plus does away with naked flames, condensation, potential gas leak hazards and the need to consider gas usage / re-fill opportunities.
No brainer.
New conversion - Underslung LPG tank v Refillable 907 Gas Cylinders
No brainer.
I admit I was concerned with length of service but I still have the original 907 plumbed in after the van conversion in 2017. I bought two for £17 each. I’ve been carrying the spare for over a year now but the first one seems bottomless.
I have to say that if I was doing it all over again, I would probably go the Wallas route for a diesel hob and heater. That said, we've got the 'usual' diesel heater / gas hob (907) combo which works well for us. I do weigh the 907 cylinder after every trip to check how much gas we've got left but as @slocumjoseph says they do seem to last a very long time particularly with the sort of use that we put it to. If anybody is interested, I use a cheapo Lidl digital luggage scale to do the weighing - it's accurate and was only about £5 and I leave it in the gas cabinet so it's always handy. On long trips, we also carry one of the ubiquitous squat / square stoves as an emergency backup or to use on a quick stop which saves diving into the gas safe to turn the 907 regulator on / off. It helps that we've had it for years and also have a good stock of the gas cylinders that it needs.
I have a similar speced out van to your potential one. Hope these points are relevant. It has a Webasto diesel heater and a proper gas cabinet for my 907. As my previous reply states, it’s been used for coffee making and some cooking since 2017. I’m often wild camping mid winter and have, a few times found my LB battery does not have enough state of charge to ignite the Webasto heater. Which incidentally, is very quiet. Once when 6 below! Not funnyI However, if you can crawl from under the duvet in those temperatures the van heats quickly once the kettle is boiling and I’ve left the gas on trickle afterwards…with proper ventilation and a CO2 meter. I’ve been carrying a spare for ages now but it just goes on and on. My fridge is compressor only so not a drain. Never had much problem lighting the galley stove in low temperatures. Usually it was down to the actual ignition switch but easy to sort with a lighter. My vehicle is kept in the centre of London and is also used as my local runabout and shopping trolley so not good for the DPG but as myself or my son travel around the uk multiple times during the year the system gets a regular good blow through and has never been a problem. Lastly, I did consider the LPG option but I already have two underslung 40ltr tanks for grey and white water but there’s not a lot of room down there. I also have a shower and porta potti installed that can be used inside in the winter even though it’s a SWB pop top (I’ll do a photo tour of all this some time soon to show the cynics). What all this means is, if you are having a van converted from scratch, the conversion is your own personal spec for your own personal circumstances and not the convenience of the converter. Of course if you’re doing the work yourself, you can be practical or showy, outrageous or understated. But as personal as your imagination takes you.
Thanks to all for contributing to this thread which I've found helpful. We got our 1st van in Nov 21, 12 months after ordering a T6.1. Diesel heater means gas only used for cooking. Usual internal hob + external BBQ point. Since November we've managed 30 nights away. We try not to pay extra for EHU as LiFePo battery easily copes with 5 days with fridge+phones esp with solar. When on EHU we use a Vango sizzle to do the heavy cooking lifting where possible so was surprised to see we'd used over half our 907 already. Starting investigating and basically supposed to run a double burner stove for 8 hours. i.e. 16 x 1 burner-hours. At £32 per refill that's £2 per burner-hour. Than I realised how cheap Gaslow would be and pay-back in a couple of years. Only their 2.7kg "replacement" 907 cylinder doesn't appear able to fit in any gas locker made for said 907 and indeed it's 40mm taller. Grrrr.
So if you're gonna commit to taking a spare gas cylinder anyway on a longer trip, does it make sense to make that a Gaslow and just use it for as much outside cooking as possible, saving the expensive stuff for convenience cooking? Not much space in even a LWB T6 like ours so almost tempted to re-engineer somehow the whole gas situation to fit one Gaslow but any experience/comments of trying to do something similar would be appreciated.
So if you're gonna commit to taking a spare gas cylinder anyway on a longer trip, does it make sense to make that a Gaslow and just use it for as much outside cooking as possible, saving the expensive stuff for convenience cooking? Not much space in even a LWB T6 like ours so almost tempted to re-engineer somehow the whole gas situation to fit one Gaslow but any experience/comments of trying to do something similar would be appreciated.
I'm no expert on any of this stuff and, in any event, we tend not to do a lot of cooking in the van. Are you thinking about a 'stand alone' Gaslow cylinder? If so, you might need to investigate your filling options as my understanding is that you are not allowed to fill a cylinder directly from the pump - it has to be done via a plumbed in valve not dissimilar to the sort of thing used to fill a car autogas tank. As I say, I don't know much about all this but I have witnessed an argument going on in a filling station near me when a customer tried to fill a cylinder but was stopped by the staff.
I am an Electrician, so quite new to gas. Could someone tell me how I can install a 907 for hob and for external bbq point? Do I just buy a two way valve and run a copper pipe to the BBQ outlet? Is there an outlet that I can fit under rear bumper or something? I want to avoid recessing into side of the van
Fair shout I guess. I will have to consider this. I want to use it for a Joolca Hottap Nomad shower kit. Just the thought of screwing together all the regulator and hose etc each time maybe slight inconvenience but probably not too much extra work
I’d think long & hard before buying the Hottap thingy. It’s one of those great ideas on paper, that might be not so good in reality. We looked at similar setups & then realised that a kettle can do pretty much the same AND make a brew. The “thingy” will take up a lot of (beer) space in the van when not in use & will still be a faff setting it up, so not as spontaneous as the ads would have you believe.
BUT, it’s your call.
Nice one yeah that’s solid common sense. I will be basically living in the van full time even in winter and I do a lot of surfing and stuff so I was thinking maybe for my personal requirements having a bbq outlet and the Joolca will be suitable
Fair comment. If you’re spending a lot of time in one place, it might work for you. Saying that we take our van to the Alps skiing for 5 weeks or so each winter. We spend a fair amount of time “off grid” in ski station car parks etc, and still get by ok with a “van shower”. Boil the kettle, strip off, stand on our £5 B&M rubber door mat, collapsible washing up bowl & a flannel and shower gel. We use the microfibre towels which dry very quickly. Put the Webasto on & you practically dry stood up.
Here’s our BBQ point & valve arrangement
I wonder how often the underslung gas cylinders have to be inspected/tested? I used to dive and dive cylinders were inspected every 2.5 years. Those Calor cylinders have a ten year service life before inspection/testing.
I haven't read the whole thread, but do underslung require periodic testing?
I haven't read the whole thread, but do underslung require periodic testing?
I was under the impression that an annual safety check was required for underslung LPG tanks.
10 years life apparently.
Not a bad shout either. I did see another brand on Amazon called Colapz doing these sorts of showers? You're happy enough anyway and reckon no need for the fancier set up really?
It all depends on what you want from your van. Campervans are at the “small spaces” end of the motor home market & everything has to be a compromise. In an ideal world we’d love a bathroom with a bog & hot shower. It can be done in a VW but the amount of space it would take up, would compromise the rest of the van. It’s very much down to individual choice & what you regard as necessary-needed-nice to have. We’ve managed 5 years+ without a loo & shower. We actually have a PortaPotti that’s still never been used in the 5 years we’ve had the van. We have an outdoor cold shower that we’ve used a couple of times when we’ve been on a beach. The flip side is we love the fact that we can take the van just about anywhere. We’ve just returned from a 8 week 4000 mile trip to Portugal/Spain/France. Half of that time we’ve been off grid, stealth camping.
We have a colapz shower and it’s a great bit of kit. Simple, small and very effective.
