Question What is the biggest gas cylinder you can buy?

Mark

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Does anyone know if there is a retail gas cylinder bigger than 9kg (say about 18 or bigger) that a person can swap or get refilled instead of relying on delivery?

Also, would it be cheaper to refill my own cylinders rather than get them delivered? A 45kg gas cylinder delivered costs $150.

The reason I'm asking is because I've just got my gas bottle "maintenance bill" from Origin gas for $71 :faint:

I have two standard 45kg gas cylinders supplied by Origin obviously for our gas cylinders and a few years ago Orgin sent out a letter saying they were introducing a yearly "maintenance fee" of $19.50 to help pay for wear and tear on the cylinders they provide. Well... A few years later and that "nominal fee" has turned into a BIG one.

I asked my local gas delivery guy what maintenance typically goes into these bottles and he showed me his spray bottle filled with soapy water and said, "See this, we just squirt a little soapy water around the valves and that's about it!" Then he belly laughed like Santa Claus :rolleyes:

If filling my own cylinders was viable I'd be happy to go exchange them myself. Any ideas or advice welcome.
 

Mortein

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Not sure of legallity, but I have seen people filling the 45kg bottles at the service station using auto gas. I have seen 2 different people at 2 different servos doing it. Considering I can't fill jerry cans in the tray of my ute I am not sure how they get away with it.
 

Tim C

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If you have a ute or other means, give Origin the big A, and get your bottles from a depot. They're $128 here, and no service fees. Just a bit of grunting getting them in the ute. And you probably want a sack truck at home to get them where they need to go. I fill my caravan-type bottles from the big one with a made-up adaptor. You turn the big bottle upside down to get liquid coming out and loosen the bleed screw on the little one. A bit of gas will escape so no naked flame etc. You know when it's full by both the weight, and that liquid starts coming out the bleed screw.
The bottles they illegally fill at the servos are the ones with the yellow capped gas fillers. You only get 80% filled, as there is no way of bleeding them. Not that you would want to inside your car!
As a point of interest when I worked at an engineering business, who was also a CIG depot, we used to stand a 45kg in the middle of the shed in winter time and light it up straight out the tap- a 6 foot flame 18 inches across would warm the shed up in about 20 minutes. The tap actually gets very cold, not hot. Then turn it off and blow out the residual flame. This was only ever done with a full bottle, if the bottle was to run out the flame could get back inside......KA-BOOM!!!!!
 
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Mark

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Thanks guys!

Not sure of legallity, but I have seen people filling the 45kg bottles at the service station using auto gas.
I've never seen that but I could understand a persons desperation to fill their own up rather than get ripped!

If you have a ute or other means, give Origin the big A, and get your bottles from a depot. They're $128 here, and no service fees.

I don't mind picking my own bottles up in my ute or trailer (probably whack him in the trailer - it has high sides). I suppose I'll do a bit of digging around to find a local gas supplier! Then, I'll have to ring Origin and tell them to pick up their bottles. Boo hoo to them... Say it costs $130 - I still save $20 a cylinder and don't pay the $71 annual fee (it'll probably be $100 next year) it means I'll be saving 100+ essentially close to the cost of a full cylinder.
 

Tim C

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Make a covered compost and run the cooker on methane. I saw a setup on tv in Asia- basically a big plastic bag- I think it was the one a new queen-sized mattress would come in. It was mounted in the rafters. The compost bin was in the kitchen,(not too)near the stove. It had a sealed lid and the methane was channelled up into it by a piece of 3/4 garden hose. To cook just lower the weight onto the bag and open the gas tap. A gas stove with different(bigger) jets.
Personally, I would go wood up there, outdoors/undercover in the wet. Maybe a decent funnel/rangehood inside? Since it is a vast resource up their. Design and fabricate your own slow combustion oven, double walled, either above or below your cooking surface ???:crazy::)
If you have ever looked at a car manifold with an air pre-heater you would see a flat coil spring attatched to a butterfly valve. That is basically what you need to regulate the fire heat/air supply.;) The hotter the spring gets, the more the air supply is closed.
Running a slow combustion heater at Milparinka in the winter (in my mates breezy shack), I would do 1 wood run a fortnight. I would load a 8x5 trailer to the hilt with 15 inch logs in well under and hour, if the chainsaw co-operated. So in the scheme of things, this is not such a big imposte.
Hell Mark, you could incorporate it into your pizza oven!!:)
Just off the outside living area. Made of stone and fire mortar to look like a big termite mound!
 
