After getting our RV home, we almost immediately ordered two 26l LPG bottles, with an outside filling connection. For us, the choice to invest in LPG bottles or not is easy. The pros of LPG bottles are outweighing the cons (and costs) by far!
The installation took a few hours, mainly because it was a very tight fit and it takes some trying and planning where the hoses can go.
Let’s put some of the pros on a list.
- You never have to lift the bottles out of the RV
- You can fill up everywhere in Europe at gas stations that have LPG
- You never have to return a bottle with still some gas left in it, just because you want to leave with a “full” bottle
- The total price of filling a bottle at the gas station is about half that of exchanging your empty bottle with a full one.
- You can quite easily see if the bottle is full or getting empty. It is not super accurate but it gives you a general idea.
Like always, with pros also comes some cons.
- The total cost of the bottles, hoses and outside filling is about 500 EUR.
- It is recommended to have an LPG filter since LPG is a bit less “clean” than pure propane gas.
The installation is quite easy but it takes some time. The hardest part of the job is making everything fit in the tiny space.
How does it work
LPG is a mixture of Propane, Butane, and sometimes a tiny bit of oil (very low percentage). The bottles have an 80% fill capacity shut-off. That means you can only fill them up for 80% of their capacity. A 26l bottle can hold about 20l of LPG. This is a very important security feature and makes sure that bottles cannot explode with huge temperature changes.
Further, it is quite a simple system, you have two bottles, each bottle has an inlet (to fill the LPG) and an outlet (towards the RV gas system). Using T connections you connect the two bottles so it behaves like 1 big bottle. You can still use the close-off valve to have only one bottle open at a time.
Outside connector
On the outside of the RV, you create an outside filling connector that with a hose is connected to the bottles.
This is an important step because, with this outside connector, you don’t have to open your gas locker at the gas station, you can just fill it from the outside. Ideal!
Filter
Although some people say this step is not needed, I believe it is highly recommended. Placing an LPG filter will clean the LPG from any possible oil or dirt. The filter is placed after the bottles and before the gas regulator.
