Filling 20lb LP tanks from residential size large LP tanks?

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HyperSpeed

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I have a large LP tank next to my rural home. Anyone know a standard adapter hose for going from the huge res. tanks down to 20lb tanks?

I read about safety. Freeze empty first, watch closely with gauge, have ability to quickly stop flow etc.

My tank has an open lid and the gas guy who stopped out told me I can use the tank for my own purposes, they just fill them (well duh). :blush:

Ideas? Menards...Home Depot?
 
I don't think it will work. I've filled small tanks from 20 lb. tanks and to do it I had to invert the tank so liquid would flow into the smaller tank. A large tank isn't going to have a dip tube because you want gas coming out of it not liquid and inverting the tank is not practical.
 
I would go to your local LP vendor. He should have all the correct parts. You don't need to tell him exactly what you are doing. He may be cool with it, he may not. We do it all the time. The one thing you have to do while filling the tank is vent it. There is a little straight blade slotted screw on the side of the valve. Open this screw slowly while starting to fill the tank. Open it too far and you'll spit LP liquid. You just want it open a little. When the tank is full you'll get liquid out the screw; then tighten it and shut down the fill valve. Nuthin to it. Just keep the 20lb cylinder lower than the top of the bulk tank. I would add an additional fitting onto your bulk tank that stays there. Just cap it when not being used. The fitting you'll need for the 20lb will be left hand thread flare. It will thread into your 20lb tank fitting opening.

Obviously, no smoking, no open flames, yada yada.
Adrian
 
JDman is telling you the straight goods... you gotta get the proper stuff from a propane dealer...

The bulk tank at my brother's house (used to be Grandma's house before she passed) has a liquid line and fill valves for filling LP fueled farm tractors. I learned to do it when I was 15 or so... we had an old Golden Jubilee Ford that ran on propane and that was our main hay tractor, and running it was my first job on the farm. You unscrewed the dust caps on the tractor tank, the big one for the liquid line, and the small cap for the bleeder. Screw the hose end valve onto the tractor tank, and open the valve to ensure the connection was seated and tight. Then open the bulk tank liquid valve where the hose attaches to the top of the bulk tank. Grab the bleeder, and screw it on the tractor tank and crack it a bit to relieve the head pressure in the tractor tank-- this allows the greater head pressure in the bulk tank to push liquid propane up into the tractor tank through the hose... don't open it too much or the head pressure gets too low, and the propane in the tractor tank starts boiling off, frosting the tank. Usually while you were bleeding the tank, the stink of the propane vapors would attract a considerable cloud of flies that would be buzzing around... The tractors had a little "level indicator" that worked like a mini-valve with a dipper tube indexed to a lever on the side of the tank-- you opened the bleeder on it and turned the dipper tube til it shot out a spurt of liquid propane, showing the level in the tank by a dial placed behind the lever that operated the dipper tube. Once you get it about 80% full, you unscrew the bleeder, which seals off the tractor tank-- the liquid will flow til the pressure equalizes, then you close the tank valve and tractor end hose valve. Crack the connection to release the propane in the couplers, then before you take it loose, crack the tractor end hose valve to relieve the pressure in the hose-- you don't want trapped LP in there... Close the valve tightly, then unscrew the (by this time) frosty connectors and put the hose away, and reinstall the dust caps on the tractor.

It usually works pretty well, but one time I was fueling up an old Farmall H on propane and the check valve in the liquid line wouldn't seat... I tried tightening and loosening the valve several times (since the end of the hose connector has a pin that depresses the check valve to open it when the connection is made) to try to get the check valve to reseat, but it wouldn't... soon I was leaking liquid LP everywhere and of course being cryogenic, it starts freezing everything over as it boils away... So, with a full tractor tank, and the bulk tank hoses closed, the stupid thing is slobbering liquid LP everywhere and boiling off furiously into a billowing white cloud drifting clean across the field toward the highway-- I'm just praying nobody driving down the road tosses a cigarette or we're gonna have one h311 of a fuel-air explosion... I run to the shop and get some heavy leather welding gloves to try to tighten up the connection, but with the slobbering LP boiling off and freezing everything pretty soon even these heavy gloves are freezing solid... about this time the old man shows up and tells me "yeah, we had that happen once in awhile back in the old days-- get a 2x4 and smack on the valve til it seats"... So I grab a 2x4 block off the stack we keep under the diesel tank to block up equipment and start gently 'pile-driving' the check valve connection welded to the side of the tank... after some gentle and then a little more vigorous persuasion, the check valve finally snaps shut and I can let the connections thaw and then uncouple the hose...

