Getting USA cooking gas tanks filled

[chuckr]

Currently in Italy -- we have usa cooking gas tanks that we can get filled in Tunisia but not sure about anywhere else -- we are headed to Albania and Croatia to get out of the EU and our thought was the best chance would be in Croatia --
any one have any experience with getting tanks filled
thanks

[bobnlesley]

Albania and perhaps Turkey are likely to be your best chances; they're both countries that can get things done without too many rules coming into play.

Beyond that, you might have to go the decanting route? We're currently in the USA with French Camping-Gas cylinders; not even the smallest US tanks will fit in our gas locker. We have an un-regulated connector with a shut-off valve for both US tanks and our Camping Gas ones, each of which terminates in a hose barb. Connect a full and an empty tank together, using a long gas-hose, with the full/donor tank upside down, at a higher level and preferably in a sunnier position that the empty one and the gas will flow down into the empty one. We also have a spring-balance too: Weigh the empty tank before you begin, calculate what it should weigh when full and continually check the weight as the gas transfers, this avoids overfilling the tank; as a matter or course, we always slightly underfill our tanks, they're supposed to hold 3kg (about 7lbs) of gas, but we never increase the empty weight by more than 6.5lbs.

[boatman61]

Dunno about Italy but Spain and Portugal you can take your tanks to certain stations and get them filled..
Mallorca is Alcudia..
Portugal there's several places along the Algarve and W coast.. same with Spain mainland.. quite a few cars run on LPG..

[savoir]

Originally Posted by bobnlesley

Albania and perhaps Turkey are likely to be your best chances; they're both countries that can get things done without too many rules coming into play.

Beyond that, you might have to go the decanting route? We're currently in the USA with French Camping-Gas cylinders; not even the smallest US tanks will fit in our gas locker. We have an un-regulated connector with a shut-off valve for both US tanks and our Camping Gas ones, each of which terminates in a hose barb. Connect a full and an empty tank together, using a long gas-hose, with the full/donor tank upside down, at a higher level and preferably in a sunnier position that the empty one and the gas will flow down into the empty one. We also have a spring-balance too: Weigh the empty tank before you begin, calculate what it should weigh when full and continually check the weight as the gas transfers, this avoids overfilling the tank; as a matter or course, we always slightly underfill our tanks, they're supposed to hold 3kg (about 7lbs) of gas, but we never increase the empty weight by more than 6.5lbs.

It's impossible to overfill your tank using the gravity method. You could overfill if you took your bottles to a gas station and filled there using the pump. If anyone wants to fill this way the safe volume for a 20 lb tank is 16 litres. Any gasfitter can make a car - marine propane pigtail for you.

[Tellus]

Originally Posted by chuckr

Currently in Italia --- we are headed to Albania and Croatia to get out of the EU

....for Croatia will be bit late..

[barnaclejim]

We tried to fill our US tanks in Spain and Italy and finally bought Italian tanks, and regulators and mounted then on deck, also can be exchanged in Greece. easy to get the tanks and parts and much cheaper than the small camping gas cylinders. We are currently in Turkey and they fill US bottles no problem. Were planning to go to Croatia but so many cruisers complained about the crowds and cost The coast of Turkey is amazing, safe, friendly and with great anchorages everywhere. As in the rest of the Med the actual sailing is not the greatest but the history and culture make up for it. fair winds

[AngeW]

Hi we started with US tanks but switched to camping gaz tanks when we couldn't fill then in Italy. Camping gaz is easy to exchange tanks everywhere in Italy and Greece but much more limited in Croatia. 15 minute bike ride from Dubrovnik Marina there is a specialist gas filling station which would be your best bet in Croatia to try and get them filled.

[goboatingnow]

Bear in mind that filling cylinders is technically illegal in the EU. You will still find places that will do it. Gas refill facilities now have to conform to specific standards , and that has removed a lot of back street facilities. Cylinder swap is the preferred method

Dave




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Bear in mind that filling cylinders is technically illegal in the EU. You will still find places that will do it. Gas refill facilities now have to conform to specific standards , and that has removed a lot of back street facilities. Cylinder swap is the preferred method

Dave




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hmmm I've recently (January) taken cylinders to a gas utility/facility in the Canaries (Spain) and they happily filled a big spanish tank we had. They did not exchange it.

[chuckr]

thanks to all --
we are trying hard to get out of schengren countries and hope to be in albania by 6th or 7th or in a week or so -- so will try first in albania and if not in croatia -
we did rig up a gravity feed for tanks when we were in panama but did not have to use it as one ingenious panamian figured out how to get our tank filled - so we got some connections but not sure if they will work with other bottles or not

and by the way we had no issue getting them filled in port yasmine hammamet tunisia --

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Dunno about Italy but Spain and Portugal you can take your tanks to certain stations and get them filled..
Mallorca is Alcudia..

I might be near there in a couple of weeks, can you tell me exactly where in Alcudia I can get my bottles filled? Currently, we're using induction and infared cookers. But it would be nice to have the propane option once again. We have the butane camping gas bottle as a backup, but they're just ridiculous.

Thanks. Ken

[SVAspen]

We were able to get our US tanks filled in Marmaris, Crete and again in Gibraltar. Asking around with the locals will give you lots of leads to follow up on!

Good luck!

[captmikecoin]

Maybe not relevant just now but if you ever get to the Greek Ionian you can get your tanks filled at Ionion (sic) Marine, Preveza. They have done ours a few times but need a couple of days.

We have one tank with a float valve and one without. The former cannot be filled by decanting from a local tank and must be sent away to a filling station. The latter can be filled by decanting.

Cheers,

Mike

[Palarran]

To get your lp tank filled in Dubrovnik go to Dubrovnik marina. You can anchor in the river without a problem and use your dingy to get to the marina. Then walk through the marina to the main road. Turn left and walk about 1 mile until you see a road sign indicating the refill site. It is for cars running on lp but they filled my cylinders without a problem. I have the blue camping gaz cylinders and the ones in Croatia are orange and I believe have a different connection. But they can refill at the station. In any case, I would suggest that you buy the $150 lp to camping gaz adapter and just get a gaz cylinder as it is so much easier and available.

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by Palarran

To get your lp tank filled in Dubrovnik go to Dubrovnik marina. You can anchor in the river without a problem and use your dingy to get to the marina. Then walk through the marina to the main road. Turn left and walk about 1 mile until you see a road sign indicating the refill site. It is for cars running on lp but they filled my cylinders without a problem. I have the blue camping gaz cylinders and the ones in Croatia are orange and I believe have a different connection. But they can refill at the station. In any case, I would suggest that you buy the $150 lp to camping gaz adapter and just get a gaz cylinder as it is so much easier and available.

As an update, we did get our tank filled by EuroMarine in Dubrovnik when we went in for some repair work. They just disappeared with the tank and our adaptor and came back the next day with the tank.

Next year is Greece and Turkey so thanks for the recommendations on those 2 countries.