So I wanted a spare gas bottle for the BBQ...

This is actually illegal and reasonably dangerous.

I hope you never have a fire, or heaven forbid, somebody gets burned badly. Zero insurance and legal action may not be a lot of fun.

I'm all for penny pinching, upcycling, recycling etc etc, but safely and legally.

 

It's only decanting the gas in accordance with Boyles law.

 

I'm sure that argument will hold up in a court of law, against ignoring all of those warning signs at the pump telling you not to do it.

Then there's the lack of regular inspection of the 'second hand' tank; does the auto shut off mechanism still work? Is it being over filled without a vent?

Then there's the whole Autogasis different to LPG argument. Different levels of butane and added lubricants in Autogas that aren't very good for you if continually ingested blah blah

Anyway, not for me. I use about 4 bottles of barbecue gas a year at most. Even if I'm saving the full value of them, $200, it's cheap peace of mind for me. I can save that somewhere else to avoid a fine in the thousands. Or worse.

 

Macgyver doesn't go to the servo.

He makes his own gas out of a knife, a paperclip and some string.

 

I have a gas bayonet and never run out

 

@Jeah_ I know it comes with risks. But he knows what he's doing. He is more responsible than the petrol station refillers.

In the event of a fire this place will go up like Hiroshima it has that much fuel around. Avgas, LPG, petrol and diesel. You name it, it's in the workshop.

 

I swapped one of my gas bottles last weekend at Bunnings - ticket price said $21.95, cost me $19.85 for some reason :-D

We recently had natural gas run into our house for the kitchen and hot water but as I usually change the BBQ gas bottle no more than once or twice per year it would have taken a lot of years to make back the plumbing cost and BBQ burner conversion cost to move the BBQ over to natural gas. Not worth it IMO. Plus when the wife decides she wants me to move the BBQ elsewhere I don't need to call the plumber again to move the gas line to suit.

 

Always worth not having to go out and spend time getting a refill.

And when the wife says 'move the BBQ, the answer is "No".'

 

We just finished building our house in Brisbane and rang the usual companies about connecting natural gas to the property. Quotes came in at around $6,000 so I had the gas fitter put an LPG bottle connection on the end instead in under the house with a tee to swap between two connected 9kg bottles. I've had the first bottle on there for around 6 months running just the cooktop in the kitchen and it still hasn't run out. It will be a long time before the cost differential between natural gas and LPG would ever warrant the initial $6,000 capital outlay.

I run the BBQ off a separate LPG bottle as well. I've had to fill that one a couple of times but recently gave up on filling and swapped it to Swap 'N Go at Bunnings. I think the differential between a fill and a swap is a buck or two. Couldn't be bothered. I'll happily pay an extra $10pa for the ease of swapping and not having to worry about tank expiration dates.

Cheers,
Michael

 

I've got 2 bottles so it's never urgent and the empty bottle is just an excuse to go to Bunnings ;-)

 

$6000 to have natural gas installed? Is this for the main line from the street to the meter or from the meter to the points around your house? It cost me nothing for the main line to be run from the street to the meter, I just had to wait 3 months while Jemena and Ausgrid sorted themselves out to have a standby crew onsite as my street has 33kV under it.