I am more than satisfied with the Safefill refillable gas cylinder that I have installed in my van and have never had any problems refilling it anywhere (yet) in the UK.
However I am in more than somewhat in a quandary with regards to a forthcoming 3 month long French trip in my motorhome as remote refillable gas cylinders (such as Safefill) can’t be legally refilled at any LPG point anywhere in France which leads me to ask the following question.
If I were to fit an external fitting point to the side wall of my van and had a length of hose attached to the inside which then connected to a normal union coupling for attaching to the cylinder, would it be possible for me to utilise one of the standard French LPG filling points just as long as the coupling connection on the outside of the van was the correct one for the filling hose connector to connect to?
I await your replies and thoughts in due anticipation.
------------- There is a great World to be found out there, but by the very day, to find where it is becomes more of a challenge!
Hello,
I also have a safefil cylinder and intend to use it in France this year. I have therefore bought the adapter and am concerned about your comment regarding refiling in France.
Can I ask where you obtained this information as I was informed that refiling in France was not a problem.
I used to live in France and did so for many years, during that time I became well aware that they are exceptionally good at generating red tape!
Although I do not have any concrete evidence to support my suggestion that you can't legally refill a gas cylinder at an LPG point in France, I do know of quite a few people who have been refused.
If you care to look at this page of the Safefill website http://www.safefill.co.uk/refilling-retailers.html you will see on the European map that there isn't a single filling point registered with them in France!
Only today I spoke with someone at Safefill and quite frankly I couldn't believe a word that was being said to me.
Although I bought one of these cylinders specifically for fitting to my van conversion, with hindsight I now firmly believe that I would have been far, far better buying an Alugas cylinder which does have a remote refilling facility (i.e. a proper van wall external refilling point).
------------- There is a great World to be found out there, but by the very day, to find where it is becomes more of a challenge!
I think it's always been the case that a refillable cylinder installation should have a remote filling point rather than directly fill the bottle? Provided you have a filling point on the outside of the vehicle then you should be ok.
The autogas pumps I've seen in France at motorway services are in among the petrol & diesel pumps so presumably there would be nobody there to prevent you filling anyway?
If they are not allowing a direct fill to the bottle will they cotton on that attaching the LPG to a caravan is doing just that and prevent you?
Or is it the fact the bottle is there in the open as you fill it?
An extension hose from the bottle with an additional valve maybe the answer, instead of fitting an external socket to the van.
Before you reach the services attach the hose or position it on the A frame, open the valve or prepare it. Pull into the servives and it will appear you filling the car at the rear.
Grampian91, if only iy was that simple, as my installation is inside my self built motorhome.
The design is well under way and I believe should prove to be foolproof............. But if only Safefill had spent a few more quid and produced a twin inlet tank!!
------------- There is a great World to be found out there, but by the very day, to find where it is becomes more of a challenge!
Wouldn't it make sense to replace the safefill with another make Alugas and Gasit spring to mind. You could then sell the safefill to recover some of the cost. The other alternative is to buy a bottle in France the gas is cheaper that the UK.
Quote: Originally posted by Buzzy-Beans on 13/2/2017
I used to live in France and did so for many years, during that time I became well aware that they are exceptionally good at generating red tape!
Although I do not have any concrete evidence to support my suggestion that you can't legally refill a gas cylinder at an LPG point in France, I do know of quite a few people who have been refused.
If you care to look at this page of the Safefill website http://www.safefill.co.uk/refilling-retailers.html you will see on the European map that there isn't a single filling point registered with them in France!
Only today I spoke with someone at Safefill and quite frankly I couldn't believe a word that was being said to me.
Although I bought one of these cylinders specifically for fitting to my van conversion, with hindsight I now firmly believe that I would have been far, far better buying an Alugas cylinder which does have a remote refilling facility (i.e. a proper van wall external refilling point).
Thanks for the reply.
We are off to France later on this year so will see if we have a problem.
I was proposing to remove the tank from the caravan and take it in the car to the station when needed, but in view of the responses I think we will leave it in the locker of the van and refill whilst towing the van. In that way they may just think I have an LPG car and take no notice.
Quote: Originally posted by woodman2 on 16/2/2017
Thanks for the reply.
We are off to France later on this year so will see if we have a problem.
I was proposing to remove the tank from the caravan and take it in the car to the station when needed, but in view of the responses I think we will leave it in the locker of the van and refill whilst towing the van. In that way they may just think I have an LPG car and take no notice.
I have changed my plans slightly and will now be not trying to make a unified system.
However I will still be installing a panel mounted external gas filling point to which there will be a flexible hose running into the gas locker with a pigtail at its end, I will also be fitting a simple, manual open/close valve into this pipe immediately next to the pigtail so that I can isolate the liquid gas inside the pipe after I have refilled the cylinder.
Yes I will still have to manually swap over the regulator pigtail for the filling pigtail, but at least, from the outside my system will look like it is fully integrated.
------------- There is a great World to be found out there, but by the very day, to find where it is becomes more of a challenge!
Interesting stuff - I'm contemplating buying a refillable bottle to keep in our locker. It looks like the sneaky hope-they-don't-notice technique might be useful...
I've seen Safefill and Gaslow mentioned. Is Gaslow any better in France or basically the same idea?
And why are Alugas & Gasit possibly a better bet, Boff? (Forgive newbie ignorance here, please!)
PS It's an old-ish French caravan, a Rapido, do you think this will appeal to their national pride any more?
Quote: I've seen Safefill and Gaslow mentioned. Is Gaslow any better in France or basically the same idea?
And why are Alugas & Gasit possibly a better bet, Boff? (Forgive newbie ignorance here, please!)
Gonnate; if I had only known then what I know now I doubt if I would have bought a Safefill tank, but having written that I am more than satisfied with my purchase.
All the other refillable gas cylinders on sale in the UK have, I believe two entry points at the top of them, one for filling and one for emptying.
If you do buy a refillable cylinder then the best way of installing it is with a proper external filling point along with the correct data information surrounding it.
Since my first post I have spent some time discussing my quest with the singularly amazingly helpful Nick at Gasit http://www.gasit.co.uk/ and I am happy to say that he has come up with a totally viable system for remote filling of the Safefill cylinder I own. The really nice thing about Nick was that he didn't 'rubbish' my Safefill purchase in any way shape or form and for that I can't praise him or his company highly enough.
But coming back to your question, your application is in a caravan where weight is always of very great concern, most especially when talking about a front locker because of the associated nose weight. If it were me I would be thinking about weight first and the system of filling the cylinder in France as a separate issue, but having said that, I would definitely only go for the truly excellent Alugas cylinders which with hindsight are the type I should have purchased originally!
------------- There is a great World to be found out there, but by the very day, to find where it is becomes more of a challenge!
I know this thread is over a year old but I am very interested in what solution gas-it came uP with for Buzzy-Beans as I use Safefill cylinder and while I haven’t been refused a fill yet I do tend to fill up by ‘stealth’ and think it is only a matter of time before I am refused at some garage.
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Topic: Safefill gas cylinder question?
