Sunday, June 1, 2014

Are you prepared?

So the grill runs out of propane.

No big deal, I have spares.

In fact, I have 3 spares.

all 20 lb tanks of propane. Ready and waiting.

Or do I....?

I get the first tank, and hook it up. Still has the blue cap covering the threads.

Has pressure, but what was in the tank surely wasn't propane.

No flame, just a hiss.

Tank # 2, purchased (exchanged) at the same time, was the same. No heat, barely any flame.

Tank # 3 was not full, oddly enough. I had thought it was, but I must have been mistaken. I generally don't put them back in the same place as the full ones.

The point is, I THOUGHT I had at least 2 full tanks of propane, when I actually had two tanks of air.

If you are planning on propane as a prep, test the contents before putting them away.

The girl at the propane place said that they had several pallets of exchange tanks that had issues late last year (which is when I purchased these tanks).

Just an FYI if you have propane as a prep.

This time it was merely an inconvenience as I just had to cook indoors. But if you are planning on that tank for heat or to fuel a generator.......

2 comments:

  1. I find that exchanges are bad anyway. I vastly prefer to fill up my tanks at a local hardware store. I find that I get 20 pounds actual vs exchanges which seem to chronically run under. I also get to control the condition of my tanks. (Though I do have two that I outright bought. I exchange the worse condition one if I am bothered by it.)

    But yes, I agree it's great advise to pre test your tanks. And rotate them as well. I always use the oldest one first and have the hardware store test the tank. If they have any issues I exchange that tank.

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