"Calor cylinder refill agreement"

[Transporter]

When I bought my (first) caravan and basic equipment last week, the lady got me to sign a "Calor cylinder refill agreement", and sold me a propane cylinder. I'm a novice, and I guess I just assumed that this is what caravan people do.

Did I do the right thing? What are the choices? What about on the Continent?

Bottom Line: Do I really need this agreement?

 

[rob_jax]

Hi,

Do you need the rental agreement? If buying new, then basically, yes. You don't own the gas bottle, it always belongs to Calor, and the agreement should offer you a portion of the rental cost back if you return the bottle in the first year.

You don't need the agreement to get the bottle exchanged...

What else could you have done? Visited your local tip and paid the guy in the yellow jacket

 

[Transporter]

> "In France? Each country has it's own design of bottle, actually each manufacturer does too. So there's no hope of getting your Calor bottle exchanged outside of the UK."

Thanks, Rob.

I'm unlikely to be in France in the near future, but definitely in Holland, Germany, and Scandinavia. Is there a "universal" solution?

 

[Oldfogey]

The universal solution is Camping Gaz.

Smaller bottles, more expensive gas, but available just about anywhere in Europe.

 

[Transporter]

Thanks, Fogey (I thought that was me). Received and understood.

I gather that my Calor agreement is not the rip-off I was beginning to suspect. Phew.

 

[rob_jax]

Whilst we have a Camping Gaz 907 bottle - with 2.6 kg of Butane - the refill charge is on a par with a Calor 6kg bottle.

So whilst they are truly pan-European, I can't recommend them - the running costs are very, very high.

As you are planning to go to Holland and Germany - there is one very good alternative to Camping Gaz. And that's BP GasLite - these are exchangeable between the UK, Holland and Germany - and possibly elsewhere too.

These GasLite bottles hold either 5 kg or 10 kg of Propane - and Homebase - for instance - stock them. And the translucent nature of the bottles makes it easy to see how much gas you have left...

Robert

 

[Rubix]

Rob_jax said :

"Do you need the rental agreement? If buying new, then basically, yes. You don't own the gas bottle, it always belongs to Calor, and the agreement should offer you a portion of the rental cost back if you return the bottle in the first year."

Is that right, you can only get your money (rental) back in the first year, is that why there are so many old gas cylinders kicking about (that's about

 

[rob_jax]

Hi Jeff,

That is my understanding of the Calor agreement - it's a sliding scale if you return the bottle...

Our Camping Gaz 907 bottle - actually came from my father when we went camping in the early 1960's - it'd been lying in the garage loft for 30+ years, and I rescued it when we took our first Eriba to France... So no idea, but since a new Camping Gaz bottle is around 50 Euro and possibly

 

[mikecandsarahb]

as far as im aware you will get no return of money for the return of an empty bottle if you dont want it any more.

but if you want to get it changed for a new bottle same or different size you will not pay the

 

[phillip1]

as far as im aware you will get no return of money for the return of an empty bottle if you dont want it any more.

but if you want to get it changed for a new bottle same or different size you will not pay the