Gas in France

Anyone get there argon/co2 mix in France?

I know boc has been taken over [forgot the name] and have suppliers in France ,I just woundered if it`s the same as England as in contract etc...

The main suppliers are AirLiquide or Linde.
However, last time I asked around my local suppliers, the price of a normal bottle of either argon/co2 or pure co2 gave me The Fear. As far as I can remember, the years rental fee for an empty bottle was around €300, with €60 per fill/refill.

I use mainly pure co2, and brought my BOC bottle over when I emigrated, still bolted into the welders trolley in the back of the van. Yeah, that was stupid wasnt it? I am still paying UK rental on it, cant get it exchanged or refilled here and dont plan to be driving back to UK anytime soon to return it, and it certainly cant go on a plane.
So, in a pinch for gas, I found a full, second hand bottle on ebay which I bought for €60 or so. Its now fast approaching empty, and since the bottle is some weirdo belgian make nobody has heard of, I cant get it refilled here either.

If anyone knows where I can get a couple of co2 bottles refiled in southern france without hassles, I would be very pleased to hear it.

go and ask at the local pubs get a landlord to supply you

the snooper said:

go and ask at the local pubs get a landlord to supply you

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Where not up north mate,we have cafe bars...

I still have a boc bottle and keep having to take it back to fill...

Thanks for your responses...

Hello and welcome, another welding expat here.

I will try and find the costs of my argon/co2 bottle contract, from memory a 3 year contract was € 260 ish and a " full sized" refill was €300 ish, not cheap at all compared to the UK.

Another thing thats expensive is MIG wire, I ran out a couple of weeks ago and was quoted €82 for a 16 KG spool (not 15KG??) of 0.8mm, makes screwfix look cheap

where abouts are you in France?

Western france near La rochelle ...I have a big spool of wire I hope that last`s me years...

I am going to have a trip to Linde and if they have the same bottles as boc then I could go halves on the account ,if you get my meaning...

Thanks for the welcome...

Linde owns BOC now according to my supplier who is a BOC agent.

mick-64 said:

Western france near La rochelle ...I have a big spool of wire I hope that last`s me years...

I am going to have a trip to Linde and if they have the same bottles as boc then I could go halves on the account ,if you get my meaning...

Thanks for the welcome...

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lol i used to do that till they put green collars on the bottles no collar = no refill

There always one step ahead ,but they would have to change them all the time..

Thanks for all your respones , but I have better things to do like reading how to mend a toilet seat and how to weld a scrapper Transit and 415 subjects on which mask..

Have a missed out...?

brightspark said:

lol i used to do that till they put green collars on the bottles no collar = no refill

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They will take back an empty without the collar and reissue it when it's tested and valved.

I think you're right there pedro. The various bottles, especially the oxy, in work get knocked about a fair bit. The green tags get knocked off and also the large plastic ring around the neck, with all the info, sometimes come adrift. They allways get exchanged, no probs.

I think people might read too much into all the various tags and barcodes thinking they are there just to catch out "dodgy" bottles.