German propane canisters in other countries.

[epowell]

Hi Guys

My T3 came with 3 of these: http://kempingmania.hu/img/up/pic_61.jpg
It is not possible to swap them here in Czech, and in other countries.

Can anyone tell me about these canisters?? Are they still in common usage in Germany? In Germany can I just swap them when they are empty for full ones?

What about refilling them?? Is it possible to refill them in Austria, Hungary, or Croatia??

...or should I just buy the standard Czech ones?

Thanks for any info!
Ed

[0205nils]

Hello,

In Germany they are quite common, all the caravans have them too.
At Hornbach, Bauhaus and serveral others you get a checked and filled bottel in exchange.

In the Netherlands tit is like this:

they accept the german version but in Germany they dont accept it.
So..
It might be possible to fill them but not legal.

But Maybe you can tell me about the czech ones? What do they messure? Can i change them in Europe?

I have space for two in my T3. Maybe one for the european and one for the german?

[epowell]

I don't know about the Czech ones... I only have 3 of these German ones. They are SO HEAVY that I only want to take one with us.

Good news is that I found out about a place in Balaton HU that will probably fill them :)

[senegalbulli]

When I went to Bosnia (2013?), it was no problem to have the German ones refilled there.

[epowell]

Just to follow up.... finally we went to Balaton Lake in Hungary and I had been told about 3 places there that filled up propane. At the first place the guy just said it is not possible.

At the second place the guy told me he could do it but that it is illegal... I told him I would not tell anybody and he agreed to fill it up - and charged me nothing

[Atlantik90]

This gas-canisters have to be checked every 10 years. So first you have to look if this time has run out. Then refilling is illegal.
So it is better to have the canister in exchange every time wenn empty.

[epowell]

This gas-canisters have to be checked every 10 years. So first you have to look if this time has run out. Then refilling is illegal.
So it is better to have the canister in exchange every time wenn empty.

Aha... this is good to know. Probably this canister will last for 10 years! It's HUGE! :D

[Hannes]

You can change them also in Austria - we use the same canisters. But look to change them with canisters with the same color to get not in troubles, when you want to change them again.

[Fränkie]

u can also buy special bottles that can be refilled at an LPG-Station for cars. These adaptor of course fitting as well to normal bottles...but ist illegal....!

[epowell]

Finally in the end it might be most simple just to buy the Czech canisters... and fill at home each time before the trips.

But I have 3 of these HUGE German ones :)

[Fränkie]

With a 5 kg canister i am good for at least 3 week cooking and cooling.... an with the old canister u can make a waste oil stove ore smoking stove or something.....
In germany if u have such a canister for changing u cant change it as long as u like but if u don’t have the bill whit the deposit u will never get the money back... that’s how i got 2 or 3 of these 11 kg canisters

[epowell]

Yeah when I bought my van here in Czech I was surprised that it came with THREE of these monsters :D It gave me the impression that the guy wanted to get rid of them. I didn't complain... but I couldn't understand...

Also it is really strange that he would have German canisters. But later I found out that my van is a combination of at least 2 vans (even part of the frame which contains the VIN was switched). So it seems that he had a rusted old Czech van with good papers, and a good condition van from Germany, and he did some "fancy stuff" and the end result is mostly that German van with the Czech papers.... the whole story is very long but over on the Samba a whole bunch of us did a long investigation > fascinating. [however it seems like this kind of thing was very common in the Eastern block]