Butane/Propane powered tractors were all the rage back in the 50's when propane was 8 cents a gallon and gasoline was 16 cents a gallon (tax-free farm bulk prices). BUT, now it's pretty much the opposite-- LP is going for over $3 a gallon and about the same price as gasoline and diesel... especially on the tax-free bulk farm purchases... thing is, propane has so much less energy density than gasoline or diesel... basically it takes 5 gallons of propane to do the job of 4 gallons of gasoline or 3 gallons of diesel, due to differences in energy density... and of course natural gas (city gas, methane) is even worse... My brother's buddy farms cotton with his Uncle and they were running some OLD propane powered Deere pickers-- they have a bulk tank like you have behind your house on a trailer, that they pull out to the fields to fuel the pickers, which are VERY thirsty machines, lemme tell ya! We used to have gasoline powered pickers and when gas went to $1.50 a gallon it was about to kill us... burning 1/3 more propane at $3+ a gallon has to be sheer murder! I told the guy that basically he could pay for a good used newer diesel powered picker just with the fuel savings alone, since diesel is by far the most fuel efficient power for farm equipment... I know we paid for our "newer" (by about 15-20 years newer than the old late 50's IH gasoline pickers we ran before) in fuel cost savings burning less lower priced diesel than tons of higher priced gas... Those old gassers had a 40 gallon tank, and that'd keep her running about 4-6 hours at most... we usually refilled at lunch, because if we didn't, we'd be on fumes or run out in the field around dark or so...

Be real careful... LP isn't particularly forgiving of mistakes... being cryogenic it's always either pressurized, or if it leaks it usually starts freezing everything it touches... had a great uncle in East Texas used to run a propane delivery truck, til a hose filling a bulk tank busted and he was hospitalized for severe frostbite from getting doused with liquid propane...

Later! OL JR :)
 
Reference: Propane 101

The liquid propane withdrawal information listed above is correct, however you need to contact your propane dealer to add a liquid withdrawal valve to the tank. (Note: Your propane company is legally responsible to check the tank before they refill it, so if you modify the tank plumbing, they probably will not refill it.)

https://www.propane101.com/liquidwithdrawalvalve.htm

Residential propane tanks are delivered with a dip tube for liquid withdrawal in the event that the tank has to be moved or replaced, however the standard tank has a check valve attached to the tank fitting.

tankandwithdrawalvalve.gif


You need to have the tank drained by the propane company, and have the tank filling hardware installed by them. It shouldn't cost too much as it is a standard option.

This is how you fill a 20 pound proper tank. Chilling the tank is unnecessary.

propane-cylinder-filling.jpg


https://www.propane101.com/propanecylinderfilling.htm

Liquid propane is not cryogenic as the liquid and gas temperature in the tank is ambient, however when the pressure is reduced as in filling, some of the liquid boils off and cools the tank being filled whn you open the bleed vent on the twenty pound tank. Severe frostbite will occur if liquid propane contacts the skin when liquid propane flows out the vent.

Bob
 
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I meant cryogenic as in "it boils vigorously at room temperature and pressure if it's not contained under sufficient head pressure to raise it's boiling point above the ambient temperature"... :rolleyes:

Course if the ambient temperature is -44 you have nothing to worry about... it remains a liquid at atmospheric pressure...

