Grain dryer gas - Cylinder suppliers?

Rookie

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincs / Notts
Struggling to find gas for our Opico 590 grain dryer. Not used it for a few years. In the past it has run with a bank of 6 gas cylinders. These are Calor 46kg propane liquid off take / Black top cylinders.
Can't seem to find any other suppliers which do these apart from Calor.
Lincoln main Calor depot last year only had 2 in stock and were going to be a week or more before getting anymore in. Phoned today and all you can do is leave a message and wait until somebody decides to contact you back due to coronavirus.
Are there any other suppliers (Lincs / Notts) or do I have to go down the bulk tank route which I know is a cheaper way of buying the gas but for the amount we use didn't want a tank sat idle for a few years with the risk of the gas disappearing.
TIA
 

Rookie

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincs / Notts
These are my current calor empty cylinders. 15982622739033375089272635999683.jpg
 

Deranged peasant

Member
Arable Farmer
I did enquire for liquid off take bottles in the spring , similarly not used mobile for years but had some of last years harvest to sort out.
After a week or so Calor came back with some, don’t remember the price but was a lot ! Managed to blend wheat away in the end.
Buying group conclusion was bulk tank only way forward.
Not done anything btw !
 

chaffcutter

Moderator
Arable Farmer
Location
S. Staffs
Buy a secondhand tank, then you can buy anywhere and it gives you the clout to do so. Found Flogas to give a poor delivery service and expensive to boot. Local independent supplier saved us a lot of money.
 

cornishking

Member
Arable Farmer
Struggling to find gas for our Opico 590 grain dryer. Not used it for a few years. In the past it has run with a bank of 6 gas cylinders. These are Calor 46kg propane liquid off take / Black top cylinders.
Can't seem to find any other suppliers which do these apart from Calor.
Lincoln main Calor depot last year only had 2 in stock and were going to be a week or more before getting anymore in. Phoned today and all you can do is leave a message and wait until somebody decides to contact you back due to coronavirus.
Are there any other suppliers (Lincs / Notts) or do I have to go down the bulk tank route which I know is a cheaper way of buying the gas but for the amount we use didn't want a tank sat idle for a few years with the risk of the gas disappearing.
TIA
Evening, we had a opico years ago and one very wet season there wasn't any liquid offtake cylinders left anywhere. The local opico dealer suggested that all we had to do was turn the vapour offtake cylinders upside down and they become liquid offtake! Anyway it does work and saved the season. We had a bit of a fiddle with fittings and balancing cylinders upside down but it works! We got a tank the following year 😂 good luck
 

Rookie

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincs / Notts
Thanks for peoples help.
Managed to source some more 46kg calor cylinders from an area manager who was helpful, unlike local depot who don't return calls. (£56.30+vat each).
I'll hopefully get through this season then I'll have to look at going bulk. Thought you had to get a tank from supplier so it met criteria for them to fill it.?
 
Just bought 2 x 47kg for a new lpg CH installation from Gas2U at Epworth 01427 753689- £62 inc vat each with free delivery and fantastic service. If he'll deliver to your area I'll be very happy to recommend.
 

Frodo

Member
Location
Scotland (east)
How long does a 47kg bottle last? I.e how many tonnes taking from say 20% to 15%.
In a year like this a small opico dryer would be nice, but having to get a base and tank is another hassle.
 
How long does a 47kg bottle last? I.e how many tonnes taking from say 20% to 15%.
In a year like this a small opico dryer would be nice, but having to get a base and tank is another hassle.

Just googled (other search engines available) and found this on a thread asking the same;

Cylinder Kg x 1.957 = Litres
x 7.11 = Kw energy of cylinder
divide by appliance input
= Total hours use of cylinder

Does that help?
 

Rookie

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincs / Notts
Just bought 2 x 47kg for a new lpg CH installation from Gas2U at Epworth 01427 753689- £62 inc vat each with free delivery and fantastic service. If he'll deliver to your area I'll be very happy to recommend.
I suspect that these will be like calor’s standard 47kg propane cylinders which won’t be liquid take off, and I would have to stand them upside down as @cornishking mentioned above. But thanks anyway.
 

Rookie

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincs / Notts
How long does a 47kg bottle last? I.e how many tonnes taking from say 20% to 15%.
In a year like this a small opico dryer would be nice, but having to get a base and tank is another hassle.

A bank of 6 cylinders only taking a few % out with a 12 ton batch drier I would expect only to do half a dozen batches or so. (So not cheap)
Not really dried when been 20% as to be fair try and get it below 16%, As I usually take a chance on a moisture claim as I think it’s cheaper paying £3/ t for up to 1 percent moisture claim than threading it through the drier and costing gas / time + weight loss. However this season I might have to combine it wetter than usual.
Somebody else who does a lot more drying than me will be able to give you a better idea.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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