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Mark

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Hell Mark, you could incorporate it into your pizza oven!!:)
Just off the outside living area. Made of stone and fire mortar to look like a big termite mound!
Thanks Tim - all great ideas mate but the misses would kill me... :D
 

bearded1

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Hi Mark,
If you haven't you found a solution to your dilemma it may be worth shopping around. When we got our first two bottles, I rang a fair few places and discovered that there was a wide variety of prices and pricing structures. Some offer cheaper gas, but with a bigger 'rental' fee and vice versa. What I found was the bigger the company, the bigger the price. We ended up going with a local company in Yandina, who buys from Origin, but only charges $127.00 delivered. When we needed more bottles (we have six now as we have three dwellings) I asked for a discount on the rental. They said how about we only charge rental on the two you already have? of course I agreed. I think that someone like origin treats private gas delivery as cream so aren't willing to offer a better deal, but to a local retailer, it is their bread and butter so are forced to gain and keep your business.
They also do 9kg swap overs for $27 that can be delivered when the big ones arrive or you can go to their depot for them; -very handy. I don't know if they do your area, but there may be something similar in Cabbo.
Regards
bearded1
 

Mark

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Thanks bearded1 I'll take your advice and do some shopping around to see if there is a local gas company for cheaper.

I hope so but I do tend to see only the one origin truck around town which makes me think they have a monopoly - we'll see. If it's the same as our Internet (only the one provider) then there's not a lot I can do and we're sort of at the mercy of the utility. ...
 

Mark

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Mark we ended up hooking up 2 9kg gas bottles, and sitting them on a shelf off the house. For us we are only using it for hot water. We think this will end up being cheaper than having to pay the service fee
A guy down the road from me has done exactly the same as you. He has his 9kg cylinders hanging on the back wall.

We have a gas top stove and a hot water system so we'd have to get used to swapping gas cylinders more often.

Do you know roughly what you save by not getting gas delivered in 45kg cylinders Kate?
 

Letsgokate

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Based on our last service charge of 2x45kg bottles last Jan which was $72 and had gone up $6 on the previous year, so I'd expect around $80 which of course is every year. This pays for the 2x9kg gas bottles with plenty of change, nearly buys 3. Our camping trailer takes 9kg as does the BBQ, so we can move them around and also saves the bottles on the trailer just sitting there getting older while it's not being used. So for us it works out. Of course we save that $80 and more every year.

Also I think the plus is not having to have a truck drive up onto the property to fill the gas bottles when you run out

From our experience this still works out cheaper than having them come and auto fill the gas every 8 weeks or so, we did that once and it cost us a lot more.

By the way I did reply to your post on the Sea Princess :)
 

Mark

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So Kate, do you just use the swap and go then for your 9kgs? Do you think buying in bulk from Origin etc is comparable to retail prices when refilling your own 9kg or swapping them - just the gas price I'm talking about?

And, did you just call up the gas retailer and tell them to take the 45kg bottles away and close your account?
 

Letsgokate

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Hi Mark, we have never done a swap and go. Outback camping store at Morayfield fills 9kg for $19, BCF $19.95. Last time we got a 45kg filled was March last year @$143 which is $3.18 per kg x 9 = $25.60 for a 9kg of gas. Wow it is definitely cheaper to just got and get the 9kg filled. As I said this was March last year so more than likely more expensive now. The only thing is you have to go and get the 9kg filled more often. For us this works out much cheaper.
 

Mark

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Hi Mark, we have never done a swap and go. Outback camping store at Morayfield fills 9kg for $19, BCF $19.95. Last time we got a 45kg filled was March last year @$143 which is $3.18 per kg x 9 = $25.60 for a 9kg of gas. Wow it is definitely cheaper to just got and get the 9kg filled. As I said this was March last year so more than likely more expensive now. The only thing is you have to go and get the 9kg filled more often. For us this works out much cheaper.
Well that is very interesting Kate! Thanks for all those figures and it does seem rather incredible how much you do save by using the 9kg gas bottles and re-filling them yourself :shock:

My last order through Origin just recently cost $139.50 but the one before that was $152.50 so it seems domestic gas prices have gone down slightly for now. The yearly "rent" on the 2 x 45kg cylinders we have is up to $71 (about $6 per month) and I think getting a separate bill like this is pathetic! In fact, I'd rather they just roll the fees into their overall retail gas price!
 
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