Later! OL JR :)
 
JR,

We have an LP bulk tank that we put by the dryer bins. The only tricky part is moving it between farms. Sure, it has a running gear underneath, but you're only supposed to move them when they're empty. So ours occasionally gets "empty" :wink: during corn harvest when we finish up at the south farm and head to the home farm. My dad recently (within 5yrs) got a couple of John Deere 730 LP tractors to put in our collection to play with. Messing with the LP systems wasn't as bad as we thought. However when we pulled the tank valves and gauges out to replace them, the whole shop stunk for a week after we got the replacements in.
Adrian

Who also collects JD 2 cylinder tractors :)
 
JR,

We have an LP bulk tank that we put by the dryer bins. The only tricky part is moving it between farms. Sure, it has a running gear underneath, but you're only supposed to move them when they're empty. So ours occasionally gets "empty" :wink: during corn harvest when we finish up at the south farm and head to the home farm. My dad recently (within 5yrs) got a couple of John Deere 730 LP tractors to put in our collection to play with. Messing with the LP systems wasn't as bad as we thought. However when we pulled the tank valves and gauges out to replace them, the whole shop stunk for a week after we got the replacements in.
Adrian

Who also collects JD 2 cylinder tractors :)

We never had propane powered pickers, but that old Ford Golden Jubilee just ran forever... it went through a flood and we never really fixed it after that and eventually sold it to the salvage company my brother worked for... he said when they pulled the motor apart, it was clean as a whistle inside... propane burns VERY clean and engines last nearly forever running on propane, unlike gasoline and diesel which both burn "dirty" and leave carbon and other contaminants behind that wear out the cylinders, rings, pistons, valves, etc...

The BIL in Indiana has a bulk tank by his grain dryer too... here everything goes straight to the elevator and THEY dry it. My brother's house is still heated by propane room heaters, propane stove, and propane water heater... when we bought our house and moved it to the other end of the farm, we debated about propane or electric... given the price of propane was already pretty high at the time, I'm glad we opted for all-electric... just SO much simpler doing one hookup instead of having to do the electrical AND buy a bulk tank, install the gas lines to the house, etc... now that propane is "outrageous" I'm even more glad we're all electric...

You know it's bad when all those irrigation engines out in West Texas that were all set up to burn natural gas straight from the pipeline started being replaced or switched over to electric or diesel... I know a few years ago you practically almost couldn't give away natural gas burning irrigation engines up there... heck natural gas prices have gone up so much in recent years that it's pushed fertilizer prices sky high, since natural gas is the feedstock for making ammonia fertilizer (nitrogen). Glad I'm running cows and they fertilize the fields themselves... I don't have to make the fertilizer man rich anymore!
Propane prices seem to have paralleled natural gas prices... and of course these power companies have wanted to 'get by cheap' and build gas-burner power plants for the past couple decades... now gas is in short supply...

Later! OL JR :)
 
Uh, a little confused now. So at first I thought I could just use a hose with adapter to fill. But then I'm told I need an actual complete dump of the tank, which they just filled a week ago, and have a tube installed, or it may already be there? Hmm....
 
Uh, a little confused now. So at first I thought I could just use a hose with adapter to fill. But then I'm told I need an actual complete dump of the tank, which they just filled a week ago, and have a tube installed, or it may already be there? Hmm....

Basically this ain't a DIY job... you're gonna have to contact your propane company that fills your bulk tank and tell them what you want, and have it installed. In the old days we could install a lot of stuff by ourselves, nowdays because of "liability" they have to inspect everything and give it the okay... my Dad moved his propane tank from behind the house to the side of it when he moved in a new mobile home and the company he'd had for years went nuts and refused to fill it. SO, he called a different company.

Piping gas from the regulator into the shop or barn or house isn't that big of a deal-- just use black iron pipe (gas doesn't play nicely with galvanized pipe) and make sure everything is meticulously leakproof. Not exactly rocket science... but then again, propane gas is only under a few OUNCES of pressure downstream from the regulator-- so it's not like you're fighting a couple hundred PSI to keep it from leaking...

BUT, installing equipment to draw LIQUID propane is a lot riskier job...

IF the liquid line is already installed in the tank, then it's no big deal-- they'll probably just hook up a hose and valves to the liquid line valve or whatever and you should be set.

