I learned a lot refilling 1-pound disposable propane canisters from 20-pound Flame King propane tank from a 500 gallon residential propane tank

Before you get too excited:

Personally I use the 20# tank with a regulator/filter and hose.

I fill a few disposables for torches and maybe a lantern . For heating , I've got one that goes on a 20/30/100 cylinder that's dandy for heating the shop . Takes a while if it's 8 below but it'll get there .

Good write-up. I just used the portable buddy heater our son had gifted us last week when a storm took our our power for 2 days. It worked very nicely but one pound propane tank only lasts about 4 hours on low. Local hardware store only had one tank as they were selling out.

I just ordered a second heater from Cabela's for $74.98 and see it is available at Walmart and Amazon for the same price. Also ordered small propane tanks but found there is a hazmat shipping fee. I would not have done this and looked locally but happened to have points on my Cabela's credit card to use up.

On 22 Jan 2024 03:37:37 GMT, rbowman wrote: rbowman wrote on 21.01.2024 21:37>>

I'm happy you noticed how excited I am as I love the power to be able to do, at home, what most people would be afraid to do, so they lose out.

My 500-gallon residential propane tank doesn't seem to have one of those "nursing" valves on the top (which would have a long dipstick going to the bottom of the tank to allow liquid to flow up & out by the pressure alone).

"The liquid withdrawal valve is attached to the tank and itself is in the vapor space.The diptube that reaches the bottom of the tank is in direct communication with the liquid space of the propane tank which allows it to be used for liquid propane service or liquid withdrawal."

At the bottom of the tank is the valve that I need to use to get liquid.

My tank came with the house and is owned by the house so there is no specific propane company. I can order from any propane company around.

Yes. I have that hose & regulator. Mine is only 10 feet though, not 12. But it's too hard to move the heater when the 20 pound tank is attached.

I learned from this newsgroup that the rubber hose leaches goop which clogs up the Mr Heater Portable Buddy heater. But I don't have the filter yet.

BTW, how often do you replace the filter? The Mr. Buddy web site says the filter should be replaced yearly, but of course that depends on usage.

I agree that the initial cost is high for the refillable propane canisters. But it's much easier to move the portable heater with the one pound cans.

Luckily they're easy to refill although non-refillables aren't hard to re-fill - but in my tests of five refillables, two of them already leaked.

The best price I can find for the FK refillable one pound cans is this.

Thanks for noticing I put the extra detail so that anyone else can make a better (or at least quicker) decision than I was able to make not knowing anything at the start and having to learn it all by making many mistakes.

Yup. I get about 4 hours on low and about 3 hours on high which isn't anywhere near what the manufacturer advertises. I would say it's illegal what the manufacturer advertises, but it's the same when I refill my sodastream tanks from my 5 pound carbon dioxide tank that nobody gets anywhere near the usage that the manufacturer claims.

How they're able to lie so openly is beyond me. It seems like a Volkswagon thing, where the lies are so obvious that anyone testing would find them.

Local Home Depot has the filled disposables at about $6 each and the local ACE Hardware is even more than that. The HD price nets about $25/gallon.

My residential fuel is $3/gallon and the refilling at U-Haul is about $4/gallon so paying $25/gallon is a pretty steep cost for convenience.

Plus it's a crime for the environment, where I hear Democrats (and Republicans) cry about the environment, but then they buy disposable everything and they don't fix anything so they're all inveterate liars.

Wow. A local Hazmat fee? Some of the local propane suppliers for my 500 gallon residential tank charge a $20/delivery hazmat fee but others don't.

If cost is an issue, I'd get the three refillable tanks for $13.33 each (plus tax & shipping) which arrive empty so there can't be a hazmat fee.

I can vouch for how easy it is to refill the one pound canisters, where if you follow the directions, is as safe as anything you do as a DIY at home.

So your first tank, filled, costs you $14 but the next costs only $1 which you can keep doing forever (or until the canister needs to be recertified).

Actually, it doesn't matter that the canister needs to be recertified, because I don't know anyone who will fill them, even when they're new.

So the only thing that happens after 12 years is you can't transport them.

I still would like to ask if anyone knows of a safe but less expensive DIY hose and fittings since these are all standard across the entire world.

The DT is the Dip Tube (for the 5/32 allen bleeder valve). The "FK" is probably Flame King.

But what do the rest of the markings indicate?

That looks more like a plug than a valve to me. If so, you would have to empty the tank install a valve there.

It does look like a plug. I agree with you. But I'm told no tank is made without a liquid check valve but I do not know if that's actually correct.

So far I haven't. It's last resort backup for the house since I have a gas oven if the power is out. A couple of years ago the tank gauge stuck at

1. I was suspicious and when it fell to 0 after a few swift kicks I figured I was screwed so I dragged it in from the shed. I will admit moving the heater, tank, and hose as one unit is awkward but I don't move it around inside.

Other than that I use it in the shed and it hasn't had much use. I recently had cataracts removed so I can actual see gun sights so I'll ramp up the reloading and get more use out of it.

If you haven't priced reloading supplies lately be prepared for some serious sticker shock .

Thanks for your advice.

A funny thing happened when I looked at my hose to check sizes, where I already have the filter screwed onto the end as it came with the kit.

The problem I found out the hard way is if you use the 20 pound tank on some equipment (like a generator) which sips a lot of fuel, it will freeze at the bottom and form frost up to the liquid line (if the air is humid).

Obviously freezing to the floor and dripping on it is a problem indoors. The small canister gets cold, but it doesn't form frost or touch the floor.

I'm still trying to make sense of how that meter works as it's kind of like a car cooling system temperature gauge where it moves slowly most of the time but then it moves fast in the last few bits of the remaining fuel.

