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Just returned back from a week away Golden Valley site near Derby we took with us a Handy Gas bottle but needed a new 20mm clip on regulator as I had been given the wrong one by the calor centre before I had left Devon.

We asked at the site and checked the ones they sold but they did not have a 20mm one. Their answer was that they had lots of people coming up with the wrong gas bottles and only Calor should be used as this is the only brand stocked by campsites and that we should try the local camping shop. Failing that the oonly option was to buy a new regulator from them with gas bottle and the £30 Calor deposit charge, total £60.  We tried the camping shop and they only stocked Camping Gaz but told us to try a hardware shop that did sell bottled gas. The women in the shop insisted that she had a list of every gas manufacture in the uk and Handy gas was not on it so we did not have the name right(the one that was written on the bottle). She didn't even ask us what sized regulator we needed.

Back to the site and they still insisted that the only option for us was a new reg and bottle for £60. A quick serch on Google with my phone and I found out that Handy ga s is in fact called Mac Gas in the north and the regulator is the same as Floh Gas bottles. So it was back to the hardware shop to find a different member of staff who didn't ask what gas it was for just what regulator we needed.

Total cost of new regulator £6.95 and a lot of wasted time and petrol but still a lot cheaper than a new Calor bottle and regulator.  It's a shame that the site staff were not a lot more experenced or helpful.

There is no need for me to use Calor at all now I have the correct regulator as I do not go away long enough to need to change bottles on site and luckily I always take a suitcase stove as back up. Also Calor is not without its problems it would seem reading the forum threads on the calor lite bottles and the rising costs of its products. 

The point is that the site staff were either inexperenced in gas bottle issues or just trying to take another £60 off of me for bringing a non Calor bottle. The problem was solved using Google and an internet phone and not local knowledge at a campsite.