If there's NO liquid line or one has to be installed, then yes the tank will have to be empty to do that... because the tank can't be under pressure (which it always is when liquid LP is present because it boils at 44 below zero IIRC). SO, if you unscrewed the plug or whatever to install the liquid suction tube into the tank, it would blow uncontrollably, unless it's already empty. If there's no liquid line already in the tank, just wait until your tank is about empty again and have them install it before filling up again.

That is, if they'll do it at all... you might have to check with different propane companies, as a lot of businesses are SO scared of lawsuits or "liability" these days that they're practically worthless... (try to get a set of rotors turned on your pickup next time you do a brake job... :rolleyes:)

Later! OL JR :)
 
Uh, a little confused now. So at first I thought I could just use a hose with adapter to fill. But then I'm told I need an actual complete dump of the tank, which they just filled a week ago, and have a tube installed, or it may already be there? Hmm....
The propane company will not dump your tank. They will pump out your propane from the dip tube in your tank into their truck while metering the amount, remove the pumpout valve from your tank and add the liquid fill parts to your tank and reinstall the pumpout vave, and then refill your tank with your propane. It's a standard procedure.

All propanne appliance use gaseous propane from the headspace in the tank. As you withdraw the gas, the gas volume is made up by boiling the liquyid propane in the tank. This would normally cool the liquid and drop the temperature and pressure of the tank, but heat is transferred from the air around the tank, through the tank walls and into the liquid to maintain the liquid temperature at or near the air temperature. The reverse must happen if you want to condense gaseous propane to a liquid, that is you have to remove a lot of heat or the gas will not condense. That's why when you flll a liquid propane tand, you need to fill it with liquid propane, not gaseous propane and thus you don't have to cool the tank to liquify the gas.

Bob
 
... (try to get a set of rotors turned on your pickup next time you do a brake job... :rolleyes:)

Later! OL JR :)
To reduce unsprung weight and improve gas mileage, disk rotors are not as thick as they used to be, so once they reach a minimum thickness, you replace them.

It costs money to turn the rotors and unless it's done properly, they won't have a uniform thickness and you get pulsing, and if they are too thin they warp. It was a money maker for repair shops and an unnecessary expense for the consumer. There was a myth about needing a smooth rotor surface for good stopping. In fact, drilled and grooved rotors work better, so minor rotor scoring actually enhances the stopping power.

Bob
 
To reduce unsprung weight and improve gas mileage, disk rotors are not as thick as they used to be, so once they reach a minimum thickness, you replace them.

It costs money to turn the rotors and unless it's done properly, they won't have a uniform thickness and you get pulsing, and if they are too thin they warp. It was a money maker for repair shops and an unnecessary expense for the consumer. There was a myth about needing a smooth rotor surface for good stopping. In fact, drilled and grooved rotors work better, so minor rotor scoring actually enhances the stopping power.

Bob

Yep...

I went through this several times over... I do most all my own mechanic work...

I'm kinda hard on brakes on the farm trucks, pulling trailers in the 6,000-8,000 pound range with a half ton truck tends to do that... The rotors on my 96 F-150 were pretty well shot, warped and pulsing stops, so I pulled them and did a brake job-- took them to Auto Zone and had them turned. Went and picked them up, and they had uncut "crescent moons" on them (turned improperly). I told the guy that they were worthless like that-- he had to turn them down to get the surface even and flat all the way across-- no "smooth shiny" half-moons... shoulda figured I got Forrest Gump's retarded cousin turning the rotors at the Auto Zone... I come back again and he's re-turned them, but they still have some small uncut areas on one side of the disk on the inside... I dubiously take them home and put them on, install the pads and stuff and put it all back together, take her out for a test drive, and they're FIVE TIMES WORSE than when I started! I pull the rotors off again and start mic'ing everything, and sure enough, the dumb-bunny has milled them CROOKED... he obviously didn't have them centered in the milling machine! What a moron... :rolleyes: (Almost as bad as the idiot pressing bearings into a housing in the shop one time that was too stupid to realize you STOP when the bearing goes crooked, and pull it out and start again... that and you never press a bearing in a bore by the INSIDE RACE... instead the idiot simply keeps pumping until he's putting his whole body weight on the handle and BOOM! the bearing explodes like shattered glass and razor-sharp shards fly across the shop in all directions... :rolleyes:) I call around and find new rotors are like 35 bucks for the pair for the 96 pickup so I just replace them and call it a day... I spent $20 for the botched turning job... :rolleyes:

