tentmonster said:
What sort of gas bottles and gas do people use? I've put in a 7kg butane bottle merely because I had one and a regulator lying around (old bbq). My van originally had fitted a 6kg lightweight propane and reg. Is it worth spending the £30 "hire" fee to go lightweight?
TM
Hello TM,
There is no single solution that will suit everyone, so you need to look at a few key details which might persuade you one way or another.
Propane vs Butane
Essentially if you intend to caravan in ambient temperature below about 5C then you should be using Propane, as Butane bottles will struggle to provide gas as the ambient temperature drops.
Hired Bottles vs owned
The main attraction of owning your own cylinders is the lower cost of replenishing, but to offset that you also fewer locations to replenish them.
This will be affected by where you want to caravan, You will need to research where the refill stations are located. Bear in mind that many Autogas refill points will only allow fixed tanks in vehicles to be filled and prohibit the refilling of portable cylinders.
You also have to consider that as the owner of a cylinder, you must have it safety pressure tested at least every ten years, but finding a company to actually do this for you is currently difficult - you would need to consult the bottle supplier/manufacturer for advice on this.
Generally refill points will only supply Propane gas.
Light weight Vs normal steel
There are some lightweight cylinders that can be hired, but most are purchased. Its seems that many of the modern caravans do have intrinsically high nose loads, so lightweight cylinders can be a boon, but if you don't need lightweight ones metal ones may well be cheaper and more available.
What size?
The bigger the refill generally the better value you get, but of course you need to check the gas bottle locker to find the maximum size of cylinder your caravan can take.
1 or 2 cylinders,
This will be affected by how long you are going to be away from the nearest replenishment or exchange point.
Manual or automatic change over gas valve/regulator
With a manual change over you are at least aware of when the first cylinder has emptied, and its good reminder to replace it, but it does mean you loose your supply until you switch over. The auto systems usually have some form of indicator to let you know the bottle has changed over, but you have to actually check so its possible you might use both bottles before you notice the indicator.
I hope this helps you decide.
Gauge showed 3/4 bottle remaining, but ran out of gas after only 30 minutes and as we only only carried one cylinder we were stuffed. Tried ringing 7 local gas suppliers and all were out of stock due to the recall.
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