5 Gallon Propane Tank Weight

Found the valve and hose. Turned the tank over, bounced it on a block of wood, and connected the hose. Open the valve a crack and a la, the propane flowed. Reconnected it to the BBQ and it works like a charm.
Thanks Everyone
Bill

HappyKayakers wrote:
When I was dispensing propane at RV parks, a common remedy for a stuck valve was bouncing the cylinder on the protective ring against something fairly solid. Always worked.

I am going to try this remedy. Somewhere, around here in all my clutter, is an old style hose with a valve attached. I will connect this after tapping the tank on a block of wood (on concrete) and see if it frees he valve.

Sorry about the late response, but I have been fighting a VERY nasty cold that I picked up on a recent flight. Many on the plane were coughing...
regards
Bill

dakdave wrote:
weight should be stamped on tank on valve protector

Correct! The TW: (Tare Weight, aka: empty weight in lbs.), is stamped into the side of the protective rind around the valve.
See "Tank Markings" in this document:
http://www.elivermore.com/propane.htm
Mel
'96 Safari

indyzmike wrote:
Be sure to open the tank valve slowly. There is an automatic shut off built into the tank. It is supposed to shut off the gas flow if there is a major leak in the system. By opening the tank valve fast, and having the gas rush to pressurize the system, it reads that as a major leak and blocks the flow of gas. Slowly open the valve until you hear gas flow. Wait until the gas flow sound stops. Then you can open the valve all the way.

Cylinder has a spring loaded shut off that doesn't allow flow unless hose connected.

But the ACME nut has 2 safety devices.
One is the 'excess flow check valve'-----a ball bearing that will move towards closed when valving in the cylinder and then moves back to center position when the pressure equalizes on both sides. If a fitting/line broke the high flow would push ball to closed position.

Also if ACME nut should be exposed to high heat (fire) the thermal bushing will melt and allow the cylinder spring loaded valve to close.

Your one tank will probably have a lot of lp in it. We do lp exchange and I see these exchanged all the time. I take them home and use up the remaining gas before retuning them back to the exchange program.
There is a protective shutoff valve built into the black plastic hand turn tank connector on the grill. Make sure your grill dials are all turned off, then slowly open the valve on your lp tank until fully open. Wait a few seconds then turn one burner on and light it. I got so frustrated with mine that I actually took a small drill bit and drilled out the protection valve on the grill side. Please don't give me any lectures, I also don't where a helmet when I ride a bike. Btw, the old lp connectors that you used a wrench to connect the tank did not have the protection valves built it. You can still purchase them.

More important than opening slowly is the safety shut off in the valve that DEMANDS something be attached or no gas flows.

Just like a throw away bottle, if you do not firmly attach the hose (Hand tight if it is an ACME "Nut" type connection, wrench tight if it is a POL) no gas will flow.

Be sure to open the tank valve slowly. There is an automatic shut off built into the tank. It is supposed to shut off the gas flow if there is a major leak in the system. By opening the tank valve fast, and having the gas rush to pressurize the system, it reads that as a major leak and blocks the flow of gas. Slowly open the valve until you hear gas flow. Wait until the gas flow sound stops. Then you can open the valve all the way.

Several factors come into play when converting gallons to pounds of propane. The commonly stated conversion is ~4.2 pounds per gallon. HOWEVER, it is important to note that this applies at 60 degrees and at a specific microatmospheric pressure of whatever contains the propane. If you alter the temperature or the microatmospheric pressure, then 4.2 no longer applies.

It is for this reason that converting from gallons to pounds is generally avoided for filling purposes whenever only standard, simple equipment is available. Rather, fillers are trained to fill by *weight.

Gallons come into play not for filling, but for billing. As one often hears about filling gasoline tanks, there is some variation with standard, simple equipment that does not compensate: A gallon at one temperature is not a gallon at some other temperature.

:)
Lynn

*There is one other way to fill propane safely, namely, by gravity-determined volume. Again, though, filling by this method avoids simply measuring out some amount of propane in gallons.

Computer error caused duplicate post (No ACK).

Take tank to a Propane Wholesaler who can re-cert it, They can figure it out.

ONE possible issue is contamination.. There are things that can get pumped into the tank that are NOT propane....

Also.. Modern propane tanks with ACME valves (Outside threads): You said you opened the valve and nothing came out.. This is how it should be, there is a 2nd valve, inside the outlet, if there is nothing connected to the tank this valve WILL be closed. Just like a throwaway, the valve is opened when you connect to it.. Also the nut must be tight, if it's loose, the valve closes.