Pulled the rotors off my 2002 F-150 and went to have them turned... "Sorry, but they're 12.9 mm and the cutoff is 13mm... we can't do it... liability..." What a load of crap! Like 0.1 mm is going to make a difference... :rolleyes: Oh, they'd gladly sell me NEW rotors... at $87 bucks EACH!!! :eyepop: No thanks... did a little digging and got my brother onto the job since he was partsman at a tractor salvage and did a lot of internet searches for parts, and he got me crossdrilled and slotted racing rotors for the pickup for $125 for the PAIR... SOLD! Ran those for a few years, but I noticed my wheel bearings seemed loose... got worse and worse. Finally did a brake job and when I took the wheel bearing out, the cup was LOOSE in the rotor (should be pressed in and TIGHT... this on fell out, and it had evidently spun in the rotor enough that it was loose and floppy in there... THAT explains the loose wheel bearings I could never seem to get tightened up! No fix for that but new rotors... SO, I check around, and now the stock rotors from the auto supply are like $45 bucks each, while the crossdrilled/slotted rotors are up to
$160 bucks for the pair... so she gets stock rotors from O'Reilly's... I measure the new ones out of the box-- get this-- THEY'RE 13.5 MM THICK! What a crock... no wonder you can't get them turned... basically by the time the first set of pads on them is worn out, the rotor is "too worn out" to be turned because 0.6 mm of steel has worn off... what a crock...

SO, unless they're worn completely through or warped beyond all recognition, I just slap new pads in there and run them as-is... My Dad thought I was daft for pulling them off and having them turned years ago... he drove his old '77 Ford LTD 52 miles each way to work, and he'd do a "30 minute $9 brake job" on it on a Sunday afternoon-- pop the wheels off, pop the pads off, slap new ones in, and pop the caliper back on and put the wheels back, BAM yer done! I used to laugh because the car had RIVETED pad material to the pad backing plates, and would pick up gravel on our rural roads that would wedge in the rivet holes and wear deep grooves into the rotor-- "you need to turn that!" I'd say... he's just grin and say "oh, no... that increases the surface area and reduces the stopping distance... Heck I've seen rotors on cars in the junkyard before that were so worn the flat surface was COMPLETELY GONE and the pads were wearing on the COOLING FINS... :y: BUT, it was still working when the car was junked!!!

They don't want to turn them, fine... screw 'em... I'll run 'em til they drop... LOL:)

Later! OL JR :)
 
What would happen if I did not have a liquid removal line tube, and I pumped pure gas frm the large tank to the smaller. Would I get a small percentage of weight that is usable?

I bought 100lb LP tank last night at Menards. I have an adapter that goes from the residential tank to the 100lb'er. But only gas is released, no liquid.

I'm wondering if this 100lb tank would gather any weight inside just pumping gas alone off the top of the residential tank. I imagine it would. The house tank is the "standard" size, lol, not sure if there is much of a standard but it seems like the common size you see next to homes where the tank has a green lid. The gauge on it is full, nearly at the 70 mark.

lptankvalve.jpg


Is the screw with square head, in the center of the 'Y" on the top of the valve, is that the screw which closes the large thread side output? Just shutting the valve with the handle only shuts supply to the home off. The big side of the valve output with the thick threads for a plastic cap (right side in picture) still has pressure. So I need to remove it's pressure before I could even plug a hose in. Not that I am going to...waiting on the words. Thanks guys.
 
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What would happen if I did not have a liquid removal line tube, and I pumped pure gas frm the large tank to the smaller. Would I get a small percentage of weight that is usable?

I bought 100lb LP tank last night at Menards. I have an adapter that goes from the residential tank to the 100lb'er. But only gas is released, no liquid.
No. You can not get liquid out of this valve, and you will only fill an attached tank with gas.

