Most common make of gas used in motorhome for UK

Do you have a refillable tank, refillable cylinders or exchangeable cylinders?

The most commonly used exchangeable (rented) cylinders are Calor of which propane (red bottles) are probably more popular than butane (blue bottles). However, everything seems to be in short supply at the moment. Calor cylinders can be exchanged on CAMC sites in normal times and in garden centres, DIY stores and the like.

Refillable tanks and cylinders is a different issue and it's usually a case of filling with whatever you can lay hands on.

Hi.. Thanks for info.

LPG for refillable tanks in the UK is also propane but on the Continent in those countries with a milder climate it can be a mix of butane and propane.

peedee

Peedee's comment about Autogas set me thinking.

As it is a mixture of propane/butane and they have different freezing points -are the proportions of each varied seasonally or is there a standard mix?If the UK Autogas is purely propane,as Peedee says,that makes perfect sense-given our climate.The Continent has some areas which get very,very  cold in the Winter -so is their mix seasonally adapted to suit or is there an EU standard ?Our Autosleeper has a built in  refillable tank but in our previous vans we always used Calor propane -being "year round" users of our MH.It is currently full of "French" gas left over from our last pre-Covid trip there;not anticipating any problems,just indulging  my curiosity.

It’s perhaps why our Hymers regulator has a heater on it that can be switched on. It seemed a bit superfluous to me for Propane and I’ve always left it off. However, if over there is a mixture, it could prove useful if I come back with French LPG in our Gaslow cylinders.

I haven't see a report for some years but when refillable bottles first came on the market there were problems with those who had them and went winter skiing. It was reported they were running out of gas but the refillable bottles could not be fully refilled.  It was put down to the butane content in the gas mix freezing which then could not be extracted. Each time the bottle was refilled less and less gas could be topped up because of the build up of frozen butane. One of the solutions put forward was to wrap the bottles in an insulating jacket.

I doubt the mix of gas is seasonally adjusted. Bulk storage tanks would have to be purged seasonally.

peedee

The “chilling” is coming from internally, the LPG gassing, just like refrigerants in fridges, so the last thing that is needed is wrapping in a jacket to keep the cold in.

Open up the locker to allow some heat from the ambient, to dissipate the cold.

Best is to use up the residual butane on warmer days, sadly not many of those on a winter skiing holiday.

Extended use of these auto gases with a butane content, that are supplied for use in liquid draw off systems, will in low temperatures*, in our vapour draw off system, lead to issues.

You need above 6C to be free of issues with butane mixes, in high gas draw off cases like space heating. There is no issue with propane, that will gas off down to about minus 40 C, though the bottle might look like an ice block.