How can you tell how much propane is left in a tank?

[chaniarts]

i don't believe you get a pressure change until just before running out (when there's no more liquid), and by that time, it's too late.

[Robert Green]

Ah, a man who understand that dismounting the tank makes the weighing method less than optimal - although looking at the porch I did find a way to mount a sturdy eyebolt without it being terribly ugly - that might be the ultimate solution.

Brilliant. The empty section will dissipate heat far more quickly than the propane submerged part. The only problem I see is adding anymore water to an already frozen-over porch. I might be able to achieve a similar result in reverse by hitting the outside of the tank with a can of Dust-off sprayed upside down. I am sure the tank will get colder where it's empty for the same reasons warm water works.

Of course, I could just hit the side of the tank with a blast from the torch nozzle if I wanted to live *very* dangerously. (-:

Already have two of the suckers. One by the microwave to insure safe cooking temps and the other on the toolbench. I'll see now if I can see any difference.

They're very useful for finding air leaks. I know there are "issues" with all IR thermometers, cheap and expensive. I am sure my dogs big spots aren't really that much cooler than the rest of her. It's an artifact of IR reflection from different colored surfaces. (-: (They are brown spots that appear jet black under IR light.)

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

Yep, I am afraid that may, as they said in Aliens, be "the only way to be sure." I'd sure rather have an accurate gauge in the $20-25 range. (-: I still have some hope left in the frequency analysis of a hammer tap on the tank, which turn out to be pretty easy for me to do with all the digital recorders I have lying around.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

My wife's attuned to the rocket engine exhaust sound of the burner. She's already "caught" my friend and I making mischief with it. I won't be burning weeds with it because the heat envelope it creates is impressive. While working the stairs I hit exactly the right angle to hit me with the blowback. It was very, very warm.

Probably why flamethrowers aren't used in close-in fighting much anymore. Hard to be precise.

The worst thing I did was come close to melting a plastic flowerpot sitting on the porch. Well, the worst thing I did was torquing the burner up just before midnight on a very quiet, snow-blanketed night. If you think it's loud in the daytime, try it at night.

-- Bobby G.

[bob haller]

HF ice melters are pretty cheap, buy a second one with spare tank. 20 to 30 bucks

when you run out just swap systems.

keep each one on its own cart for easy moving it around

[clare]

The ONLY accurate and simple way to know how much propane is in a tank is to use a scale and weigh it.

[clare]

All a pressure guage can tell you is if it is empty - but by the time that happens you already KNOW it is empty.

[Joe]

If you have the tank on a cart, simply install a modest priced bathroom scale on the cart for it to sit on. The bath scale could even be marked off to read the 15 pounds content of the tank. Most bath scales are good to a half pound or so precision.

Joe

[Robert Green]

consumer-priced

That brings up a different question. How come there are so many people on the Amazon review site that say the things work? I figure one quarter of the reviewers are shills, another quarter outright idiots but that still leaves some intelligent reviewers. It looks like weight is the only reliable, temperature independent way of measuring remaining gas.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

Two problems: One is that the tank's now quite securely fastened to a small luggage cart that won't easily sit on the bathroom scale unless I make up some sort of platform for it - which I may yet do. That's because even 4 seconds of bone-on-bone contact in the wrist seems to be something a few RCH's short of a crucifiction nail. All it takes is a load shift in the wrong direction to do it. As my MD says, you're now at the age/condition where you can't lift anything larger than your head.

With a little forethough I should be able to design an "interface" to the bathroom scale that allows me to use the collapsible handle on the cart as a lever to angle it onto the scale. The block needs to be high enough to prevent any part of the tank and cart from touching the ground. If that doesn't work, I've mounted a heavy duty screw-eye to the porch overhang where I can pull a rope attached to the scale through and "hoist" the tank and cart up for a weigh-in. Then, I can build a little hangman's scaffold, roll the tank and cart up over a trap door and then kick it loose to do the weigh-in. Well, just kidding, but it does look like I'm going to end up with a weight solution.