Bill is a licensed master plumber and gas fitter with a BSME. I'm a physical chemist with an MS. Between us we have 80 years of professional experience telling you what valving configuration you need to fill a small 20 pound propane tank from a larger fixed propane tank. I gave you weblinks to a propane website that illustrates the workings of a propane tank system and the required attachments to fill a secondary tank with iiquid propane. It's a fairly inexpensive professional job but you don't want to listen to us and have your propane company install the valving for you.

Some words of advice. 500 pounds of propane suddenly released can detonate with the strength of a 2000 pound bomb. Before you play with you propane tank, move your car or truck at least 100 yards away and leave you wallet and a note in your vehicle. It will help the emergency response folk understand what happened if there's an accident.

Bob
 
I think I missed the original point of this thread. Why do you want to do this? I assume the price per pound for filling a big tank is less than for filling a small tank but is it that much of a difference? If you're getting your tank filled at Blue Rhino it probably is but they're a giant rip off. Take your 100 lb. tank to the company you buy your propane from and have them fill it or ask them if they can fill it at your house the next time they fill the big tank.
 
No. You can not get liquid out of this valve, and you will only fill an attached tank with gas.

Bill is a licensed master plumber and gas fitter with a BSME. I'm a physical chemist with an MS. Between us we have 80 years of professional experience telling you what valving configuration you need to fill a small 20 pound propane tank from a larger fixed propane tank. I gave you weblinks to a propane website that illustrates the workings of a propane tank system and the required attachments to fill a secondary tank with iiquid propane. It's a fairly inexpensive professional job but you don't want to listen to us and have your propane company install the valving for you.

Some words of advice. 500 pounds of propane suddenly released can detonate with the strength of a 2000 pound bomb. Before you play with you propane tank, move your car or truck at least 100 yards away and leave you wallet and a note in your vehicle. It will help the emergency response folk understand what happened if there's an accident.

Bob

Thanks for the info Bill and Bob. I have checked the links provided but I am not able to glean enough information to figure out what the final set up should look like.
My 500 gal tank has a dip tube installed and I'd like to hook it up to set up a wet line. Last year, our state made it illegal for propane companies to do this but it is apparently not illegal to have such a set up on a personal tank.

From what I can tell, I'll need a liquid propane withdrawal valve and perhaps an adapter. I have found what seem to be the correct parts but I am trying to figure out if they are correct, whether they can be installed onto a system that still has propane in it (I was told they could but info on this blog said otherwise), and whether this is something I can realistically and safely tackle.

I am an engineer who has does lots of plumbing, electrical, design, and modifications and I have kept engines running and equipment maintained for a small farm for many years. I feel I am reasonably handy and capable but have a healthy fear/respect for propane.

I've attached a picture of what I believe to be the riser from a dip line. The handle is broken but turns and vapor comes out if I remove the cap.

These are links to what I am guessing are the parts I need but I am unsure about thread size needed among other things.

https://www.dultmeier.com/products/0.763.764.4080/6924

https://www.dultmeier.com/products/0.763.772.3325/6708

Anybody willing/able to offer advice on seeing this through? Seems like the local techs want something like $200 at least to do this and that seems awfully high.
 
Thanks for the info Bill and Bob. I have checked the links provided but I am not able to glean enough information to figure out what the final set up should look like.
My 500 gal tank has a dip tube installed and I'd like to hook it up to set up a wet line. Last year, our state made it illegal for propane companies to do this but it is apparently not illegal to have such a set up on a personal tank.

From what I can tell, I'll need a liquid propane withdrawal valve and perhaps an adapter. I have found what seem to be the correct parts but I am trying to figure out if they are correct, whether they can be installed onto a system that still has propane in it (I was told they could but info on this blog said otherwise), and whether this is something I can realistically and safely tackle.

I am an engineer who has does lots of plumbing, electrical, design, and modifications and I have kept engines running and equipment maintained for a small farm for many years. I feel I am reasonably handy and capable but have a healthy fear/respect for propane.

I've attached a picture of what I believe to be the riser from a dip line. The handle is broken but turns and vapor comes out if I remove the cap.

