Propane gas bottle exchange?

[Reman]

Just a quick question.
I'm toying with the idea of getting a little propane space heater for when I'm doing stuff in the garage, but I'm wondering about getting gas for it. I know officially, you need to get a contract and pay somewhere like Calor gas to rent/lease a cylinder, and then you can exchange the emptys at places like certain Morrisons petrol stations, and B+Q's, but I really don't want to start paying rental on something I might only use a couple times a year.

I see old Calor gas cylinders on FB marketplace free to collector all the time, so I'm now starting to wonder what checks the Calor resellers actually do? Do you need to present your agreement, a card, or anything to them when you swap cylinders? Or do you just pay and the staff don't give a monkeys who you are?

Any insight would be appreciated.

(PS, Before anyone starts panicking about my safety (And don't think I'm not deeply touched by the concern. ), the garage has WAY TOO MUCH ventilation through open edges between the walls and the roof (Plus pretty ill fitting doors). And if I'm doing stuff in there I tend to be going in and out constantly, so one of the doors stays open. This is all part of the problem with not freezing my fingers off in there this time of year, so I should be fine not to CO/CO2 myself into oblivion.)

 

[h-dom]

You shouldn't need a contract for gas bottles, there is a local place near me, I call them up and ask them for two 47kg propane bottles, they deliver them and I pay them. There is no contract. The issue you MAY have at the moment is lack of bottles and they may only supply to you if you have bottles to exchange, but that may not be true everywhere.

 

[brightspark]

just get hold of the calor gas bottles and you can just get them exchanged like for like size from any caravan or callor dealers

 

[Reman]

just get hold of the calor gas bottles and you can just get them exchanged like for like size from any caravan or callor dealers

That's pretty much what I was assuming, but I wanted to check in case I was way off the mark.
I didn't want to get some bottles and have something like the local Morrisons petrol station confiscate them because there was no way I couldn't prove I had a contract or something.

I'm assuming a calor owned site would probably check you were paying your dues to them, but would anywhere else choose to look into it?

 

[gaz1]

(PS, Before anyone starts panicking about my safety (And don't think I'm not deeply touched by the concern. ), the garage has WAY TOO MUCH ventilation through open edges between the walls and the roof (Plus pretty ill fitting doors). And if I'm doing stuff in there I tend to be going in and out constantly, so one of the doors stays open. This is all part of the problem with not freezing my fingers off in there this time of year, so I should be fine not to CO/CO2 myself into oblivion.)

get them foamed up then

as stops a through draft which makes it much colder than what it should be

 

[Reman]

I did stuff them up with balls of paper years ago, but without the airflow it started getting really damp in there. As the garden is slightly higher than the garage floor, I think after several days of rain the water level gets high enough to get to the bottom of the slab and soak into it. The only way it doesn't start to form really damp patches is if theres enough airflow to carry the damp away. For a few years I assumed the roof leaked. It eventually resulted in me covering everything in there with news paper in a last ditch attempt to work out where it was coming in. I almost lost it when I still found puddles, yet no sign of water seeping in from anywhere above !!!
If I owned the place I'd have demolished the garage years ago, and rebuilt it bigger on a 6" higher slab, with propper damp proofing !!!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

get them foamed up then

as stops a through draft which makes it much colder than what it should be

Only don't do as a former colleague of mine did. Foamed round the door from the inside, then have to cut yourself out... in the dark and in freezing cold.

 

[gaz1]

dig it put a french drain in only needs a 3-4" gap at side of base

should cure the water into the garage and its classed as an improvement so not damaging the property

 

[Matchless]

I would buy one of those diesel heaters, like a lorry cab heater, a mate just bought one and he loves it, he runs the exhaust out of the letter box! he was using electric fan heaters and a space heater that made fumes,

 

[Reman]

Its concrete and tarmac all around the garage, so digging anything out is fun. I did cut a 3" trench out along the front of the door that went down to the soil, but all that does is fill with dead leaves several times a year and need scraping out. Doesnt stop the damp though.

I was looking at those cheap Chinese diesel van heaters, but it seems they can be a tad temperamental for infrequent use, and the electronics aren't fond of being in a damp enviroment. I COULD get one of the semi self contained ones I suppose, and mount it on something so the exhaust doesn't scorch the tarmac. That way I could store it in the house away from the damp, but it's kind of over complicating it a little in my head.

 

[hotponyshoes]

There is no ongoing rental on the standard red calor bottles although somebody somewhere will have originally paid a deposit on it.

Just get hold of one and you will be able to swap it no questions at 99% of places.

Just check there is a full one in the cage first as there is a shortage at the moment and if the garage/garden center rings it through the till before finding out they don't have any full ones it's a load of hassle you don't need.

 

[qwakers]

or use flogas, cheaper and no bottle deposit.

 

[waddycall]

I use flogas too. No deposit on the cylinder. Can’t imagine anyone charges rental on a propane cylinder.

 

[Wozzaaah]

just get hold of the calor gas bottles and you can just get them exchanged like for like size from any caravan or callor dealers

It doesn't even have to be like for like, there's a few calor ones you can exchange for different gases and sizes.

 

[James1979]

It doesn't even have to be like for like, there's a few calor ones you can exchange for different gases and sizes.

They have a chart in the shop, usually.

You can go down but you can’t go up.

Also look on Facebook or at the tip. A secondhand (empty) cylinder for a tenner is less than the first hire fee.

 

[sg66]

Usually it's swap group b for group b bottle there are only 2 in group b patio gas.

Group a is swap any bottle in that group , calor deposit is only going to happen if you have original agreement and even then its just a percentage depending on how long you took it out, they never ask to see rental agreement if you are swapping bottles, much cheaper buying/acquiring calor bottle.

 

[m_c]

You'll be lucky to get Calor gas just now, or any other supplier's gas unless you have an empty exchange bottle.

I had to get a new propane bottle this week, and the supplier was saying Calor has screwed everybody. Calor is struggling to supply gas to existing customers, so everybody has been trying to swap, meaning there is now a shortage of bottles for pretty much every gas supplier.
Thankfully I managed to find a suitable exchange cylinder buried between the sheds. The supplier did comment about the age of the bottle, but just said it's the right size and the right company, so I'm not going to refuse it if they can't supply me with new bottles.

 

[brightspark]

It doesn't even have to be like for like, there's a few calor ones you can exchange for different gases and sizes.

at the moment agents will only swap like for like round our way theres a shortage of bottles and none of them will ever swap the large ones for anything smaller

 

[hotponyshoes]

Calor specifically are only doing like-for-like at the moment due to a bottle shortage.
Although you shouldn't have much trouble finding an empty in the style you want.
It's ccurrently your only option with calor as they are not handing out any new bottles currently.

I don't know about the other suppliers though?
If all else fails buy a refillable outright and fill it from the lpg pumps.

 

[Cobbler]

or sneek in to fuel station with the propane bottle and your adaptor and fill em up without them seeing

& write ”REFILLABLE CYLINDER” on the side in felt tip?