ( half that of the steel equivalent) would result in lower transport costs for Calor themselves shame they don't pass those savings on to the end user ;-)

[peacock312]

Just for the record,the food on Brittany ferry,Cap Finistere,Portsmouth/Bilbao is in our opinion,excellent,cost last Dec i think was £19.99 for 3 course,but you have book immediately on board or face long wait.

[bolero boy]

Colin Leake - 2013-01-26 7:13 PM

 

How do we use so little gas. Simple being poor pensioners we cook meat on the Cadac on alternate days eating it hot one day and cold the next..........

colinn, our small Cadac seems to 'eat' gas. Ours uses the small screw in cannisters, I've managed to get some quite large ones but they dont last long.

Still, the food's good ;-)

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

peacock312 - 2013-01-27 8:22 PM

 

Just for the record,the food on Brittany ferry,Cap Finistere,Portsmouth/Bilbao is in our opinion,excellent,cost last Dec i think was £19.99 for 3 course,but you have book immediately on board or face long wait.

 

Just shows the different spending clout some of us have got, £40 for two,I'd expect to eat for quite a few days for that amount :D :D

[peacock312]

SORRY one foot,i didnt mean to brag, but i was born with NOWT! always had NOWT, luckily i did pay into mortgage & pensions even when i was reduntant at 40 and out of work for 3 months with 3 children growing up, lost my lovely wife at 60 with cancer,sold house, downsized ,took early retirement,met my current wife,living within our means as well as you,and watching the pennies!!

Our philosiphy, is live life to the full,and if we can go out as we came in with NOWT,then we cant complain.

PS

Regards Dave

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

peacock312 - 2013-01-28 10:57 AM

 

SORRY one foot,i didnt mean to brag, but i was born with NOWT! always had NOWT, luckily i did pay into mortgage & pensions even when i was reduntant at 40 and out of work for 3 months with 3 children growing up, lost my lovely wife at 60 with cancer,sold house, downsized ,took early retirement,met my current wife,living within our means as well as you,and watching the pennies!!

Our philosiphy, is live life to the full,and if we can go out as we came in with NOWT,then we cant complain.

PS

Regards Dave

 

My comment was only tongue in cheek, mind you we all go out with NOWT, unless anyone has found a way to take it with them. I've very often thought I'd be a sight more p*ssed of when I snuff it if I had a million in the bank, so I may well try one of the 3 course dinners, and leave my sandwiches in the van, enjoy your travels, and sorry to hear of your loss, but great that you found someone to share your life again ( and those dinners ) ;-)

[Derek Uzzell]

Returning to the original posting that pointed out the disparity between the RRP for a refill of a Calor 6kg 'heavy' propane canister and for a Calor "Lite" 6kg propane bottle, these are not the only Calor containers where the refill costs differ for similar (or less) weights of gas.

 

Patio Gas - 5kg (propane) - £20.99

Calor Lite - 6kg (propane) - £21.99

'Heavy' - 6kg (propane) - £19.99

 

Patio Gas - 13kg (propane) - £27.99

'Heavy' - 13kg (propane) - £25.99

 

BBQ Gas - 6kg (butane) - £22.50

'Heavy' - 7kg (butane) - £21.49

 

It might be argued that Calor's Patio Gas, BBQ Gas and Calor-Lite canisters are 'niche' products and that one might reasonably anticipate a higher refill RRP, but Calor could specify refill RRPs on a per-kg-of-gas if they so chose. Taking a £2-per-kg figure, all Calor 6kg bottles would then cost £12 for a refill, all 13kg bottles would cost £26kg, etc. That's what happens with 'autogas' LPG (or petrol/diesel), where the price per litre doesn't depend on the quantity delivered by the pump. However, even with autogas/petrol/diesel, the price per litre is not standardised across all service-stations.

 

The simple fact is that Calor's RRPs for their canister refills are what the company decides they will be. It might be felt that Calor's policy is illogical and their RRPs exorbitant, but there's no point in trying to justify the RRP differences logically. If Calor recommends that £21.99 be charged for a Calor-Lite refill, there's nothing illegal about that and, if Calor decided in future that £31.99 should be the RRP for a Calor-Lite refill, specifying that figure would be the company's prerogative.

