Forum Discussion

pirlbeck's avatar
pirlbeck
Explorer
Feb 17, 2017

Buying LP in Canada with older cylinders???

I am planning on spending some time in Canada this summer and probably going through Canada on our way to Alaska in 2018 and I am wondering about my propane cylinders. They are stamped late 2017 so I should be OK this summer, but I am worried about next summer. Here in the states they are good for 12 years(10 in Canada) from new and then I can have them re-certified for 5 years, but I have read some forum posts where travelers have had problems getting USA re-certified cylinders filled. This is a Lance truck camper and these cylinders are 5 gal horizontal so they are not the $30 grill tank. From what I have found online they are going to run around $175-200 each with shipping. I know it does not mean anything, but this camper has seen very little use and these tanks look like new.

What experience have you all had with this?

Thanks!
  • They can have either a TC or a UN stamp.

    Here is a quote directly from the Transport Canada website.

    "UN pressure receptacles marked with "CAN" or "USA" as the country of approval can be used seamlessly and interchangeably in the United States and Canada."
  • Boon Docker wrote:
    netjam wrote:
    Tried to have my 5 yr old tanks filled at Costco in Canada last summer. I am Canadian with a Canadian registered rv but like most rvs it came from the USA. Costco would not fill them as the tanks did not have a Canadian stamp on them. They told me all tanks must be Canadian certified to be refilled (a new law). I went elsewhere where I got them filled but was told they were really not supposed to fill them.


    Someone has been misinformed. As long as the tank has been stamped USA or Canada they can be filled in either country.


    Costco (Calgary) will not fill USA certified tanks. They have to have the Canada approved stamp (TC I think) imprinted. If you go into Costco and look at the tanks they sell they all have the TC imprint...mine do not.
  • I read about these big price's for tanks, last year (Jan 2016) I bought two 7gal tanks at Aces Hardware for $85 per tank, so I have to ask what size tanks are costing so much ......

    Also I found out that the tops of the new tanks were about a half to three quarters of an inch higher that my old tanks that were about six years old thus I had to tilt them to get them into the propane compartment......

    On our new 5th wheel the propane compartment is pretty big and way higher than the old so taking tanks in and out should be a snap.....
  • Our Lance camper has 2 of the horizontal removable tanks with the older filler connections. Our usual filling spot in Missoula knows they are grandfathered in the US but still need to be certified.

    We bought one of the new types ($165 as I remember, maybe less) to make sure we can always get propane on the road. Some places in the US don't know the rules and some have discarded the old type fillers even though they are legal for horizontal tanks.
  • DrewE wrote:
    Does this requirement for Canadian-specific certification also apply to permanently-mounted (ASME) tanks, or is it only for DOT cylinders?


    Only portable cylinders have to be re-certified DOT requirement

    Permanently mounted tanks do not have ANY certification requirements ASME standards only

    US/Canada
  • netjam wrote:
    Tried to have my 5 yr old tanks filled at Costco in Canada last summer. I am Canadian with a Canadian registered rv but like most rvs it came from the USA. Costco would not fill them as the tanks did not have a Canadian stamp on them. They told me all tanks must be Canadian certified to be refilled (a new law). I went elsewhere where I got them filled but was told they were really not supposed to fill them.


    Someone has been misinformed. As long as the tank has been stamped USA or Canada they can be filled in either country.
  • Does this requirement for Canadian-specific certification also apply to permanently-mounted (ASME) tanks, or is it only for DOT cylinders?
  • Tried to have my 5 yr old tanks filled at Costco in Canada last summer. I am Canadian with a Canadian registered rv but like most rvs it came from the USA. Costco would not fill them as the tanks did not have a Canadian stamp on them. They told me all tanks must be Canadian certified to be refilled (a new law). I went elsewhere where I got them filled but was told they were really not supposed to fill them.
  • I don't know about your horizontal tanks in the Lance, but the Feds just changed the recertification on portable cylinders. I believe the date was January 23, 2017 all portable cylinders must be re-certified at 10 years even though they were good for 12 years. When we went to Alaska in 2014 my tanks were borderline for 12 years. So when I was getting them re-certified I mention something to the pumper where we were headed. He told me that quite a few customers told him the following snowbird season that Canada didn't recognize the US re-cert. So when we were in Whitehorse, YK. we were near a fill station. I wondered over and asked the pumper and he told me "no they don't recognize the US re-cert". Also, the other day I was at a refill place and they did have the new memo with the start date on it taped to the pump. Kind of amazed me that it filtered down that quickly.