Blue Rhino propane tanks
Is anyone using these in their campers for heating etc. or are they for grilling only.
Forum Discussion
mkirsch wrote:
Containers since time immemorial have been rated by their raw/absolute capacity, not by what is "legal" to put in them. Propane cylinders are no different. It's a marketing thing, designed to confuse and distract, but it is a fact of life.
A 20lb propane tank is a 4.7 gallon container. If you put 20lbs of propane at 4.11lbs per gallon, in it it would be full to the brim.
People who cry foul because a 20lb cylinder does not actually have 20lbs of propane in it really need to educate themselves.
Sure if you can fool the OPD, you can get pretty close to 20lbs in but it is illegal to do so.
The problem is fooling that OPD. When I take my empty tanks in to fill, I always watch the meter. Those guys could give a******about legal and just fill until the OPD shuts off. The OPD trips and stops taking propane at just a little over 4 gallons each time.
Here are the true facts.
A 20 pound cylinder holds 20 pounds of LP when filled to the 80% level. It still has a 20% expansion space due to the installation of a drip tube inside the cylinder. The same holds true for a 30 pound cylinder. You can add 30 pounds of LP when the cylinder is empty. It is perfectly safe, legal and designed that way. The OPD is designed to prevent overfilling. That is why it is called an overfill protection device.