[Mel B]

bolero boy - 2013-01-27 8:25 PM

 

Colin Leake - 2013-01-26 7:13 PM

 

How do we use so little gas. Simple being poor pensioners we cook meat on the Cadac on alternate days eating it hot one day and cold the next..........

colinn, our small Cadac seems to 'eat' gas. Ours uses the small screw in cannisters, I've managed to get some quite large ones but they dont last long.

Still, the food's good ;-)

 

You can get an adaptor which holds the standard piercable type of cylinder to convert it into a screw cylinder, as the piercable type are much, much cheaper it wouldn't take long at all before you paid for the adaptor.

 

http://www.needlesports.com/Catalogue/Cooking-Equipment/Fuel-Fire/Travel-Pak-gas-cylinder-adaptor-GOG-ADAPT#.UQboMGfistE

[fairweather camper]

peacock312 - 2013-01-25 12:28 PM

 

Just been to local caravan centre for 6kg refill of propane for Spain next week,remembered seeing on here recently that you can exchange heavy cylinder for lightweight for free,[calor] but i didnt realise it costs £2.oo

extra to change and for every refill from now on,is this normal? i payed £19.99 for heavy cylinder as payload isnot a prob. for me.

Regards Dave.

 

Didnt think you could swop Calor bottles for spanish ones or am I reading this wrong, as nobody seems to mention spain

[pepe63xnotuse]

fairweather camper - 2013-01-28 10:10 PM

 

peacock312 - 2013-01-25 12:28 PM

 

Just been to local caravan centre for 6kg refill of propane for Spain next week,remembered seeing on here recently that you can exchange heavy cylinder for lightweight for free,[calor] but i didnt realise it costs £2.oo

extra to change and for every refill from now on,is this normal? i payed £19.99 for heavy cylinder as payload isnot a prob. for me.

Regards Dave.

 

Didnt think you could swop Calor bottles for spanish ones or am I reading this wrong, as nobody seems to mention spain

 

I just read it that Dave was "stocking up" on propane prior to his forthcoming trip to Spain.....

[Patricia]

I bought a refill for the Calor Lite last week from Homebase £21.99. I normally use the French Cube but as I have stayed in the UK this winter and one of the Cubes ran out, I needed to fill up. Maybe you men can swing the metal canisters around but I find the full Cubes heavy enough and they only contain 5 kgs.

 

I have never refilled the Calor Lite before and assumed that was 5 kgs, the same as the Cube, not 6, and also I have never noticed a gauge. Will have to study the bottle obviously.

[roger s]

11kg GasIt Cylinder refilled for £14.80 for about 2/3 litres less than in 2 x 6kg cyls which if Lites would be circa £42 (last year, my 1st with refillable I recouped 1/3d of my initial outlay)

 

Calor have always surcharged Lites by £2 and having worked most my working life with compressed gases can understand the need for this as Any New cylinder introduction costs mega bucks, believe me.

 

When Lites were introduced I changed all three cylinders over as my previous van user load capacity at the time was not brilliant and any way I could save weight was a blessing. You can if you shop around still get 6kgs Lites at a reasonable price, some resellers inflate the prices.

[Derek Uzzell]

Patricia - 2013-01-29 10:51 PM

 

I bought a refill for the Calor Lite last week from Homebase £21.99. I normally use the French Cube but as I have stayed in the UK this winter and one of the Cubes ran out, I needed to fill up. Maybe you men can swing the metal canisters around but I find the full Cubes heavy enough and they only contain 5 kgs.

 

I have never refilled the Calor Lite before and assumed that was 5 kgs, the same as the Cube, not 6, and also I have never noticed a gauge. Will have to study the bottle obviously.

