Gas

Background

We use gas in our van for cooking, heating and warm water. As such gas is a critical resource that we don’t want to run out of. Our gas compartment can hold up to two 11kg gas bottles.

In cold weather (winter) we can make 1 bottle last about 4-5 days - depending on the temperature. In summer time it’s pretty much endless as we don’t use the heater and cooking barely uses any gas. Warm water is only needed for a cozy shower.

During our very first winter trip we made the experience that it can be tricky to get your gas bottles filled or exchanged for full bottles.

This is especially true as we had two bottles from “Alugas” as they weigh much less than the standard steel ones. Unfortunately though, they are harder to come by even in Germany.

Another challenge is that German gas bottles don’t come with the 80% shut off safety valve and thus getting them filled outside of Germany is a real challenge.

Lastly, we vacationed over Christmas and New Years when many shops are closed.

So, we figured this isn’t a sustainable situation and we don’t want to be limited in range by the proximity of the nearest available gas filling/exchange station!

Solution

Gas tank bottles (“Gastankflaschen”) i.e. gas bottles that do have the 80% safety shut off valve and can be filled at any LPG/Autogas gas station.

These bottles are extremely convenient. You can fill them at any gas station that sells LPG/Autogas and it’s completely safe. Even better: you can fill them at any time, you don’t have to wait for a bottle to be completely empty (like you would if you had to exchange it). That means when you come by a station with LPG/Autogas, just top up your bottle and you are pretty much never running out of gas again.

I know many people at this point will raise their finger 👆 and comment on TÜV and the general legal situation for gas tank bottles. I won’t address this any further as there are many articles and YouTube videos about it and it is ever changing. You have to come to your own conclusion.

The installation should be done by a certified professional as you are making changes to your gas infrastructure. Don’t cheap out on sensible areas! It is usually done within a day or two and the price is well worth the reward. Since we are close (ish) to Cologne, we had our installation done by Ralf Kohl from https://www.wohnmobil-elektronik.de/. The service and consultation was great and the installation only took a couple of hours. Ralf also gave us a thoroguh introduction and step-by-step instructions how to use the system safely.

We opted to change both bottles after some consideration. Initially we figured let’s go with just one bottle in case a country doesn’t have LPG/Autogas gas stations, but we dismissed the thought after checking all the countries we want to travel to.

Finding gas stations that sell LPG/Autogas

Initially it was a bit tricky to find gas stations with our usual map and navigation applications until we found myLPG.eu. It’s a well maintained app that shows LPG/Autogas gas stations across Europe - exactly what we needed. We can highly recommend this app!

Images of the final solution