Propane tank in garage?

[MIKE IN lINO III]

173 lbs filled????

Are you sure.

I take my 100lb'ers down to the quickie mart and when they are done being filled I lug them back into the truck. I know they are heavy but I'm no Brock Lesner either.

Just thinking about this, when I have it filled at the lake they put it on the scale and fill it to 80lbs.

Am I getting ripped off.

Sorry to go off topic.

Mike

[bbqhead]

yep if they fill it all the way! around 23 gallons of propane.

weighs close to 173 lbs. hated it when people brought them in

for a refill...

randy

[bbqhead]

about the 80 lbs, the scales only go to 100 lbs. so they put

a weight on the bar to compensate for the extra 100 lbs. hope

that make sense. if you look at your tank near the valve, you

will see a bunch of letters and numbers. look for TW {tare weight] and add 100 in your case. this will tell you what the

tank should weigh when full.

randy

[fastkaw]

Propane tanks are not and should not be filled over 80%

Other wise you will get liquid when you first open the valve. NOT GOOD

There are still some old tanks in use that were made with heaver steel then

the ones made today. That may explain the weight deference.

[Jeremy airjer W]

The tear weight is what the tank weighs empty. The W.C. (water capacity) on a hundred pound tank is 239. This calculates into 100 pounds. A 100 pound tank is designed to hold 100 pounds of liquid propane wich is 80% of its capacity.

Tanks over 45 pounds are not required to have an OPD (overfill protection device) valve so it is still possible for them to be overfilled!!!!

[bbqhead]

Air jer, you are correct on the opd valves, the TW weight is what

we always go by. the TW on say a 20 lb tank is around 18.7 lbs,

you add 20 lbs to that and you fill the tank to weigh 38.7 lbs.

we just filled them to 40 lbs.some of those ancient 100 lb'ers

probably are heavier than the new tanks, so we would go by the

TW.

randy

[Jeremy airjer W]

Mine has a tear weight of 87.6 pounds. I have never had to set up the scale for more than 200 pounds so I know that all the tanks I have filled over the years couldn't have been more than a 100 pound T.W.. I have filled some pretty old ones!!

[bbqhead]

our scale went to 100 lbs, we had to use a 100 lb "slug"

on the scale to measure over 100 lbs. your tank i would

fill to 187 lbs. most of the 100 lbs i have filled had a

TW of 73.4 lbs. but as i always did was check the TW to make

sure i wasnt overfilling the tank. wasnt always the same TW

on the same lb tanks. you would think they would have a standard

weight, but that isnt always the case.

randy

[311Hemi]

ALL the advice you got is great except one thing. YOU DO NOT WONT 10 psi at you furnace gas valve. You need 10in. of water column NOT PSI. You will over

fire you furnace or worse blow the regulator out of your gas valve. (not good)

You need a Manometer to set your manifold and line pressers!!!

LP gas is not forgiving in any way, shape or form. Call someone who does

LP for a living. And be safe, Would be my suggestion.

I finally got around to hooking up the propane tank today (I procrastinate a little) and obviously don't use/need it very much. I ended up getting a small regulator from Menards that is rated for 75,000 BTU and 11" W.C. I think these are normally for gas grills. My garage heater is rated for 75,000 BTU input and 60,000 output. I hooked up the tank and tested the connection with water/soap and then fired it up. It started up and ran fine. I still don't know how it will do in cold weather....time will tell.

I did not test the manifold or line pressure. Does anyone see any concerns with using this regulator?

BTW...the newer model Modine heaters require 11"-14" W.C.