Gas in France

[Derek Uzzell]

In his original posting of 14 September John (potus4388) enquired about fitting a “Le Cube” gas container in the gas-locker of a 2017 Elddis Accordo 135.

 

John would be travelling to France with two full 6kg Calor bottles and would be abroad for 5 to 6 weeks. He anticipated staying mostly on aires or wild camping.

 

Two 6kg Calor bottles equates to around 24 litres of propane gas and a travelling regimen in Autumn with minimal use of campsites with 230V hook-ups will tend to be heavy on gas consumption. I used to reckon on a consumption of around 1 litre per day when doing what John has in mind and, on that basis, his original 24 litres of gas is unlikely to last for his complete trip.

 

In my 2018 posting here

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/GAS-IN-EUROPE/48534/

 

I attempted to cover the gas-related options for a UK motorcaravanner planning to travel to Continental Europe. I mentioned refilling ‘exchange-only’ bottles (eg Calor canisters) abroad, saying:

 

"(Exchange-only bottles can be refilled in some European countries. This practice carries inherent risks and is frowned on by all responsible leisure authorities. It may well be illegal (it certainly is in France) and it will definitely break the hire contract regulations for this type of bottle.)”

 

On 15 September John said that his departure-date for France was too close for him to obtain a gas-hose and Le Cube-suitable adapter in the UK, so he would see how things turned out in France and, if necessary, seek to source the necessary parts there.

 

If John’s two Calor canisters do run out and it transpires that a Le Cube won’t fit in his Accordo’s locker, the only realistic option is likely to be to use Campingaz. This would require a new gas-hose and a Campingaz full-pressure adapter, plus buying the Campingaz canister itself - overall an expensive exercise. It’s very unlikely to be practicable to buy off-the-shelf parts in France that would allow refilling of Calor propane bottles.

 

I’m comfortable enough with people who travel abroad with UK-norm gas-bottles as their motorhome’s gas-source carrying a refilling adapter as a back-up just in case those bottles run out, particularly if they know that their motorhome’s gas-locker is too small to accommodate ‘foreign’ gas bottles.

 

But if one intends to regularly travel outside the UK it surely makes better sense to carry a gas-bottle that you legally ‘own’ and that has been specifically designed for safe refilling with autogas with no inhibitions on the amount of gas remaining in the bottle. Why cart around 2 x 13kg Calor bottles that are refilled via an adapter when 1 x 11kg user-refillable bottle with a reliable contents gauge (eg. a Gaslow R67 canister) ) can be refilled when the bottle is at any stage of fullnessl?

 

When John returns from France he can say how he got on. He will then be in a good position to decide whether to go for the 'Calor bottle refilling’ approach and will be able to take into account the pros and cons of that practice that have been discussed on this forum. If he decides to focus solely on the (financial) positives of the adapter approach and totally ignore advice about the legal and safety implications inherent in the practice, that will be his choice.

[StuartO]

Deffheads - 2018-09-16 7:16 PMI would suggest that the original post makes his/ her own mind up, rather than listening to negative thoughts. As a backup adapters are great. Although I use them all over and in UK. Do I care about Calor regs NO

I think it's better to allow these discussions to take place, to allow the risks to be explained properly. 

The risk is that over-filling a rental bottle with LPG could very easily result, simply because the ambient temperature rises and expands the trapped liquid, in a rupture of the bottle and the sudden release of the full contents of the bottle - with the risk of a conflagration or a massive explosion.

Deffheads is perhaps a bit of a free spirit (i.e. a rebel or even an outlaw by nature) and there are plenty of those among motorhomers, some of whom are quite willing to ignore any and every "rule" which happens not to suit them.

But the knowledge and skills to use these "cheat" adapters to fill rental bottles reliably to no more than 80%, and thereby avoid the big bang risk, are in much shorter supply.  Unless you really know what you are doing, you really shouldn't try to refill rental bottles.

And by the way it's not "shed loads" of money you can save.  Even if you use half a dozen bottles of gas a year, which most of us don't, you're not likely to save much money at all by taking this unnecessary risk.