Does propane go bad

I see a lot of propane fueled irrigation power units out in the fields. These tanks are thousand gallon units and there is always some left over. Those engines will sit idle for at least four months over the winter. They still run the following spring. I've never heard of any complaints related to the fuel.

Propane should last as long as the container it is in. The grill tanks expire after 12 years and cannot be refilled, but they should last much longer.

It will not vaporize if the temperature drops to -45f or below.

It is not like a tank of gasoline with a head space of air which causes oxidation and degradation.

Sounds like the fellow was blowing smoke then. I did not think it would go bad.

I thought the tanks may have a lifetime. I know some other tanks like the welding tanks do. Probably nothing wrong with the tanks, but good old government regulations setting in. If I don't use the gas very much , I can still use it but will have to get a new tank when it does go empty.

I don't think it will ever get much below zero for very long where I live in the middle of North Carolina. It does not get into the low teens very often and I did see a minus 6 deg F once or twice in my lifetime.

It is government regs. They can be tested and re-certified for another

The trick on the tank is to take it to WalMart and swap it out for $15 and you get about 15 pounds of gas with the "new" one. Just be sure that date on the one they give you is recent if you don't plan on swapping it again soon. Blue Rhino will give you an out of date tank with a fresh coat of paint on it if you are not looking.

The ones out in the fields sit there for years. They're not being bounced around though and the few people around them know what's what.

Ralph Mowery snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net wrote

Didn't happen to me. I got a much bigger tank than I needed for camping and started doing that in the late 60s so I still had about half full when I stopped camping so much in the very early 70s. It was still fine when I got it filled again in 2016.

I knew that didn't happen to mine because the tare weight didn't change.

And I used to be a chemist and know of no reason why propane should turn into a jelly over time.

Mine is well out of date now but is mechanically perfect. I just get a mate of mine to fill it at the service station which supplies LPG for cars, works fine.

There is no such thing as bad propane, but there is propane that does bad things.

They do have to be re-certified periodically. Many of the older tanks do not have OPD valves so you're looking at the price of a new valve.

The problem is it costs more to certify one than a new one costs and replacing the valve really blows that number out.

That's my understanding. I know the valves are about half the price of a new tank but I didn't know about the re-certification cost. The old style ones I have are old enough to vote so I doubt they'd even pass.

If you actually go to a place that does their due diligence (VIP and hydrostatic testing) I bet it is $40-50. A speck of rust is a fail. There may be people who just paint them and stamp a new number on them tho. The easy way to get a good tank is swap it at a Blue Rhino place with uninformed employees. Walmart usually works. They even swapped a non OPD for me recently that I found, sitting out with someone's trash. The girl didn't even blink, she just asked if I would put the old one in the bin and get a new one out so she wouldn't break a nail. I bet those acrylics she had cost more than a brand new tank, filled. Maybe more per hand.

I did pick a nice one. ;-)

The least you could do. I'll bet she was cute.

I bought a tank at a junk yard once and went straight to iirc Walmart and traded it and the propane money for a new tank with propane.