We do our cooking on a Cadac Carri Chef 2 and/or Campingaz Kitchen 2 double hob and whilst we used to use a pair of Campingaz 907 bottles given we went to France a lot we eventually moved over to a single Calor 4.5kg cylinder now that we're mostly staying in the UK as refills are a lot cheaper.
I have always been mindful of the risk of running out of gas when just having a single bottle, but of course more pertinent now is Calor's gradual retirement of this bottle type/size. Even before retirement it has often been quite a challenge even finding refills so I've never felt all that confident with it I must admit, and I don't like to exchange cylinders with any gas remaining - it doesn't fit with my frugal upbringing!
I am thinking of eventually switching over to a 5kg Flogas Gaslite as we'd value the lightness and we can at least see at-a-glance how much we've got left but I don't know what refill availability is like. Whether better or worse than Calor there's still the single-cylinder-running-out-mid-meal issue and so I am toying with the idea of buying a suitable regulator so that we've got the option of using EN417 cartridges if necessary.
Whilst EN417 has cartridges might be more expensive per-volume than larger cylinders (or perhaps some bargains can be found if shopping around?) they do at least seem to be widely available (whether that be from Amazon with next-day delivery but also the likes of Argos, Halfords, petrol stations perhaps?) and whilst space it at a premium I am sure I can squeeze in an emergency cartridge or two somewhere in the car to tide us over whilst we find a refill for the main/large cylinder.
Has anyone else done this? Even if not, is there an issue/downside I might not be considering?
FloGas claim to have more outlets than Calor, and I've certainly seen a number of outlets either duel stocking or changing over to FloGas entirely in past year or so! I suspect like all supplies, some parts of the country will be better served than others. Calor acquired quite an abysmal reputation for being unable to supply almost all of the smaller portable cylinders over the past few years, ask caravaners trying to source 6Kg cylinders!
Only recently given up on Calor (6Kg) myself to swap to lighter 5Kg Gaslight, and had no difficulty getting a refill (swapped a 10Kg Gaslight I got for free!).
Calor's sudden (it's NOT a phasing out, it's an absolute stopping of the smaller cylinders from Feb this year!) abandonment of popular sizes has put enormous pressure on Flowgas for similar sized replacements and they did have some restricted supply earlier in the year, but I believe that may have passed now.
As to whether a disposable cartridge is a worthwhile 'emergency' backup depends on two things, the gas consumption of your appliances AND how high you have them turned up ie. how fast you use the gas!
The (Maximum) gas consumption part is easy to work out (g/h = grams per hour) from published figures, Campingaz stove is 2 x 145 g/h (290g/h total), The Cadac is 270 g/h. The EN417 cartridges are 440g butane/propane gas mixture, so roughly, on full tilt, the Campingaz stove will run for 1.5 hours, and the Cadac will run for 1.6 hours per cartridge. Obviously, at lower settings, the gas will last longer.
Practically, depending on how much you use them and how high you turn up the appliances, a cartridge will likely last you around 1-3 days per appliance.
As a comparison, we have used the smaller Campingaz CP250 (250g) cartridges on a suitcase type stove, and we'd go through at least one a day.
Can't see a downside other than potential transport space issues, the 5Kg gaslight is quite a lot bigger than CG907, so additional space for a cartridge and regulator as well may become tight.
I am having trouble multi-quoting so will just pick out some of the specific points to respond to.
Re Calor availability, yes, certainly when switching from the CG907 to Calor I had a whole load of trouble doing so. The few places that had them were no longer accepting other sizes in exchange and so I had to specifically hunt down empty 4.5kg cylinders on local marketplace groups (other sizes seemingly widely available, obviously!) and every retailer was saying how sporadic their supply was even when I eventually had an exact one to exchange.
I'll have a look round to see what Flogas - and Gaslite specifically - availability is like. The thing is, it is when we're away - wherever that might be - that I'd be under potential pressure to get it replaced quickly hence why I am thinking about the EN417 canisters given their seemingly ubiquitous availability. Even though more expensive we probably don't use enough gas year-on-year to make it matter all that much financially and I can always view the extra cost being for convenience and stress reduction. It'd be an unwelcome disruption to a holiday if we a) ran out of gas whilst cooking (and let's face it - when else would it be!) and/or b) we had to phone round local suppliers to face constant rejection like in a certain Yellow Pages advert from the 80s.
Calor do seem to have backtracked slightly on their small bottle retirement insofar that they have agreed to continue supplying like-for-like refills however if the last few years is anything to go by I think the 'subject to availability' caveat will in practice will mean supply has all but disappeared so I am tempted to jump before I'm pushed.
Thanks for running the consumption figures - really useful. The outcomes are better than I expected actually, particularly given we very rarely cook on full power - quote the opposite in fact. Whilst inevitably I would be replacing cylinders/canisters more often I do have to recognise that the gas is a consumable.
I might grab an EN417 regulator and canister and just give it a try in the garden; I'll have them then so no further procrastination required! I can then use the Calor 4.5kg until it runs out, which typically won't be for many years now that I've got mitigation in place!
what about considering the 5kg bottle size that safefill do? its a lpg refillable, so you own the bottle and then just take the bottle along and refil it at one of the many outlets, the main one being morrisons petrol stations so easy enough to find, cost is around 80p a litre to give you an idea we where away on a rally for a week, 5 of us, so all the cooking showers fridge and hotwater cost us £5 in gas for the week
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: EN417 gas as backup fuel source?
