How To Transfer Propane Gas From One Tank To Another

do not under any circumstances attempt what I'm about to do you will blow yourself up and injure innocent bystanders I have a gas problem I have lots of propane in this tank but none in this tank so I'm going to attempt to transfer some gas out of the big tank into the small cylinder to do this I need a few tools I need a bathroom scale an adjustable wrench and a copper line with propane fittings on each end I also need a source of cool water at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure propane is in gas form but when it's pressurized it turns into a liquid that's why it's stored in these high pressure tanks what I'm going to do is connect this large tank to the small tank and then to make the gas transfer from one to the other I'm going to cool this tank if we know our laws of physics we know that cooling a gas makes it contract thus creating a lower pressure in the small tank than the big tank causing the propane to transfer from one to the other I've connected the small tank to the large tank with this High Press line and I've placed the small tank on a scale that's because one of the main dangers of doing this is overfilling this small tank if we fill the tank too much and then the tank gets warm it can explode this is a 20 lb cylinder which means that it holds 20 pounds of propane it has a tear weight of 19.1 lb that means when it's filled the total weight of the propane and the cylinder will be 39.1 lb so I'm going to watch the scale as I fill the tank and when it gets to be around 35 lbs indicated on my bathroom scale that's where I'm going to stop because I do not want to risk overfilling this tank so I'll turn on the valves and because this tank is warmer than this tank we can hear the gas moving from one tank to the other in a moment the pressure will equalize and that's where the cool water comes in handy it's it's been a few moments and the transfer of gas has stopped because the pressure is equal now in the Big T tank and the little tank this doesn't do me any good cuz very little propane has transferred but if I put cool water on the tank we'll hear it start again and if we keep this tank cooler than the large tank gas will continually transfer from one to the other and as it transfers into this tank it will turn to liquid so all we need to do now is wait I'm going to watch my scale and wait until it gets to about 35 lbs depending on the temperature differential of the big tank to the small tank it could take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half or more to transfer the 20 lbs from one tank to the other so I'm just going to keep the water on the small tank and continually watch my scale waiting for it to to reach about 35 lb it's been about 1 hour I've gone and done some other chores around the house and looks like my scale is indicating 35 lb which is what I was after the tank isn't completely full but I'm airing on the side of caution because this isn't the most accurate scale so I'm going to remove the water and before I shut the valve I'm going to loosen I don't know if you can see it there's a little screw right here which is connected to a tube that extends down into the tank and this is the way they um fill the tanks at the gas station they just open this screw and they fill it until liquid comes out of this screw that indicates it being um full to capacity um they don't weigh them when you have the tanks filled at the gas station so just as an extra safety measure I'm going to make sure that only Vapor comes out of this screw and that looks good so that's further indication that I'm not overfilled and now I can shut off the valves and disconnect the transfer line these are reverse thread and that's how you pass gas from one tank to another thanks for watching

Channel: Jennies Garage

Views: 706,166

Keywords: How, To, Transfer, Propane, Gas, Tank, transferring, lpg, 250, gallon, filling, fill, 20, pound, cylinder, 20lb., refill, 30lb., lb., opd, valve

Id: XjMyveIvAAk

Length: 5min 58sec (358 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 24 2012