-- Bobby G.

[mike]

Not so. I had an RV with a propane tank with a float gauge just like an auto gas gauge.

[mike]

The whole cart doesn't have to be on the scale. It's a lever. Lay the handle on the scale and make a calibration chart.

[bob haller]

years ago i had a gauge that threaded on the tank with a rotary dial.

i couldnt use it anymore when my new grill used a new style fitting........

the gauge appeared to work pretty well....

why not buy one locally and try it? return it if it doesnt work

[The Daring Dufas]

Bobby, I can sympathize with the wrist problem because every square inch of me hurts depending on how hard I work but I have to weigh refrigeration tanks and I found a very handy scale at a Radio Shack store for around $7.00. It will hold the max weight reading after I put the tank down so I don't have to watch it while lifting. It's sold by Amazon too.

TDD

[Han]

The Daring Dufas wrote in news:jfp0ip$tjd$ [e-mail]:

I'm not at that level of pain, by far (knocking wood), but I did order that scale ... Thanks for the hint!!

[Robert Green]

We were (at least I was) talking about the standard 40LB tank you get from HomeDepot, etc. Never seen any of them come with a float sensor - or any other capacity indicator. It's all moot if a cheap spring-type bathroom scale will do the trick without deforming over time.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

We're in a very small house. Selling one tank and wand to SWMBO was hard enough, especially after there were several local news reports about workers setting houses on fire melting ice dams with very similar looking torches. If it was a mission critical endeavor, I'd do that but if we run out, there's always kitty litter. We just don't like it tracking all over the house and the ice melting torch avoids that. I just don't want to run out if we have a long run of icy rain like we did last year. Once I get an idea of how many minutes of "burn time" I get from an average tank, this won't be so much of an issue. The only types of propane I've used up until recently have been the Coleman stove size and the Bernz-o-matic torch size. I even spun the connector clockwise for a quite some time before realizing it was reverse threaded. Anyone know why?

At least I know one of my friends is getting senile faster than I am. He insisted I could just mount the huge, round 40LB tank on my back and ditch the cart. There aren't many 40LB loads *less* suitable for back packing in the world, especially on an icy porch. (-:

-- Bobby G.

[DerbyDad03]

I'm not sure why anyone would say that you won't have enough advanced notice when using a scale.

It shouldn't be much more complicated than a "weight per time period" calculation.

Using rough numbers here...

The Tare weight of a standard gas grill tank is ~20lbs, as marked on the tank. YMMV

Depending on where you have it filled, they may put anywhere from 15 to 20 lbs of propane in the tank but that doesn't really matter. The only numbers that matter are the overall weight at any given time and the Tare weight. The only number that will change is the overall weight.

As you use the propane the overall weight will go down. If you monitor your usage over some time period, you should be able to determine how long it takes, on average, to use 1 lb of propane.

When the scale reads ~21 lbs, you have roughly whatever "time" left that it takes to use 1 lb, based on average usage.

If 1 lb is too fine of a measure or too short of a time notification, use 2 lbs or 3 lbs or whatever works for your situation.

[bob haller]

.

easiest to just have a spare full tank to transfer to when the primary tank runs out

[Jon Danniken]

I've seen a setup on older BBQs that employed a sprung carriage to hold the tank. The carriage has a hinge on one end, and a compression spring on the other.

When the tank is full, it compresses the spring, and the indicator needle on the carriage points to the "Full" line. As the tank gets lighter, the spring lifts up the indicator needle, and it starts heading up towards the "Empty" line, letting you know it is emptying.

I'm usually too lazy to bend over and look at the indicator, so I just keep a one pound bottle of propane handy should I run out of gas in the middle of a cook. I can usually avoid that, however, by noting that when the tank is on it's last legs, the pressure appears to actually increase, giving a much more aggressive flame pattern.

That's what usually lets me know it's time to go get the tank filled.

Jon