Purging New Propane Tank?

[DrJ]

I just bought a new 20lb tank and it has a sticker that says it should be purged by a qualified person before filling and 1st use. What does this mean? any info would be helpfull. Thanks DrJ.

[dairyman]

take it to your local propane supplier--they'll know what to do

[mozy]

I'm not sure exactly what they do, but it was a $6 fee to have it done on mine.

[BobT]

My guess is they have to ensure that all the air has been removed and the only thing is in the tank is LP fuel.

Bob

[boatfixer]

Correct. All of the air needs to be purged from the tank before filling.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Some places charge some don't. Basically your tank is shipped with air in it. The air has to be removed (purged) from the tank. The proper way to do it is with a purging device and a twenty pound tank. The twenty pound has propane in it. The device is nothing more than valves and hoses. One hose attaches to your tank. The valves are then used to fill your tank with propane gas until it reaches a certain pressure (we do a thirty count because ours does not have gauges). Then they vent your tank completely. This process is repeated for a total of three times. Once it is done your tank should be air free. If it is not done you will have problems with your flame blowing out if you can even get the appliance lit.

[croix walleye 6]

they pressure test tank to make sure its not leaking therefore air will create moisture in tank so you put methanol in tank and and repressurize it to dry out water otherwise overflow valve will have a tendancy to rust up and get stuck

[SapperACE]

I bought a new 30# tank last year and the guy forgot to purge it before he filled it. He said that he thought it would be ok. I had the tank on the fish house heater and it seemed to work. I hooked it to my grill this summer, however, and it would barely make a flame out of the burner and would blow out easily. Hooked a different tank to the grill and the grill worked fine. I hooked the bad tank back on the fish house this winter and used up most of the fuel in it.

My question is whether or not it can be purged once it has been filled for the first time, or is my tank junk now?

[croix walleye 6]

yes it can be purged still just make sure you run all propane out of tank before you bring it in

[Jeremy airjer W]

My question is whether or not it can be purged once it has been filled for the first time, or is my tank junk now?

[croix walleye 6]

work at a rental store for 9 years methanol is only way to remove all moisture out of tank you can leave the valve open as long as you would like but if you dont have an adapter on the valve nothing will come out of tank we bleed air out of tank first then hook up a line with an adapter on it and put approx. 2 tablespoons of methanol in the line and then repressurize the the tank, we bleed out tank again then repressurize 2 more times to remove all moisture

[FL SNIPER]

I used to fill tanks growing up...and one thing I thought that always helped increase the performance of the tank was to unscrew the little release valve (screw) when filling tanks, you need a flat head screw driver to do this. Because propane is denser, heavier, then the air that was in the tank, it would force the air out of the tank as you filled it. So each time you had your tank refilled the less regular air would be in there. Not sure this makes sense to anyone but me...but oh well. If you think your tank is not performing at its peak, next time ask the attendant to try unscrewing that screw while they fill it. Like I mentioned...always seemed to work well on the tanks I filled. FL Sniper

[croix walleye 6]

fl sniper on the older tanks you did want to do this but with the new opd valves you donot want to do this on the old tanks you could open up the valve and propane would come out but on the new tanks something has to be hooked up to tank in order for propane to come out and when tank runs out the valve will shut down

[jigginjim]

If your tank is not pruged correctly you will not get the proper amount of propane in the tank.

[Hafnutz]

Why not just exchange your tank for one that is already filled and not have to deal with it?

[Jeremy airjer W]

unscrew the little release valve (screw) when filling tanks, you need a flat head screw driver to do this.

[Big Buck Buster]

[SapperACE]

I wish I could just do the trade thing, but this tank is a 30# tank. If anyone knows where I could exchange a 30#er I would do it in a heartbeat.

[Jeremy airjer W]

On the OPD valves, the straw doesn't matter.

[Big Buck Buster]

If the tank tipped the scales, I sure hope that the customer was told that the valve needed to be replaced because it was faulty.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Just because it tipped the scale does not mean its faulty. Some end up being calibrated on the light side some end up on the heavy side. Its not a perfect fool proof design. IMO its to prevent the gross overfilling of the tank. A filler still needs to keep an eye on the scale to make sure the tank is filled appropriately.

[givetoget]

nice try Buck Buster But something tells me you aint going to win this one

[croixflats]

Just because it tipped the scale does not mean its faulty. Some end up being calibrated on the light side some end up on the heavy side. Its not a perfect fool proof design. IMO its to prevent the gross overfilling of the tank. A filler still needs to keep an eye on the scale to make sure the tank is filled appropriately.

Whats wrong with a tank that is filled earlY in the day at 0 degrees then it warms up to 30 degrees and as your unloading it releases its pressure on you in the chest as you unload it when the temp rose. It happend to me with a 100# tank, what do ya think went through my thoughts. CABOOM! The elastic band of my underwear is still on display at the Minnesota Historical Museum of Minnesota for the ice fishing display.

[RonWBasser]

Read all that airjer has to say.

He is correct.

[Big Buck Buster]

nice try Buck Buster But something tells me you aint going to win this one

I am not trying to win a contest here. I am just stating the facts as they were given to me when I started filling the OPD valves. They clearly stated that if ANY tank that has the OPD valve on it is found to be overfilled due to the float valve not working properly needs to be taken out of operation until the valve has been replaced and retested.