These are links to what I am guessing are the parts I need but I am unsure about thread size needed among other things.

https://www.dultmeier.com/products/0.763.764.4080/6924

https://www.dultmeier.com/products/0.763.772.3325/6708

Anybody willing/able to offer advice on seeing this through? Seems like the local techs want something like $200 at least to do this and that seems awfully high.
Hire a licensed tech to do it. $200 is not expensive for a professional job, and your property will still be insured, and you won't be risking your life or property. Otherwise if you insist on doing it yourself, get you family to go out for the day, move your car or truck at least 100 yards away and leave you wallet and a note in your vehicle. It will help the emergency response folk understand what happened if there's an accident.

Bob :facepalm:
 
Speaking of Blue Rhino and other similar propane bottle swaps; my neighbor told me that they only fill thier bottles halfway so they can make more money per bottle. He advised me to take my tank and swap it at the local hardware store, it will cost a bit more but you get a full tank of propane. This seemed to jive with my recent experience with Blue Rhino, seems like a bottle of propane only last me 4 or 5 months now, where I used to go around a year between refills.
Does anyone have any knowledge of this situation?
 
Speaking of Blue Rhino and other similar propane bottle swaps; my neighbor told me that they only fill thier bottles halfway so they can make more money per bottle. He advised me to take my tank and swap it at the local hardware store, it will cost a bit more but you get a full tank of propane. This seemed to jive with my recent experience with Blue Rhino, seems like a bottle of propane only last me 4 or 5 months now, where I used to go around a year between refills.
Does anyone have any knowledge of this situation?
The Blue Rhino tanks are DOT certified to contain 20 pound with sufficient ullage volume so that the tank won't vent or burst in hot weather. The bozos at Blue Rhino and other cylinder swap joint are filling the cylinders to 15 pounds and claiming it's for ullage reasons. That BS. Their making their money on the difference between 15 and 20 pounds of propane. It's just like buying coffee. A one pound can now has as little as 11 oz. to keep the price down and let them say they are keeping the prices down.
 
Speaking of Blue Rhino and other similar propane bottle swaps; my neighbor told me that they only fill thier bottles halfway so they can make more money per bottle. He advised me to take my tank and swap it at the local hardware store, it will cost a bit more but you get a full tank of propane. This seemed to jive with my recent experience with Blue Rhino, seems like a bottle of propane only last me 4 or 5 months now, where I used to go around a year between refills.
Does anyone have any knowledge of this situation?

It's easy to figure out. The tare weight (TW) is marked on the tank. I have two and one is 18 and the other is 16.8. If they're charging you for 20 lbs. of propane, adding 20lbs. to the tare weight should get you the weight of the tank. Tanks are never completely filled. They leave room for expansion. However, 20 lbs. will fit in a 20 lb. tank and still have that room. Google "Blue Rhino Price".
 
It's been over 8 years since the last post in this thread, but I just want to say THANK YOU!!! I've got a res LP tank out here in rural CO and I needed to find a way transfer LP to small 20lb tanks / camping pro tanks. I was watching youtube videos with really sketchy advice, but ya'll are great. Likely prevented me from turning into a pink mist.

I'll check in with the local LP services we use. I do have one question however in response to something said before...

How / what kind of question should I be asking to avoid scrutiny from the propane servicer??

I'm not trying to do anything shady. We got the tank for a gas fireplace, but the wiring went bad. We can't use the fireplace until it's fixed so we're using the propane for a grill to use the propane while we have it... The servicer has a policy; use the propane, keep the tank. Don't use the propane and we'll take the res tank back.

Thank you guys and gals.
 
We can't use the fireplace until it's fixed so we're using the propane for a grill

We had our propane company install a tee on the line for the water heater and run a line and valve to the back porch. Connected that to the grill, and never need a small LP bottle filled again. IIRC, they charged us $65 and seemed to enjoy doing it.
 
We had our propane company install a tee on the line for the water heater and run a line and valve to the back porch. Connected that to the grill, and never need a small LP bottle filled again. IIRC, they charged us $65 and seemed to enjoy doing it.

Thank you so much tsmith! We will check with the local company on monday! You're awesome.
 
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