 

There's an earlier forum thread about the Calor Lite bottle here:

 

http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Hints-and-Tips/Calor-gas-orange-bottles/22519/

 

I believe the "Gas Trac" gauge fitted to a Calor Lite bottle is (like Gaslow's similar-principle gauge) operated magnetically, so there's no mechanical connection between the gauge and the float-mechanism inside the bottle. My understanding is that the only thing holding a Gas Trac gauge to a Calor Lite bottle is a small screw and that the gauge can easily become detached from the bottle accidentally. (Because the gauge is an external add-on, loss of a gauge isn't a safety issue.)

 

There were component supply/quality-control problems when Calor Lite canisters were first marketed, resulting in early bottles not being fitted with an internal contents-level float mechanism and external gauge. This is mentioned in this 2008 MHF thread:

 

http://www.motorhomefacts.com/forum-printtopic-1-41778-15-0-asc-viewresult-1.html

 

I don't know if a float-mechanism & gauge were retro-fitted to those 'gauge-free' Calo Lite bottles. If not, then there's the possibility that, if your Calr Lite bottle has no gauge, it's one of the early bottles. Either that or the gauge has come adrift and been lost.

 

As Calo Lite bottles SHOULD have a Gas Trac gauge (it's one of its advertised benefits), if your bottle hasn't got one I can't see why you shouldn't demand that Homebase exchange the bottle you obtained last week for one with a gauge.

[Patricia]

Derek thank you for your very detailed reply but I must apologise - I have BP Lite, not Calor. I am really making some stupid mistakes recently. When I read your post this afternoon I went out to look at the cylinder, couldn't see a gauge so thought it was the other side and couldn't turn it round. However, I could see the level of the liquid, so that is something. Anyway, the BP Lite does only contain 5 kgs, not 6 which, of course, makes it even dearer than the Calor Light. Fortunately, I have only ever needed to refill it once as I do not normally use a lot of gas and mostly rely on the Cube. Thanks again.

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

Patricia - 2013-01-30 11:38 PM

 

Derek thank you for your very detailed reply but I must apologise - I have BP Lite, not Calor. I am really making some stupid mistakes recently. When I read your post this afternoon I went out to look at the cylinder, couldn't see a gauge so thought it was the other side and couldn't turn it round. However, I could see the level of the liquid, so that is something. Anyway, the BP Lite does only contain 5 kgs, not 6 which, of course, makes it even dearer than the Calor Light. Fortunately, I have only ever needed to refill it once as I do not normally use a lot of gas and mostly rely on the Cube. Thanks again.

 

I thought the BP gas lite had been ditched ?

[Derek Uzzell]

1footinthegrave - 2013-01-31 12:12 AM

 

I thought the BP gas lite had been ditched ?

 

See this 2012 thread

 

http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Info-for-BP-Gas-Light-users/26691/

 

As Patricia obtained a BP "Gas Light" refill a week- ago, the bottles must still be available.

[Patricia]

Derek when I looked on the website for the nearest stockist I could only see Homebase. An outlet is quite near to me so I didn't search further but I am wondering whether Homebase have bought the franchise for BP bottled gas?

[Guest 1footinthegrave]

Patricia - 2013-01-31 10:34 AM

 

Derek when I looked on the website for the nearest stockist I could only see Homebase. An outlet is quite near to me so I didn't search further but I am wondering whether Homebase have bought the franchise for BP bottled gas?

 

Just done a search on Homebase site for BP gas, the result that came back was a table and chairs :-S

[bolero boy]

Mel B - 2013-01-28 9:13 PM

 

bolero boy - 2013-01-27 8:25 PM

 

Colin Leake - 2013-01-26 7:13 PM

 

How do we use so little gas. Simple being poor pensioners we cook meat on the Cadac on alternate days eating it hot one day and cold the next..........

colinn, our small Cadac seems to 'eat' gas. Ours uses the small screw in cannisters, I've managed to get some quite large ones but they dont last long.

Still, the food's good ;-)

 

You can get an adaptor which holds the standard piercable type of cylinder to convert it into a screw cylinder, as the piercable type are much, much cheaper it wouldn't take long at all before you paid for the adaptor.

