I recently bought a house that has a 65 gallon LPG tank for the stove & outdoor grill. I'm trying to determine how full it is. It has a pressure guage that shows about 18 PSI at the moment. Given that the guage goes up to around 100 psi, I'm guessing this ain't toooo full. Am I right, or can you tell from the pressure reading?
TIA
Dan
you can go to an rv place and get a stick-on temperature sensitive tape that can be used to tell how full a gas tank is.
No in theory the pressure is the same if there is any amount of liquid in the tank...
When the liquid is all gone, the pressure of the remaining gas will decrease as you use up the remaining gas.
The pressure of the liquid /gas combination will vary with temperature, but not with the amount of liquid.
Mark
I should add the tank has a regulator (of course) but the pressure reading is at the tank itself, not after the regulator.
Dan.
my 250 gal tank has a gauge, that really is a % full gauge. They only fill it to 80%. Don't know if your small BBQ tank fits the same guidelines.
John
Dan wrote: : I recently bought a house that has a 65 gallon LPG tank for the stove : & outdoor grill. I'm trying to determine how full it is. It has a : pressure guage that shows about 18 PSI at the moment. Given that the : guage goes up to around 100 psi, I'm guessing this ain't toooo full. : Am I right, or can you tell from the pressure reading? : : TIA : : Dan
Pour a kettle of boiling water down one side. You will be able to feel where the level of liquid is by where the temperature gets cool. The empty top will be warmer than where the LPG level is. Sometimes condensation will form on the cool part if it is humid.
Larry
The pressure gage reads only the saturation vapor pressure of the liquid, not the level of the liquid in the tank. The two are independent.
OK I'm an idiot. After looking at the web site for the propane company, I realized the gauge doesn't read in PSI, it is a float gauge that reads in % full. So the tank has about 18% of 65 gallons, or about 12 gallons. Should be enough to get through the weekend, anyway ;-)
Thanks to all who replied.
Dan
While most propane tank guages read %, it's not an absolute. Mine reads gallons. Also most guages are inaccurate, giving a relatively ballbark reading.
Red
They are only filled to 80% so that when the tank gets hot the propane inside has some space to expand to.
Good, because I was just about to tell you that if the tank pressure was REALLY 18 psi and the local temperature was above minus 10 F, then there was no liquid propane at all left in the tank.
Jeff
Actually, they are filled to 80% to leave room for the gas to accumulate as it is the gas that is burned, not the liquid.
Easily but I would set up to get a delivery.
While the gas and not the liquid burns, it is still only filled to 80 % for expansion due to temperature. If filled all the way and the temperature warms up slightly you will vent the tank through the relief valve.
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