UKC

We bought the camper this spring (20yr old Transit conversion) and all great except it is fitted with the dreaded Camping Gaz 907 butane cylinders. Exorbitant refill prices (maybe Theresa May will negotiate a better rate after Brexit?) and these are the only cylinders that fit in the locker, rebuilding the locker to fit a larger dimension Calor gas cylinder is not feasible. All camping is UK and off grid.
So I think I have two possible options, but don't have any great understanding of "gas" so appreciate any advice. Whatever, there will be an initial investment of equipment, but I should soon recoup this on gas prices.

Option 1: I purchase a larger Calor butane bottle and refill my camping gaz bottles from this, there's plenty on the internet about it but I'm in a muddle about fittings etc. Does anyone do this, is it as easy as it seems - yes I know to take safety precautions - is there a downside I'm not seeing? Other than vaporising myself with a lighted match when doing it?

Option 2: Gaslow do a refillable at garages LPG system and have brought out an identical 907 sized cylinder, question, would this propane based gas be fine in my butane cooker, heater, fridge? Is it simply needing a different regulator or would the different gas beggar up my fridge and blow the van up!

I'm sure someone on here knows the answers and appreciate the feedback.

In reply to Moley:

The double burner and grill stove I bought this year works equally well on both 907 butane and propane.
I just have to use the correct regulator. A bit of a pain changing the tight tube.
It might/should? be the same for your burner, can you google the instructions?

The Shellgas 11kg cylinder refill was a bargain £22, but not as cheap as the autogas option. 11kg approx = 22 litres at 54p/l. About £30-35 for a 907 round here.

Thanks for the heads up on the Gaslow bottle.

In reply to Moley:

We have used a Gaslow system for 5 years. The bottle we have holds about 10 litres of LPG. For all practical purposes there is no difference between butane and LPG except that butane freezes at an inconveniently high temp and LPG doesn't. Also LPG is much cheaper.

In reply to Moley:

My parents used to swap between propane and butane depending on the time of year so there shouldn't be an issue with the van's appliances working. The Gaslow system they currently have is good but you need to use it a fair bit to make back the initial cost of buying all the hoses, filler, bottles etc. and if going abroad you need to get the various adapters as there seems to be a few different filling nozzle types. My parents large twin bottle set up was over £600 but they use the van a lot including in winter so use a fair amount of gas and they swapped it from the old to new van when they changed vans so they've had it about 7 years now.

In reply to gethin_allen:

Thanks for all responses, food for thought and will do a little more research on the van before decision - but I'm not carrying on paying £33 for 21/2kg of gas!

In reply to Moley:


Transferring from one bottle to another is easy enough, live-aboard yachties do it all the time. The adaptors cost maybe a tenner.
The downsides are you need to do it outside and it can be a bit slow. Also getting the last 10% out can be a bit laborious, you want to cool/shade the bottle being filled and hang the donor one in the sun.
Big bottles are easier, just remove the valve from each cylinder and tip the gas from one to the other but I don´ t know how easy it is to get the Camping Gaz valves out.