It's not so much that the big tank and hose is awkward as the little tank is so much easier to move - and - I kept tripping over the hose.

Of course, I put the heater between my legs under the desk, so that's a problem where had I put it in the middle of the room it wouldn't have been.

I'm using the heater every day as it's twice as fast and half the cost of my 1500 Watt electric heater (which is safer & even easier to use).

Good for you. I can see how the propane heaters are best for airy places like sheds and garages more so than in closed quarters like RVs & bedrooms.

What I love though is being able to refill the one pound canisters at home. My next project will be to try to source the parts for the Nash Fuel hose.

I was hoping to find someone who has already made their own propane liquid transfer hose because it's really only three parts: a. the hose has to handle the pressure & the -40 degrees b. the adapter for the nurse tank has to be the correct threads c. the deadman shutoff adapter for the 20-pound propane tank

I have to figure out the required thread types as I see a whole bunch of standards out there such as LCC27, POL, ACME, OPD, QCC, CGA-600, etc.

If someone has already figured out how to source those parts, that would work out well. I'm wondering if a normal black gas pipe will work but probably not because it will be at -40 degrees boiling temperature.

I was wondering if a yellow flexible gas line would work but also probably not because it probably can't handle the pressure of the liquid propane.

You can say that again about the reloading supplies, or any amunition for that matter. I had bought a lot before the big jump in prices and have not had the time to do much shooting in the last few years s hae not bought anything but a few boxes of the Hornady ammo that I have not seen any bullets with the 'plastic' in the hollow point as seperate components. I lucked out and bought a bunch (for me) of loaded ammo for about what I could load the stuff for just before the big jump in price. Seems that the companies had a big sell on stuff as they were almost giving it away.

Fortunately I have some on hand. I may need bullets. My former supplier, Dardas Cast Bullets, is out of business so I may go back to Berry's.

While rooting around I found a tray of primers that I must have bought as a single in another century. Looking at the price sticker I was ready to cry. Back in the '80s I'd make .357 practice rounds with only a primer and a wax plug when primers were dirt cheap. Then came Clinton.

The good old days... I used to stop on my way home from work Friday night and pick up a box of CCI .22 LR. Sportsmans Warehouse had them stacked on a pallet, $19.95 for 525. Like everything else the last time I bought .22s the price was about the same but the count was down to 300 rounds.

I get bullets from SNS Casting:

I do not shoot as much now but a few months ago paid through the nose for a thousand small pistol primers with HAZMAT fee.

Supplies had dried up under Obama but I snagged 5,000 large pistol commie primers that even with HAZMAT were cheaper than US.

Might also mention that only pistol powder I could find then was Hodgdon Titegroup Powder. Now that is all I use for target loads as much less powder is needed.

Mentioned I ordered small propane cylinders from Cabela's set to arrive today with HAZMET fee but today found at Walmart even cheaper. When checked on line they said they had none but there was a load at the store.

The bullets are not that bad but the powder and primers are, especially if you have to add in the HAZMAT fees. To get around that is about all I have gone to gun shows for in many years.

Today the 4 pack of l lb. cylinders at Walmart was $18 and also my second heater arrived.

We are just keeping these things on standby in case we have another long power failure in cold weather.

I have a 6,000 or so watt gasoline generator that previously could handle my oil furnace but we had to replace the furnace as described elsewhere with a heat pump and I cannot handle it.

We were considering a whole house generator but that could set us back $20,000 and wife does not want a large propane tank in our back yard. Whole house generator at full use can use up to 4 gallons of propane per hour. We live on a hill and in a bad snow oil trucks could not get up the hill.

Funny but maybe 5 years ago a friend wanted to give me his whole house generator as he was getting a bigger one.

I recently scored a few boxes of .22lr for a dime a round ... and I've seen it going for twice that . I can also remember a time it was a penny a round . These are meant to be "trade goods" when s*it goes south .

That's the best price I've seen recently, where one gallon of propane weighs 4.2 pounds so that's roughly $18 for about one gallon of propane.

When you refill them, the propane cost is around $4 per gallon, although that doesn't count the cost of the 20-pound tank & the refilling setup.

With that extra $14 you save filling up four of the refillable tanks, you can amortize the $80 it costs for the refilling jig at Home Depot.

Does your propane power generator run off of the small one-pound cans? Mine only runs off of the hose which only fits the 20 pound tanks & up.

I have to turn off my well pumps as my 6KW generator can't handle them either.

Understood. It has to be accessible to the propane delivery guy also, which means they have to park a 3000 gallon truck & drag a hose to the tank.

Mine uses about one gallon of propane an hour but it depends on a lot.

That plus a transfer switch would be ideal.

My generator uses gasoline. I have a transfer panel. It could handle our oil furnace, well, refrigerator and freezers some lights in one room with TV and internet modem. I bought it and had transfer panel installed about 15 years ago when power was out over 2 days in cold weather. We have fairly frequent power failures because of the tree lined road leading to our development. Usually outages are less than a few hours but storm that went through recently caused 500 outages in the county.

I have two 5 gallon propane tanks for my grill and would get refillable tanks and connector if I thought I would be using the heaters a lot.

Just googled up friend's house and it is only about 12% bigger than mine so his generator may not have been big enough. He and his wife were living on the first floor that the generator covered and he needed a bigger one to house his divorced daughter and her teenage son on the second floor. He also has natural gas heat which we do not have. His gas heater would only draw a fraction of the power needed for a heat pump so the free generator would definitely not be big enough for me.

I've been buying primers and powder at a couple of gun shops in a small city about 50 miles away . I buy my liquor in the same town ... I buy non-hazmat stuff from the gun shop here in town .