UKH

For car camping, I've found a double burner fed from a calor 4.5kg butane bottle works really well.  Since calor are no longer refilling/exchanging these smaller bottles and I can't find anywhere locally to get a refill, I'm wondering what's the best alternative?  Camping gaz 907 bottles are the only immediately viable alternative I've seen but they're significantly more expensive and the regulator knob is quite flimsy and small.  (I do already have a 907 bottle + regulator so that's something).
Youtube suggests diy refills may be possible using an inverted, larger donar bottle.  I'm attracted to this idea but not convinced it's worth it.
Any ideas/experiences? other brands? (ideally ones where my existing regulator would fit)
I've got 2 near empty 4.5kg butane bottles and a regulator.  I guess these are just uselss/worthless now?  I've seen it suggested that you can exchange a 4.5kg for a 7kg for about £30 but then you'd need a new regulator for the 7kg and it's a bit big and heavy for car camping really so doesn't seem a great option.  Also seem very hard to get hold of....the only local garage that actually had 7kg wouldn't be willing to exchange for 4.5 anyway!  Seems sensible to ditch Calor?

Flogas. You will need a new regulator though as it's a push on.

Yes that seems to be a good like for like (apart from regulator) option.  Only problem is getting hold of an empty flogas bottle as can't find anywhere issuing 'new' bottles.

My local flogas dealer sold me a new bottle no problem after being similarly mucked about by calor for months. Pays for itself over campingaz within 2 refills. Seemed to think there was plenty of national stock. Probably worth a call to your nearest dealer.

Worth noting flogas own a lot of brands not labelled flogas so you might find a freebie somewhere to save the initial bottle purchase

https://www.flogas.co.uk/gas-bottles/brands

Also speak to a calor dealer (rather than a garage) about trading your 4.5kg up if you want to keep it. Again got nothing but negatives from garages but a specialist gas dealer happily traded up my calor. So traded my calor propane up for garden pizza oven duties and bought a smaller flogas butane for camping.

Thanks a lot, will try and find a way (a bottle) to switch over to flogas

I second the flogas recommendation.

Whilst you are changing  cylinders and regulator, why not use propane? I find butane useless unless in hot , windless conditions.

Cheapest option, after initial outlay, is a refillable cylinder, like safefill.

You could just refill your 4.5kg bottles.

We had a similar thread not long ago, maybe search for it? I refill my CampingGaz bottle because refills are such a rip-off. It's not difficult and it's safe if you know what to do.

Annoyingly, I have a 7Kg Flogas bottle, but the only place I've seen locally (admittedly, I've not properly searched yet) does either 6Kg or something else that isn't 7Kg!

Thanks, yes I found this thread https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/gear/calor_gas-759547?v=1#x9778453

where you commented about refilling.  Seems like a really good solution.  How did you make up the union between the donor and receiving bottle?  Guess it needs to withstand pretty hefty pressures as there's no regulator as gas leaves the donor bottle... One thing I don't quite get is how the fluid is able to transfer without opening a bleed screw on the receiving bottle? Maybe the expelled gas vapour just kind of 'glugs' past the incoming fluid...

In other news, I visited my local Flogas depot today.  They didn't have any stock of smaller propane or butane bottles and wouldn't sell me one even if they did.  They're only doing refills/exchanges, no 'new' bottles going out....
So it seems smaller gas bottles are even harder to get hold of than eggs these days.

Will happily go propane but interestingly, I've never found any issue with Butane even in cold (sub-zero) cons.  Definitely hopeless outside in the wind but always boil water and cook inside vehicle.  Has always worked fine from memory even when there's ice formed on the inside of the windows.

I made up a link hose using regular off the shelf parts. You need to get a proper high pressure hose with crimped connectors, don't get a bit of hose and some jubilee clips! It took a bit of searching to find bottle connectors with the right thread for both ends of the hose, but managed eventually and it wasn't very expensive. About £25 for the lot IIRC.

Just hang the donor bottle upside down from a tree (you definitely don't want to do this indoors), connect the hose to it, open the valve for a sec to purge the air from the hose, then connect the empty bottle and open both valves. It's a bit slow but the liquid butane flows down of its own accord. Takes about 10 minutes for a 2.7kg CampingGaz bottle. You can speed it up by chilling the empty bottle and warming the donor one, but I don't bother.

It's absolutely vital that you weigh the refilled bottle to make sure you haven't overfilled it. The bottle should be stamped with a tare weight so you'll know what the full weight should be. If you do overfill, just open the valve and vent it off ASAP.