bp litegas

[Derek Uzzell]

The background to the BP "Gas Light" bottle is detailed here

 

http://www.practicalmotorhome.com/news/bp-gas-light-leave-uk-market

 

It would seem from this

 

http://www.camping-gas.com/information/manufacturers.php?manufacturer=MacGas

 

that BP's UK bottled-gas business has been subsumed by Macgas, and it's plain that a complete range of gas canisters is being marketed by that company.

 

I've no idea whether the number of Gas Light bottle distributors is significantly smaller than it was during the BP era, but Gas Light bottles are clearly been sold at Homebase outlets and t5topcat has confirmed that refills are available at his local store at a competitive price (that can probably be discounted substantially via a Homebase store-card).

 

There's no doubt that a lot of Gas Light bottles were sold in the UK, not just for leisure vehicles but also for gas barbecues. (I notice my neighbour has a Gas Light bottle sitting - but not rusting - outside in the rain.) As long as refills can be obtained reasonably easily (and that seems to be so), switching to a different make of UK bottle would be an odd, and potentially expensive, choice to make.

 

A motorhome carrying two full large Gas Light bottles will have 20kg of propane on board - that's 2kg more than the total contents of three Calor Lite bottles. The Calor Lite contents-gauge is as limited in range as that of a Gaslow bottle, whereas it's possible to see exactly how much LPG is in a Gas Light container. Unlike the POL connector of a Calor Lite canister, the clip-on connector used on Gas Light bottles requires no spanners to tighten or undo.

 

Besides which, I'm wary that it's possible to exchange Calor Lite bottles easily throughout the UK. While it's undoubtedly true that there should be little difficulty swapping an empty standard Calor 6kg bottle for a full one, exchanging Calor Lite bottles on a like-for-like basis may be much trickier. I can't say I've taken much interest in this, but I have noticed that my local Morrisons - that is a Calor agent - doesn't keep Calor Lite bottles in stock. In fact, although there are several Calor agents near to where I live, I would not be confident of finding a Calor Lite bottle at any of them.

 

[Robinhood]

Derek Uzzell - 2013-03-11 3:58 PM

 

Besides which, I'm wary that it's possible to exchange Calor Lite bottles easily throughout the UK. While it's undoubtedly true that there should be little difficulty swapping an empty standard Calor 6kg bottle for a full one, exchanging Calor Lite bottles on a like-for-like basis may be much trickier. I can't say I've taken much interest in this, but I have noticed that my local Morrisons - that is a Calor agent - doesn't keep Calor Lite bottles in stock. In fact, although there are several Calor agents near to where I live, I would not be confident of finding a Calor Lite bottle at any of them.

 

....whilst I'm wary of taking anything on the Calor website as gospel, the fact that they provide a specific search facility on their website for Calor Lite stockists (but no other such subset), and using it indicates a (very) limited subset of dealers, then I'm inclined to agree.

 

(there may even be less Calor-Lite stockists than Gas Light in a given area ;-) )