Air Liquide

[Wozzaaah]

Got a price today for pure argon from an Air Liquide dealer;

L50 cylinder (10.5m³)
£6.70 per month rental billable every 3 months
£28.26 fill
£9.30 handling charge
all plus VAT
Sounds pretty good to me, anyone else use them?

I will try to get a list of all their prices, we already have BOC and AP on here.

 

[Baz-Cem]

Here is a dealer list,

http://www.uk.airliquide.com/en/contact-us/agent-network.html

 

[Wozzaaah]

A quick follow-up, I've also enquired about Air Liquides argon/co2 mix and quite frankly their prices seem superb;

Large L50 cylinder (10.7m³) 80/20 mix;
£18.76 fill
£6.70 PM rental
£9.30 handling
All plus VAT.
So a fill will cost me £32.97

The last fill I had from AP which was the integra cylinder (built in regulator) was;
£42.22 fill
£12.62 handling
plus vat - £64.78 total.
The integra cylinder also holds less than AL's L50, I think it was 9.something m³ as opposed to 10.5.

I think I've been paying over the odds!
I rang AP and they said they couldn't do anything on the rental but they've offered me a £16 refill rate. Annually, it will still cost me more than Air Liquide so I'm changing over Thurs. I also don't have anywhere near as far to go to pick the gas up either.

 

[marknotgeorge]

Can you find out the pressure or the actual amount of gas in litres, Woz? I need this to put in the welding spreadsheet.

Cheers.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Not sure about the pressures, I will confirm when I pick the cylinders up Thurs but the capacities are:

Argon - 10.5m³ = 10500L
Ar/Co2 - 10.7m³ = 10700L
Nice and simple calculation, 1m³ = 1000 litres

Those prices were given to me by my local steel supplier (Devizes Steel Supplies) so anyone should be able to get the same prices at any of their other dealers.
If you want any more details, let me know and I'll see if I can get them for you.

 

[marknotgeorge]

I don't need the pressures now. All I need is the amount in litres, which I could work out from cylinder capacity and pressure if need be. Thanks!

 

[MarkG]

Air Liquide eh !

Here we go ;

Argon 4.8 - 50ltr
Co2 mixes - 47ltr
Oxygen - 47ltr
Acetylene - 58ltr (50ltr in 'new style' tall bottles)
Hydrogen / Helium mixes - 50ltr

All Large high pressure cylinders are 200bar.

Air liquide agents have discessionary price lists, they can offer cheaper rates for users of 4 bottles or more.

Any info you need on AL, let me know... I'm an agent for them...

 

[Spacecowboy]

I've just negotiated a deal with Air Products after following a suggestion from this site. I have only just seen the info on Air Liquide and I think that would be cheaper again.
My problem is living out in the sticks and getting things delivered. Looks like somewhere in Middle England is the best place to be to get any kind of choice in materials and consumables.

 

[English Steve]

I don't have an Air Liquide dealer anywhere near so looks like i'm stuck with BOC or AP

 

[Wozzaaah]

Ha, while we're on the subject of Air Liquide again I had my first invoice from them today for the two cylinders I started up with. The Argon one is fine but for some reason they've charged me £35.34 for the agon/co2 fill instead of £18.76 and to top it off they've charged me twice!
Not a good start really but a very quick (and free) phonecall later and it's all sorted!

Oh and they also sneak a 20p 'environmental charge' on each bill too, not sure what it's about but it's only 20p so it won't break the bank.

 

[andy82]

Hi Spacecowboy, i know the feeling living out in the sticks. I have resorted to using air products, however i do save money on buying steel form corus in mosstodloch about 10 mile from me.

 

[aneaterweld]

Be careful with Air Liquide if you are collecting your cyllinders direct from their depot. I had an experience where they were not logging returns on the system and they over charged for cyllinders I did not have. They were also reluctant to rectify their errors and gave excuses such as "there isn't always staff available to update the system" This might not happen to you, but please check your invoices very carefully and do not accept instructions from staff to "Just leave your bottle there and we'll sort it out later". Don't sign the delivery note until they log the bottle on the system, however they give assurances that they will "do it later" ignore that.

In my case the staff appeared friendly and competant but they are under staffed and under pressure so I guess thats why the error occured.

 

[brightspark]

and if they wernt logging returns guess where the floating bottles would end up err look chaps weve got 20 bottles over the odds better put them back on the stock list

 

[mike os]

Be careful with Air Liquide if you are collecting your cyllinders direct from their depot. I had an experience where they were not logging returns on the system and they over charged for cyllinders I did not have. They were also reluctant to rectify their errors and gave excuses such as "there isn't always staff available to update the system" This might not happen to you, but please check your invoices very carefully and do not accept instructions from staff to "Just leave your bottle there and we'll sort it out later". Don't sign the delivery note until they log the bottle on the system, however they give assurances that they will "do it later" ignore that.

In my case the staff appeared friendly and competant but they are under staffed and under pressure so I guess thats why the error occured.

thats easy... you just stop paying them till its put right

 

[Engineer]

Its also worth remembering that as well as pretty awful customer services, that Air Liquide cylinder fill pressures are lower than any of their competitors, so you are getting less gas!

 

[Wozzaaah]

What pressure are they filled to?

 

[Omniata]

I think they set an upper limit of 200bar, but they may fill lower with others...

Not too sure with their smaller cylinders as they have specialist valves fitted as an alternative...

They also fit pre-regulated valves to the larger cylinders so you don't have to fit a reg...


Edit: So what may appear to be lower pressure may just be a regulated output at lower pressure...

 

[Engineer]

Also beware of the small rental free Air Liquide cylinders.............if you need to do any amount of welding in a year, its likely to be cheaper to pay the rental on a large cylinder and be able to get the gas an awful lot cheaper.