Sweden -- Gas Bottles

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by conachair

Next time you're home you could invest in an adaptor kit like these....

GasBOAT 4018 Marine Universal Gas Cylinder Adaptor Kit at SOCAL

Then just borrow a local bottle and decant, saved me much more than the cost over the past few years.

I have one of those on board with me! That exact kit. Actually belongs to a shipmate who bought it for his circumnavigation, and was given to me by mistake together with some of my mail, while we were berthed at his house in Copenhagen.

So how do you use that to "decant" gas?

[nigel1]

Well, this is what I would do.
Identify the connections which will fit the donor cylinder and the cylinder to be refilled.
Join the two with suitable LPG hose.
Fit the assembly to the donor cylinder, make sure the valves are all shut.
Now, invert the donor cylinder and hang from a suitable location, boom will do nicely.
Take your receiving cylinder and place in a bucket of cold water (not absolutely necessary, but it speeds up the process).
Place this under the donor cylinder.
Now, open the valve on the donor cylinder, and then the valve on the other end of hose. Take care, as a jet of LPG is going to be expelled. Soon as you see liquid, shut valve and connect to the receiving cylinder. Open the valve at the receiving cylinder end, and decant the LPG from the donor to the receiving cylinder.

The idea of the bucket of water is to keep the receiving cylinder cool, reduces the gas pressure and allows a quicker transfer.

You need to make sure you do not over fill the receiving cylinder, do you have a means of weighing the cylinder.

I have those stupid Camping Gaz 907 cylinders, which hold about 2.7kg of butane.
Refill cost in the UK is nearly £30.
I buy a 15kg cylinder of Butane (about £30 for a refill) and decant that to the 907's.

Of course, take all sensible precautions, protect skin from LPG, no ignition sources etc.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I have one of those on board with me! That exact kit. Actually belongs to a shipmate who bought it for his circumnavigation, and was given to me by mistake together with some of my mail, while we were berthed at his house in Copenhagen.

So how do you use that to "decant" gas?

I get a bottle with some gas in it from somewhere, connect it with a short pigtail to my own cylinder then hang the "guest" cylinder upside down so the gas flows into mine. Takes a while and if it's a bit chilly some warm water on the guest cylinder now and then helps.
V important! Check the capacity of yours against how much is in the guest, 70% seems to be the recommended max gas level in a tank to allow for expansion.

I changed to homebase gaslight grp bottles so it's easy to see how much is in there.

Saved me a fortune living in St kats in London where only small expensive gaz bottles were available locally, borrow a car and pop down to hss and hire full propane bottle for a day to refill mine a few times a year.

Best not to be too obvious, freaks people out but safe enough outside, just a little leakage from the pipe when you disconnect.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by nigel1

Well, this is what I would do.
Identify the connections which will fit the donor cylinder and the cylinder to be refilled.
Join the two with suitable LPG hose.
Fit the assembly to the donor cylinder, make sure the valves are all shut.
Now, invert the donor cylinder and hang from a suitable location, boom will do nicely.
Take your receiving cylinder and place in a bucket of cold water (not absolutely necessary, but it speeds up the process).
Place this under the donor cylinder.
Now, open the valve on the donor cylinder, and then the valve on the other end of hose. Take care, as a jet of LPG is going to be expelled. Soon as you see liquid, shut valve and connect to the receiving cylinder. Open the valve at the receiving cylinder end, and decant the LPG from the donor to the receiving cylinder.

The idea of the bucket of water is to keep the receiving cylinder cool, reduces the gas pressure and allows a quicker transfer.

You need to make sure you do not over fill the receiving cylinder, do you have a means of weighing the cylinder.

I have those stupid Camping Gaz 907 cylinders, which hold about 2.7kg of butane.
Refill cost in the UK is nearly £30.
I buy a 15kg cylinder of Butane (about £30 for a refill) and decant that to the 907's.

Of course, take all sensible precautions, protect skin from LPG, no ignition sources etc.

Wow, that sounds . . . adventurous.

