4.5kg Butane Calor Bottles Discontinued!

[Smoggy]

https://www.calor.co.uk/cylinder-range-faq

After all the faffing trying to get bottles for the last 3 years Calor have now announced they are discontinuing the 3.9 propane and 4.5 butane bottles (along with a few others) so if you see any stock get them quick if that is all that fits your boat.

Can someone using 4.5kg flogas please measure the base ring OD and post for those of us with moulded gas locker bases? There's likely to be quite a few on here needing locker mods once they run out, flogas show 340mm height and 240mm diameter if that helps anyone but they don't give the base ring which looks bigger to me.

Base OD of my spare calor bottle is 195mm if it helps anyone.

Gits!!!!!!!

[JanetAnne]

The base on the flogas bottles varies. The ring comes in 4 different sizes, one of which is slightly wider than the bottle itself. The variation comes from their bottles coming from different sources.

I do wonder whether calor will be refunding the deposits on the bottles they so happily sold us now they are no longer supporting those bottles. Somehow I doubt it 

 

[DaveRolaves]

we went over to flogas 4.5kg bottles a while ago now. The base ring was wider than the calor and the height was fractionally taller but with slight modification the new cylinders went into the gas locker on our  Broom 10/70. Flogas bottles seem to be readily available. The regulator has to be of the clip on type.

[Cal]

Another alternative is refillable bottles such as Gaslow. 

They do a 2.7kg size which is the equivalent of the Camping Gaz 907 bottles.

Not cheap to make the initial purchase but very cheap to refill.

We use 2x11kg Galsow bottles on the van. Refilled at the weekend at less than £1 a litre and that isn't the cheapest place. A full bottle (22 litres) was under £20.

Wish we had known about the little bottles when we had the boat! 

[BroadAmbition]

Thank goodness we opted for propane back during the restoration in the early noughties.  Our 13kg bottles work just fine. last an age and don't freeze up either.  Plus I get them filled locally at home, cheap as chips - Hang on a mo, even chips ain't cheap anymore 

Griff

[Smoggy]

Looking at the cost of the gaslow bottles it would take me many years of gas use to break even over the actual gas saving so I think flogas will be my way out, I have a spare empty calor but even if I see a full one available I doubt I will part any more cash to calor, I'm fairly sure the height restriction in my gas locker is a grp moulding edge that can fairly easily be cut by an inch to allow for the base moulding and just resin in the moulding to flat, at least a clip on regulator will be easier and I can ditch the rusty spanner.

I suppose 40 years after the boat was built is a fair time for the same bottles to be available, others will have a harder time changing in tight gas lockers, many boats were fitted out specifically for those bottles back then.

I have a nearly full bottle and a spare full so I doubt it will be a worry till 2024 for me.

I look forward to seeing all the 4.5kg bbq's over the next couple of years, got use the bottles somehow....

[Cal]

1 hour ago, Smoggy said:

Looking at the cost of the gaslow bottles it would take me many years of gas use to break even over the actual gas saving so I think flogas will be my way out, I have a spare empty calor but even if I see a full one available I doubt I will part any more cash to calor, I'm fairly sure the height restriction in my gas locker is a grp moulding edge that can fairly easily be cut by an inch to allow for the base moulding and just resin in the moulding to flat, at least a clip on regulator will be easier and I can ditch the rusty spanner.

I suppose 40 years after the boat was built is a fair time for the same bottles to be available, others will have a harder time changing in tight gas lockers, many boats were fitted out specifically for those bottles back then.

I have a nearly full bottle and a spare full so I doubt it will be a worry till 2024 for me.

I look forward to seeing all the 4.5kg bbq's over the next couple of years, got use the bottles somehow....

It depends how much gas you use I suppose as to how long the bottles would take to pay back.

We won't be long before ours have paid for themselves now. I should think in another year ours will have more than paid for themselves.

They were cheaper when we bought them and we use a lot of gas in the winter in the van. The heating, hot water, fridge and cooking all run on gas when we are off grid which is probably 90% of the time. 

On our Christmas/New Years break we used a full 11kg cylinder in 5 nights with the heating on 24/7 which cost £18 to refill. The equivalent Calor is a 13kg Propane (which wouldn't fit in the gas locker) which is about £45 for an exchange!

[Smoggy]

Sound like a no brainer for your usage, we only have the cooker on gas and only usually do coffees and a bacon roll for brekkie on it, the pubs deal with the rest and diesel does the heating, a 4.5kg bottle does me about a year generally.

[Cal]

3 hours ago, Smoggy said:

Sound like a no brainer for your usage, we only have the cooker on gas and only usually do coffees and a bacon roll for brekkie on it, the pubs deal with the rest and diesel does the heating, a 4.5kg bottle does me about a year generally.

Our boat had the tiny and stupidly expensive Camping Gaz 907 bottles. We would use 2-3 of them a year so it wouldn't have taken us that long to recoup the costs of the smaller cylinders.

We are getting a direct fill 11kg Gaslow bottle for the BBQ this year once the current Calor gas bottle has run out. Will take longer to pay for itself as we only use a 13kg bottle of gas a year with the BBQ. But it will still work out cheaper in the long run.

[RumPunch]

Sllightly miffed - I built a custom locker for the 4.5. Hopefully Flogas will squeeze in

[DaveRolaves]

The flogas butane bottles have the clip on regulator -- does anyone know if a boat will pass the boat safety certificate with the clip on regulator??

[rightsaidfred]

19 hours ago, DaveRolaves said:

we went over to flogas 4.5kg bottles a while ago now. The base ring was wider than the calor and the height was fractionally taller but with slight modification the new cylinders went into the gas locker on our  Broom 10/70. Flogas bottles seem to be readily available. The regulator has to be of the clip on type.

Propane is screw in identical to Calor

Fred

[Smoggy]

As clip on bottles are going to become the only option for so many boats they'll either pass or the rules will change to suit.

[JanetAnne]

3 hours ago, DaveRolaves said:

The flogas butane bottles have the clip on regulator -- does anyone know if a boat will pass the boat safety certificate with the clip on regulator??

Yes it will. 

[Smoggy]

32 minutes ago, JanetAnne said:

Yes it will. 

I assume that means "yes it has".

I wonder how many 4.5kg bottles calor will find amongst the broken glass in their head office foyer over the next year.

[JanetAnne]

5 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

I assume that means "yes it has".

I wonder how many 4.5kg bottles calor will find amongst the broken glass in their head office foyer over the next year.

Under the current regulations a Flogas clip on butane regulator, provided it is in good condition, will pass when fitted to a private boat.  Best practice suggests any regulator has 'marine' stamped on it and some butane clip on units already do, however, it is my understanding that this is not mandatory... yet.

Seeings as you asked (), my boats are all on propane, except Water Rail which will be once her butane stash is exhausted, and all use marine regulators. My specific experience with the Flogas clip on regulators is from other boats going through the BSS.

[Smoggy]

I've not yet seem marine stamped on any regulator on any of the boats I've had, all passed bss. 

I also have some stamps.....

[JanetAnne]

Like I said, it's not a requirement on private vessels so your existing set up passes. However they do exist

[grendel]

they probably cost 5x the price of one without

 

[Smoggy]

That's not stamped, that's a bloody sticker!

I'll get a load printed and only charge £20 a go to fit them, bargain or what.

[JanetAnne]

Whatever