# Refilling gas bottles in Italy



## mike800966

In Italy recently we found that nearly all garages were not self service and we had problems getting the attendants to refill our Gaslow type bottles ( mounted properly inside the gas locker, with the filler outside). 

One attendant even loudly explained that he "technoligally trained" and "it was dangerous" to refill bottles. 
This is despite ours being professionally installed, with only the filler fitting visible. On the third station we called in to I fitted the adapter and simply pointed to it and said"fill it up please" so he did, but it was worrying as we only had a few days gas left. 

Speaking to another motorhomer, he has also had similar problem, but again only in Italy.. 

Any suggestions or observations please??


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## Don_Madge

Hi Mike,

It appears that LPG should not be sold for domestic use in vehicles. I know a couple of motorhomers that have been refused LPG.

I'm sure Eddie can clarify the situation.

We had no problems filling up in Sardinia.

Don


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## Carper

mike800966 said:


> In Italy recently we found that nearly all garages were not self service and we had problems getting the attendants to refill our Gaslow type bottles ( mounted properly inside the gas locker, with the filler outside).
> 
> One attendant even loudly explained that he "technoligally trained" and "it was dangerous" to refill bottles.
> This is despite ours being professionally installed, with only the filler fitting visible. On the third station we called in to I fitted the adapter and simply pointed to it and said"fill it up please" so he did, but it was worrying as we only had a few days gas left.
> 
> Speaking to another motorhomer, he has also had similar problem, but again only in Italy..
> 
> Any suggestions or observations please??


Hi

We were in Italy for just over 5 weeks last summer, and didn't encounter any problems when getting LPG

Our Gaslow has the filler on the inside of the locker. So i guess i should have encountered more problems than one with the filler on the outside.

Perhaps i was just lucky

Doug


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## wineciccio

*Italy touring*

I have advised many people before you that refilling in Italy is a major problem, ie. most gas stations are manned, unlike France where you can get away with it ie refilling yourself, we had problems 4 years ago with our Rapido, had the bottle of 20kilos installed at Newbury show and told no probs. gov. you now can refill all over Europe, not so we found, i should have filled over here, but i let it go thinking its cheaper over there, no way hose', we travelled all the way down to the Gargano area ,east coast of Italy where by chance i needed fuel for my scooter and found a garage willing to refill the bottle, which we did when we left the camp site. So the morale of the story is do not listen to the jargon and bulls..t at the shows from the people selling these bottles. By the way Spain is even worse, their gas stations are very few and far in between :x


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## Superk

Different experience - had no problem re-filling bottles during six months winter tour length and breadth of Italy. No one ever refused to fill in big cities or small towns and villages. We have an external filler - and they knew it was for the camper as filled with diesel at the same time.

Most motorway services have Autogas. In other areas it varies - for example SE Sicily wide availablity from garages and lots of LPG powered cars. SW Sicily little availabilty at garages but found at specialist stations down back streets but usually signed Autogas.

There are places in Spain and I have direct confirmation of people filling in Alicante, Jerez, Murcia, Granada recently - although the one in Malaga appears not to be functioning.

 
Keith


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## eddied

*LPG in Italy*

 Ciao tutti,
legally and technically speaking, LPG can only be sold at filling stations as fuel for the vehicle - not for fitted camper domestic use.
Whether or not the attendant chooses to interpret the law in his own way, and 'think' that he is giving you traction fuel, is up to him. You will find very few unmanned filling stations in Italy - how do you think we have full employment? It's a bit like painting the white lines in the road - one to mark out, one to hold the paint pot, and another one to use the paintbrush.
saluti,
eddied


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## Visconti

Austria is another 'black hole' for LPG, I've just returned after 2 weeks very cold skiing - where 17kg of bottles lasted less than a week. Tourist information centres were very helpful and gat me a list of stations from the Austrian Motoring association - there were about 10! Apparently LPG is heavily taxed in Austria, (I paid about 75 Euro cents a litre) and so not that common. So be prepared to travel 50 miles + for gas!


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## teemyob

mike800966 said:


> In Italy recently we found that nearly all garages were not self service and we had problems getting the attendants to refill our Gaslow type bottles ( mounted properly inside the gas locker, with the filler outside).
> 
> One attendant even loudly explained that he "technoligally trained" and "it was dangerous" to refill bottles.
> This is despite ours being professionally installed, with only the filler fitting visible. On the third station we called in to I fitted the adapter and simply pointed to it and said"fill it up please" so he did, but it was worrying as we only had a few days gas left.
> 
> Speaking to another motorhomer, he has also had similar problem, but again only in Italy..
> 
> Any suggestions or observations please??


Don't go to Italy!
Have a full blown argument with the attendent, Italian style with all the hand waving.

Seriously, I tried to get LPG on the way to Dover in December, every one of the 5 Stations with a LPG pump I called into on the motorway services had NO LPG. When I called at the last one for Diesel I asked the cashier why they had no LPG. He said we never have it and if we do get some it sells out within a day or two.

When we got to France we filled up in Auchan Grande Synthe. There was an abundance of stations in Holland but I did find that once filled the pressure was quite low and after using half a bottle we had to re-fill again. I put this down to the mix used by the fuel suppliers.

Trev


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## teemyob

mike800966 said:


> In Italy recently we found that nearly all garages were not self service and we had problems getting the attendants to refill our Gaslow type bottles ( mounted properly inside the gas locker, with the filler outside).
> 
> One attendant even loudly explained that he "technoligally trained" and "it was dangerous" to refill bottles.
> This is despite ours being professionally installed, with only the filler fitting visible. On the third station we called in to I fitted the adapter and simply pointed to it and said"fill it up please" so he did, but it was worrying as we only had a few days gas left.
> 
> Speaking to another motorhomer, he has also had similar problem, but again only in Italy..
> 
> Any suggestions or observations please??


Don't go to Italy!
Have a full blown argument with the attendent, Italian style with all the hand waving.

Seriously, I tried to get LPG on the way to Dover in December, every one of the 5 Stations with a LPG pump I called into on the motorway services had NO LPG. When I called at the last one for Diesel I asked the cashier why they had no LPG. He said we never have it and if we do get some it sells out within a day or two.

When we got to France we filled up in Auchan Grande Synthe. There was an abundance of stations in Holland but I did find that once filled the pressure was quite low and after using half a bottle we had to re-fill again. I put this down to the mix used by the fuel suppliers.

Trev


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## Addie

We had no problem filling up LPG anywhere in Italy, opening the door and letting the attendants fill the internally mounted adapter about at least 6 times without issue or comment.

As far as Austria goes - there is very little LPG as with Spain - so it pays to do some reasearch. There are a lot of unmanned stations in Austria which only accept Mastro - an EU style debit card which I believe Natwest offers on its current accounts. In this case we were helped by a friendly German who paid with his card and we paid him in Euros.

You can download POI's for your SatNav of all the LPG stations in Europe and you can work out from the information provided if it is manned or not.

In countries where LPG is sparse you just need to fill up as and when, rather then wait until empty.


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## BespokeRugs

Hi there,

Personally, I haven't had a problem but may I suggest that if you do and you are in an area with a big supermarket, you know the out of town type, then fill up there, they often have an attendant at a booth and you fill your own. Best of luck.


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