Propane Tanks

[Freelander]

Well I filled my tanks today and I'm not going to fill there ever again. 

The lady the filled the on board tank stopped at the very first drop of propane from the fill valve. the tanks is only showing 3/4 full, she said that is all she can put in it. And I have a 20 lb tank I wanted topped off, and she was going to charge me for a full 20 lb tank. I only needed about 8 lbs to fill it.

 

[wayne49]

Where is there?

 

[Freelander]

The small town where I live.

 

[tx2sturgis]

lol....that clears it up.

 

[abnorm]

How do you fill an on board tank using POUNDS ?...........Propane is Generally dispensed as a liquid/GALLON

 

[wayne49]

Every place I have been for propane does metered gallons and charges per gallon.

The most recent was in Yuma, AZ at a U-Haul charging $2.98/gallon, took 4.8 gal, paid $15.04 including tax.

Most places wouldn't short fill, since more propane metered means more revenue.

OP is getting ripped off. Nice town you have there, be a shame if something was to happen.

 

[tx2sturgis]

The OP's on-board tank would have been filled from a dispenser reading gallons. 

The portable 20# tank was topped off but the OP was charged for a full refill.

 

[Freelander]

She only put 9.3 gals in the onboard tank it only had a couple of gallons in it, it holds 16 gals, and wanted to charge me $14 for the 20 lb bottle that only needed about 8 lbs.

 

[Freelander]

So I guess I'll have to take some place it have it topped off. I think I'll try Camping World.

I need to take it town anyway and have the oil changed and a complete service done.

 

[Freelander]

Well the local company charged me $1.70 a gal, I went to Flying J and finished filling the tank, took another 3.2 gals, and they charged $3.49 a gal!!!!


Glad I only needed 3.2 gallons to top it off.

 

[bullfrog]

One of the reasons I keep more than one bottle is I can run them completely empty almost before filling as some places only do a cheap set price on 20 lb. bottles. I also have modified my on board tank system to use 20 lb. bottles so I don’t have to go to town just to fill the on board tank. I just hook up a bottle and turn on a valve when the on board tank runs out.

 

[Freelander]

I plan on making for changes to the propane system later, I want to add a line from the main tank inside to run an Olympian heater and eliminate the 20 lb bottle all together.

Right now the 20 lbs bottle is sitting in the front pass side floorboard.

 

[user 27148]

If your onboard tank, meaning your ASME RV tank, spits liquid out of the small valve that they open while filling, your tank is filled to 80%. Now, if you disagree with that, you might be right and I'll tell you how. On some of the 80% gauge valves, they have a rod that can bend, which may dip below 80%. This is not it, but it looks almost like this one: https://www.amazon.com/43-5lb-Forklift-Propane-Bleeder-Aluminum/dp/B07BL29HRH/ref=sr_1_7

This is one without a tube: https://www.amazon.com/Propane-Bleeder-MEJ400-Forklift-Motorhome/dp/B07BCV9NFB/ref=rvi_15/

If you really think that the tank is NOT full while spitting liquid, bring it to a propane service that services tanks and have them inspect it. They will have to take it out and do a visual on it. It's high pressure, so I would not try doing it yourself. Also, the parts are hard to get, so if they break it they can repair it quickly where you will have to wait for parts to arrive the whole time with atmosphere getting into your tank.

 

[Freelander]

This was my on board tank, and the liquid just barely spit out of it, I went to Flying J and they added another 4 gallons to the tank. I won't be going back there again.

 

[ckelly78z]

There is no such thing as "Topping off" a propane tank to absolute full. For safety purposes, propane dealers only fill to 80%, because excess heat will expand the contents, and make a potential bomb out of it in a short amount of time.

 

[Freelander]

The tank was only about 60% full, the liquid was just barely spitting out.

 

[user 27148]

If there is nothing wrong with the 80% level gauge, which is the tiny valve that you're talking about, then barely spitting out is close enough to 80%. A tiny bit more propane will have it spitting full time, then it's overfilled. So, the lady was doing her job on the side of safety. If your gauge was working properly and was barely spitting out, then it was around 79+% full, which is close enough to 80%. There is no getting around that. The valve does not spit liquid at 60%.

 

[user 27148]

There is no such thing as "Topping off" a propane tank to absolute full. For safety purposes, propane dealers only fill to 80%, because excess heat will expand the contents, and make a potential bomb out of it in a short amount of time.

You are 100% correct about "absolute full" and "80%", but to be fair, on the portable DOT tanks, those can be topped off, but as you said only to 80% full. The Tare Weight is listed next to "TW" which is the weight of the tank empty, so weighing the tank and subtracting the TW a person can figure out what the contents of the tank are. Then compare that to the "WC" number stamped on the tank, a person can figure out how much more can be filled until the tank is 80% full.

An even more simple method for topping off any tank, DOT or ASME, is to simply open the 80% gauge, sometimes called the bleeder valve, which spits liquid at 80% full.

 

[Freelander]

If there is nothing wrong with the 80% level gauge, which is the tiny valve that you're talking about, then barely spitting out is close enough to 80%. A tiny bit more propane will have it spitting full time, then it's overfilled. So, the lady was doing her job on the side of safety. If your gauge was working properly and was barely spitting out, then it was around 79+% full, which is close enough to 80%. There is no getting around that. The valve does not spit liquid at 60%.

The gauge only read 3/4 full. She got 1 tiny drop and claimed it was, when the gauge read 3/4 full. This isn’t my first time with filling propane tanks.

 

[user 27148]

The gauge only read 3/4 full. She got 1 tiny drop and claimed it was, when the gauge read 3/4 full. This isn’t my first time with filling propane tanks.

This dial gauge is rarely that accurate. Also, you do realize that 3/4 is 75%, which is close to 80%, that in conjunction with variances, along with that liquid was spitting out of the bleeder valve, your tank was full. Here is some reading for you: https://www.santaenergy.com/how-to-read-a-tank-gauge/