Duncan Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 I want to upgrade from little disposable bottles but BOC's cheapest monthly works out at £73 a yr just for the bottle so gas on top and extra charges like signing up etc. Online companies will send bottles out with a deposit of £50 on them which will be refunded when back(minus £10) so every new bottle costs about £76 to my door www.weldinggases.co.uk for Co2 So what do people on here do? Iv heard if your canny might be able to sort a pub bottle of Co2? And in the past fire extinguishers could be refilled etc, Or any Good places in Devon do refill bottles so save on the courier costs? Many thanks Duncan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UdderlyOffroad Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Try your local welding supplies place, they will usually be doing gas or know of somewhere which significantly undercuts BOC. My local place for instance gives you a medium-size bottle for about £100 over 3yrs(hire, deposit, testing etc), with refills costing £30 or so. But they don't advertise it very well for some bizarre readon! (BOC mafia? ;-) ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 At the risk of (re)starting a favourite argument, don't use CO2, use proper argoshield. I use BOC, the charges aren't that bad - I work on the basis that £75 a year saves me a lot more by being able to weld stuff myself, and the medium bottle (short but fat) will last for ages on a single fill unless you're welding all day every day. I've never found anyone who can significantly undercut BOC for the same product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratty43 Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 How about this ebay it would seem to meet your requirements on not wanting to be paying a fixed rental. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I do wonder how much cheaper that eBay one really is - just looked up my cylinder, it's a size Y, which is 40kg / 5 cubic metres of gas, costs £75/year + ~£30 per fill, not sure how much you get in that 9 litre bottle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratty43 Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I do wonder how much cheaper that eBay one really is - just looked up my cylinder, it's a size Y, which is 40kg / 5 cubic metres of gas, costs £75/year + ~£30 per fill, not sure how much you get in that 9 litre bottle. I don't know how the two compare but depending on how much gas Duncan uses it works out far cheaper than disposables (about the same on the first one with the £50 deposit) and avoids the rental that he doesn't want to pay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratty43 Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Another option that you may be able to find, My local steel suppliers sell Y bottles on an outright purchase for £175 including the regulator and charge £35 for subsequent fills of argoshield. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Young Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Air Liquide are now doing non-rental bottles. They're still a bit small (11litres, 2.5 cubic metres), but that's 42 disposable cylinders. There was another place in Wales that had non-rental 20litre bottles, but they were closed over the Chrismas holidays when I was over. Found it: http://www.weldinggases.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=5 Jeff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longlandy Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Ive tried them all, air liquide, air products,boc as I use a lot of gas and tend to shop around, but I always go back to boc. They have the best service,dedicated centres and the best tec back up for odd welding requests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retroanaconda Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I made similar enquiries and came to the same conclusion as some of the others above, you can't really beat BOC when it comes down to it. It costs, but then so does everything worth doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 Jeff-that link to www.weldinggases is the one I mentioned in my first post and thats even more for argoshield. I started off on Argo/20%Co2 and found it rubbish so I swapped to pure Co2 which I find pretty good, But after a chat to a gas supplier he suggested I try the Argo/5% Co2 mix as thats the one recommended for general car use and the 20% is for 6mm+ heavy work. So I'll try a disposable 5% first to see how it goes, But atm www.southwestgassupplies.co.uk seems the best Argo/5Co2 9Litre is £36 a refill with no delivery costs etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longlandy Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 With reference with the above, argon is a active gas in the mix,hence boc has 3 basic flavours of argosheild being light ,universal and heavy.Pure co2 is a thing from the past,freezes regs bad penetration etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Young Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Check the fill pressure (or gas volume) of the southwestgassupplies. If they're supplying Adams Gas cylinders, then they're only filled to 137bar (for a total of 1.2 cubic metres). The Air Liquide 11litre cylinders are filled to 200bar (2.5 cubic metres), as are the weldinggasses.co.uk bottles (probably about 2.4 cubic metres for their 10litre bottle and about 4.8 for their 20litre). So the bigger bottle from weldinggasses looks to be about 4 times the gas for a bit over 2 times the cost. Jeff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandyManLuke Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I have an account with Energas, but I don't think they'll have any agents down your way. Have a look at the gas cost comparison spreadsheet on Mig-welding.co.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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