 

http://www.needlesports.com/Catalogue/Cooking-Equipment/Fuel-Fire/Travel-Pak-gas-cylinder-adaptor-GOG-ADAPT#.UQboMGfistE

Thanks Mel.

C.

[Derek Uzzell]

1footinthegrave - 2013-01-31 11:42 AM

 

Patricia - 2013-01-31 10:34 AM

 

Derek when I looked on the website for the nearest stockist I could only see Homebase. An outlet is quite near to me so I didn't search further but I am wondering whether Homebase have bought the franchise for BP bottled gas?

 

Just done a search on Homebase site for BP gas, the result that came back was a table and chairs :-S

 

See the "WHERE TO BUY" section here

 

http://www.macgas.co.uk/gas-light.html

 

There's a Macgas distributor finder here

 

http://www.findgasfast.co.uk/

 

but I've no idea if all Macgas distributors stock or can supply "Gas Light" bottles/refills.

[myshell]

Patricia - 2013-01-29 10:51 PM

 

I bought a refill for the Calor Lite last week from Homebase £21.99. I normally use the French Cube but as I have stayed in the UK this winter and one of the Cubes ran out, I needed to fill up. Maybe you men can swing the metal canisters around but I find the full Cubes heavy enough and they only contain 5 kgs.

 

I have never refilled the Calor Lite before and assumed that was 5 kgs, the same as the Cube, not 6, and also I have never noticed a gauge. Will have to study the bottle obviously.

 

Patricia. I like you, usually carry a 6kg Calor Lite & a 5kg Le Cube, I use Calor on the journey down to the ferry / tunnel and switch over to Le Cube once across the channel, only using the calor cylinder when Le Cube is empty & until I can get a replacement. I have weighed both Le Cube and the Calor Lite cylinders both of them full, the Calor Lite is 10,5 kg (6kg of gas inc) and Le Cube is 12,3 kg (5kg of gas inc) therefore if you are having difficulty lifting Le Cube (depending on your length of stay in France) would you not be better having two Calor Lite cylinders giving 2 kg more gas and weighing 4.5 kg less.(2 X Le Cube = 10 kg of gas Total weight =24.6 kg. 2 X Calor = 12 kg of gas Total weight=21kg

Regards

Phil

[Derek Uzzell]

Phil

 

In Patricia's later postings she confirmed that her UK-obtained gas-bottle is a 5kg BP "Gas Light" container. This has an empty weight of 3.7kg and a filled weight of 8.7kg.

 

The nominal empty weight (according to Calor) of a Calor Lite bottle is 4.52kg (which tallies with your full-weight figure of 10.5kg).

 

Butagaz quotes a nominal empty-weight for Le Cube of 8.4kg, so 'your' Le Cube may be a very light one (or you were short-changed of 1.1kg of propane!)

 

(Just in case there's any confusion, BP Gas Light bottles do not have gauges. They are made from a translucent composite material through which the level of liquid gas in the bottle can be checked visually. The ability to see 'at a glance' how much LPG is left in a Gas Light bottle was one of its selling points.)

 

 

 

 

 

[Patricia]

myshell - 2013-01-31 5:44 PM

 

Patricia. I like you, usually carry a 6kg Calor Lite & a 5kg Le Cube, I use Calor on the journey down to the ferry / tunnel and switch over to Le Cube once across the channel, only using the calor cylinder when Le Cube is empty & until I can get a replacement.

Regards

Phil

 

Not quite like you Phil as I don't carry the BP Light, just the two Cubes, as I leave the British bottle in the UK. I usually go across the Channel, mostly to France, for about three months so in the colder months I need bottles that I can refill over there. Thank you for bothering to weigh them but I can just about manage the full Cube - it is getting it into the restraining straps that I find so difficult! Very occasionally I am served by a charming young Frenchman who will do it for me but more often than not, unfortunately, it is a woman!

 

This reminds me of a visit to a Leclerc service station. The roof was too low to drive through so I parked in the road and struggled across with two empty Cubes to be met by an irate saleswoman who initially refused to serve me because I was not in a vehicle!!