Another Propane Question

Per suggestions in my previous post, I ended up buying an 11lb. propane tank at Menards to use for my buddy heater and small grill.

So I get the propane tank filled at Ace Hardware last week and hook it up to my grill with a 5ft. Mr. Heater hose. Grill some chicken, no problem. Well I leave one of the chicken breasts on a little longer cause its not done, and like 20 minutes later its still not getting done. Finally realize there is barely any flame anymore. I try turning it off, re-lighting, will give a good flame for a second, then fizzles out to a really small flame.

Anybody know what the issue is here?

The grill works fine with the small 1lb. tank, so I know its not the grill. I also checked the connections with soapy water, and found no leaks.
Since the tank was brand new, it had a sticker on it that said it needed to be purged. Well it took 3 guys to figure that out at ace hardware. Then the guy who filled it, said it was his first day back to work in a while, did he do something wrong? Wrong mix? Hose?

Thanks,

curious as to the answer as I have had similar issues with my 5 pounder. My best guess is something to do with pressure exiting the tank.

When you got the tank filled for the first time, did you have them do a purge?

If you Google “Propane Tank Purge”, you will get this info:

http://home.earthlink.net/~derekgore/rvroadiervfulltimingwhatisitreallylike/id45.html

Then LP gas vapor, not liquid, can be put into the tank to displace any air left over, and liquid filling is then done. All new propane tanks (MHs,) and cylinders (Fivers and Travel trailer from 4-40 pounds, which includes BBQ tanks etc.,) MUST BE PURGED BEFORE BEING FILLED FOR THE FIRST TIME!

-J.

I’ve had the same issue with one of my 20 pound grill tanks. When I get it filled, sometimes the first 1-3 uses, it barely produces a flame.

I suspect this is something to do with the safety valve on these tanks. I don’t know what, but I have an older tank and never have an issue when using it on the same grill, so it has to be something in the tank itself.

I’ve noticed that this situation only seems to happen right after I’ve filled the tank. After a couple of uses, it NEVER happens again. Would love to know what causes this.

Grouse

Same thing has happened to me years ago and it ended up being operator error(s) on the guy that was doing the refill. I just started doing tank exchanges (and I know this is just on 20#ers’ of course…) but have never had another issue at all (For those in the SE Metro: Corner of Blaine and 70th in Inver Grove Heights has tank exchange for $11.99. Seems darn cheap to me…) RR

Jon Jordan wrote:

When you got the tank filled for the first time, did you have them do a purge?

They did purge it, but I wonder if they didn’t do it right. The guy had no idea how to do it and had to call in 2 others for help.

Rooster, do you mean the corner of Cahill and 70th at the gas station? I actually live in IGH, and saw the sign the other day there. I feel kind of stupid now for not just going the 20lb route.

Grouse, what do you mean by “uses” exactly? Mine is not even usable because the flame is so weak it wont cook anything.

I should say more like “attempted uses”. Sometimes if I use this tank that causes the problem right after a refill and the grill produces only a weak flame, just shutting it off, shutting the tank valve, and then opening the valve and relighting the grill is enough. Sometimes I’ve had to repeat this process and try to use the tank several times over the course of 2-3 days before it takes off as normal.

I’ve never gotten any sense that I “did” anything to fix whatever the issue is. It just seems to go away suddenly.

Grouse

red89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Jon Jordan wrote:</div>
When you got the tank filled for the first time, did you have them do a purge?

They did purge it, but I wonder if they didn’t do it right. The guy had no idea how to do it and had to call in 2 others for help.

Rooster, do you mean the corner of Cahill and 70th at the gas station? I actually live in IGH, and saw the sign the other day there. I feel kind of stupid now for not just going the 20lb route.

Grouse, what do you mean by “uses” exactly? Mine is not even usable because the flame is so weak it wont cook anything.

Yes…My bad. SE corner of Cahill/70th across from the Holiday.

I have a 5 gallon that I use with my buddy heater in the portable. I have had issues when the person filling doesn’t know what their doing and they end up under filling.

Woodshed wrote:

I have a 5 gallon that I use with my buddy heater in the portable. I have had issues when the person filling doesn’t know what their doing and they end up under filling.

Over filling may be the problem. Yes I know the safety valve is supposed to prevent this also but that is NOT the intended purpose of the safety valve.

What may be happening is, the liquid level in the tank is high enough to shut off the safety valve or almost shut it off. Once you bleed even just a bit more out of the tank every thing performs as normal.

How can this happen? If the tank is tilted even just a bit when it is filled, it can be filled above the level of the safety valve. OR when in use if the tank is tipped even a little (when full) in the opposite direction, the liquid (which would otherwise be below the float) may now be triggering the safety valve. The safety valve is essentially just a float connected to a shut off.

So not that this is related but I had something strange like this happen last year with a 5lb and a cooker. It was freezing because it was burning the propane so fast. I would have pressure issue constantly. Once I switched to a 20lber it worked fine.

This does not sound like the case. But I know if they don’t purge them they don’t work so well.

Myself and a coworker have had issues with the mr heater hoses with the plastic tank end hand tighten fitting. They must of screwed up the tolerances because they don’t push the fitting into the tank far enough to override the safety check valve in the tank outlet. Try a different hose. I changed out my tank end fitting because I had one laying around and it worked perfectly. Figured it out by chasing the gas flow down the line. The specific hoses we had were the ones with the 1 lb cylinder adapter ends. If you have the same hose you can check for gas flow with the hose connected to the tank only. Make sure the tank valve is open and simply depress the valve pin in the center and listen for steady gas flow. Make sure you are in a well ventilated area with no ignition sources nearby.

My hose worked initially and then quit also.

Well hopefully the issue is resolved. I took the tank back to Ace Hardware and luckily there was an extremely helpful employee who actually took my tank and hooked it up to a grill they had behind the store, so we could try to determine if it was the tank or my hose causing the issue. We couldn’t tell if the flame was strong enough on the grill or not, so he assumed they had not done the purge procedure correctly the first time and there was air in the tank. Purged/refilled and seems to be working now, but we’ll see. Gonna try some brats and potatoes tomorrow.