Ever fill your own 14 ounce propane tank?

PineRidge · Nov 11, 2005

I'm curious if any of you have ever used the small brass adapters sold at stores like Harbor Freight that allow you to fill the common 14 ounce Turner tanks from a BBQ propane cylinder.

Are these adapters safe to use and how does one know when a 14 ounce cylinder is full? I'm also assuming that the BBQ grill transfers liquid propane and not just vapor pressure.

chim · Nov 11, 2005

I never did propane tanks, but we used to fill our small CO2 cyinders (5 or 10 pounders) from a larger tank. These were used to blow fish lines in electrical conduits. On the CO2 cylinders, the "mother" tank needed to have a siphon tube, or be inverted when filling. This allowed the liquid CO2 to be transferred to the smaller tank. That's important because without the liquid to "boil off", the refilled tank would contain compressed gas only, and it wouldn't last very long..................chim

Bully · Nov 11, 2005

I do it all the time. I made my own design from an old propane torch. Have your 5gal. cylinder upside down. Turn on the main valve,with the small cylinder cnnected, on the little cylinder relieve some of the vapor out of the the bottle. This is done with the shrader valve, but don't push it in like a tire. You pull it out with a pair of neddle nose pliers or something. I use hemostats. when the propane liquid starts to come out the valve, the cylinder is full, about 2-3 min.

PineRidge · Nov 11, 2005

Bully then this must not be as dangerous as I thought, you did it and you're still here with us right? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Thanks for the info guess I'll pick an adapter up, gotta be cheaper than buying all these smaller tanks.

Bully · Nov 12, 2005

New tanks $3.49
Refill tanks $.25
unlimited supply of LPG. priceless /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

tawilson · Nov 12, 2005

I started a thread here a while back concerning the 14 ounce refillable cylinders the directions for the adapter mentions. I've never seen them and can't find any. I figured the relief valve would be different than on the throwaways. Anyways, I've filled lots of them. Sometimes the relief bleeds for a while. One thing that happened is the regulators in my Mr. Buddy Heater got plugged up with some greasy gunk. I don't know if it came from the refilled small bottles or from the adapter hose I use to connect it directly to a 30 lb. bottle. They reccomend using a filter when doing this and I guess they meant it. No matter now, I got the hose that connects to the quick disconnect which bypasses the regulators on the heater and uses the regulator on the 30 lb. cylinder. What I meant to mention before is it may be a good idea to bleed off a little lp before you connect the small bottle to fill in case there is some goo in your cylinder.

ronjhall · Nov 12, 2005

Mike lives way to close to a Harbor Freight store. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
They carry the adapters. Click Here

CTyler · Nov 12, 2005

I've done it lots of times myself. The only problem that I've had is that the tanks start to leak after a few times. The leak very slow as in its lost most of the propane after a couple months or so.

PineRidge · Nov 12, 2005

Mike lives way to close to a Harbor Freight store. 

Just gotta quit going in that store altogether, I always see new toys that we need.

DaveNay · Nov 12, 2005

( I've done it lots of times myself. The only problem that I've had is that the tanks start to leak after a few times. The leak very slow as in its lost most of the propane after a couple months or so. )

Yeah, when I was a kid, we used to refill our 14 oz tanks in Boy Scouts. They were stored in a closet in the basement of the church that was our sponsor (obviously we payed attention to safety...right). Due to the slow leaks in the propane cylinders, whenever you opened the door to the closet, there was always a slight smell of propane. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Dave