Is it just me, or....

[Pwyll]

Filling the tank on my Disco in Hereford at about 59p a litre will last me on average about 160 miles. But I filled up in South Wales last week at a well known supermarket at 54p a litre, I have done just over 230 miles since then and she is still going strong.

I realise that there will be some variatin in the quality of the different fueling points. But, come on, an extra 70+ miles at a lower cost????

I have not altered my driving style in any way in between so what can be the explanation.

And before anyone asks, the 150 mile round trip makes it slightly uneconomical to fill up down there all the time. ;-)

[disco_al]

don't forget the weather and time of day can make a big difference too. fill up on a frosty morning and you can usually squeeze more in the tank than you can on a warm day - if it stays cold, then in theory you can get better mileage out of them. LPG is a strange one......

[Pam]

Might seem like a daft question, but was the fill up the same amount of litres? Perhaps the place were you get less miles needs their equipment callibrating? Saying more litres than you actually get?

Or activating your tank full valve when not at 80%? I'm sure I had differnces with different pumps - especially when we had the Disco with 3 tanks to fill.

I've certainly encountered similar discrepencies, but not as widely varying as yours. One place I used to fill up, I think they changed the butane/propane mix over winter and it wasn't as good, but another place seemed the same all year round.

[Quagmire]

I find that my performance can vary quite a bit between fill ups. BP seems to be the most consistent for me, and usually has the highest pressure pumps- but unfortunately is always the most expensive too (64.9ppl)

Total is the cheapest for me, but varies week to week and seems to vary from station to station too. (60.9ppl)

[Diff]

Filling the tank on my Disco in Hereford at about 59p a litre will last me on average about 160 miles. But I filled up in South Wales last week at a well known supermarket at 54p a litre, I have done just over 230 miles since then and she is still going strong.

I realise that there will be some variatin in the quality of the different fueling points. But, come on, an extra 70+ miles at a lower cost????

I have not altered my driving style in any way in between so what can be the explanation.

And before anyone asks, the 150 mile round trip makes it slightly uneconomical to fill up down there all the time. ;-)

Were both forecourts level? if one is sloping, it can give a very different fill. The stop valve in the tank is operated by a float arm. If the tank is filled on a slope it can affect the fill.

Regards,

Diff

[David Sparkes]

No it's not just you.

Mr Iwema (Hugo van Osch) can wax lyrical on the variation in quality of LPG used in the UK.

The problem doesn't seem to occur on mainland Europe, possibly because the LPG market in Holland is more mature.

I suspect that if you ask Gordon Finlay he can also 'comment' on the difficulties caused by setting a new installation up on LPG from one supplier, only to have to recalibrate the installation when the supplier changes.

Obviously you can't make the trip to South Wales every time you want a refill, but are there branches of a "well known supermarket at 54p a litre," closer to you? Might be worth a 5 or 10 mile detour!

Cheers.