In order to be sure not to overfill the "receiving cylinder", wouldn't it make sense to refill it from a smaller "donor cylinder"? Then overfilling is impossible if the "receiving cylinder" is empty.

I'm not sure, however, that my "receiving cylinder" doesn't have any air in it. It was completely empty and I left the valve open for a few minutes to get every bit of gas pressure out of it, as I didn't want to risk that it would leak anything in long storage. If there's air in it, then it would be a bomb, not so?

[nigel1]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

If there's air in it, then it would be a bomb, not so?

Welll, if you held a match to it .....

Soon as you add a little LPG the cylinder contents will be way beyond the upper flammable limit, but best if a n expert could advise, I always disconnect the cylinders as soon as they are empty, and that closes them.

A smaller cylinder as the donor one would be a safe approach.

FYI, in the case of the 907 cylinder, which I mentioned I place in a bucket of water when filling, this has two purposes. One, it keeps it cool, and two, as soon as the 907 cylinder dips below the surface of the water, it has the correct weight of gas inside, but this may only be true for this type of cylinder.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

. If there's air in it, then it would be a bomb, not so?

Only if you stick your hand inside with a match

Not sure if it would be any different from getting a bottle filled at the depot.

I've vague unreliable memories of the cooker taking a few seconds to light first time as the air gets purged from the system.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by conachair

Next time you're home you could invest in an adaptor kit like these....

GasBOAT 4018 Marine Universal Gas Cylinder Adaptor Kit at SOCAL

Then just borrow a local bottle and decant, saved me much more than the cost over the past few years.

The gasboat adapter kit from the UK has proven to be a totally useless waste of 200 euros. We've tried to use in in three different locations to adapt and it never has the right threads. I just tried to use it here in Montenegro to fill our UK
Propane bottle.

It didn't work, wrong threads again.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

The gasboat adapter kit from the UK has proven to be a totally useless waste of 200 euros. We've tried to use in in three different locations to adapt and it never has the right threads. I just tried to use it here in Montenegro to fill our UK
Propane bottle.

It didn't work, wrong threads again.

Handy to know, what were the other 2 bottles it didn't fit?

Saved me loads already so quids in so far

[Dockhead]

Actually maybe the air is not such a big problem -- just blow off some gas after filling, or after filling just a little. Or what do you think?

[nigel1]

I think it would be fine if it had a little air in the cylinder, but, to be on the safe side, you could add a touch of LPG and then vent it.

[cagney]

FWIW....A lot of Swedish bottles uses the "POL" thread, which is standard US propane thread. I've had no problems filling my Swedish 6 kg bottle in the Caribbean/Bahamas.

/Thomas

[nigel1]

Butane being heavier than air, and if the valve was only left open for a few minutes, I doubt if any air entered the cylinder.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by nigel1

Butane being heavier than air, and if the valve was only left open for a few minutes, I doubt if any air entered the cylinder.

It's a propane, not butane bottle, but I presume the comment still applies.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by conachair

Handy to know, what were the other 2 bottles it didn't fit?

Saved me loads already so quids in so far

I couldn't even do English threaded orange propane recepticle to common blue bottle camping gas.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

I couldn't even do English threaded orange propane recepticle to common blue bottle camping gas.

Odd. The kit I have definitely has adapters to fit both those bottles.

Kit Includes
1x Screw on Adaptor to fit Camping Gaz cylinders 901, 904, 907
1 x Screw on adapter to fit Primus cylinders
1x Screw on adapter to fit Propane Bottle - POL (BSP)
1x Screw on Adapter to Left Hand EU / G4 Cylinders
1x Screw on adapter for USA / Australasia / Scandinavia / Iceland - (NPT POL)
1x Clip on adapter to fit 21 mm cylinders (Calor Gas 15kg & 7Kg)
1x Clip on adapter to fit 20 mm cylinders (French TWINY, ELFI and MALICE)
1 x Clip on adapter to fit 27 mm cylinders (LE CUBE, Calor PATIO GAS and some Portuguese cylinders)
2x stainless steel spanners which fit the bottle adapters and regulators