Has anyone figured out a good use for the old style gas grill propane tanks? We leave the grill out year round and had gone thru about three before we got one with the new style tank.
Naturally I can’t throw away a perfectly good tank, and the propane suppliers won’t refill the old style tank even if I had a use for it. So, I figured someone here might have done something clever with an old tank.
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Replies
Tell them you are using it for a torch. Like a cutting torch.
They fill Pop's all the time, because he tells them that.
Industrial use is ok.
Home use, yer supposed to have the new tank.
"Criticism without instruction is little more than abuse." D.Sweet
Here is how I used an old propane tank...
Propane tank
"Criticism without instruction is little more than abuse." D.Sweet
How d'ya get all the propane out of the tank? The local company has a major problem doing that themselves; they have old tanks all over the yard that they need to get rid of, and can't because there's still residual propane in them and they can't cut 'em open. I don't want to be filling my truck tires with propane, even a little bit.
The best use I've seen for one is a small pressure sandblasting setup.
That is a quick coupling on the tank.
Get a male nipple, all by itself.
Fill the tank as full as you can get it, with propane.
Flip it over.
Stick the nipple in the quick connect, and let it blast away.
Do this ten or twelve times. The tank should be purged by then.
I don't know what to say about propane that may have made it's way into the pores of the metal itself...
You CAN fill the tank with water several times, and pressurize again and again, to empty it the same way as the first suggestion.
"Criticism without instruction is little more than abuse." D.Sweet
Have not had to buy propane since the new tanks, people give the tanks away around here at garage sales 1/2 of fuller, so plenty of old taks around.
Leave it open a few weeks upside down, then use your HVAC vacuum pump (with old job oil still in it) and pull a 500 micron vacuum on it for a few hours, nice and clean.
Best to ALWAYS replace the propane valve with regular pipe and paint it black or green then.
No vac pump?, leave it upside down as above, then fill with water and drain.
Uses: Painted a couple gray and yellow and use for freon recycling/reclamation, use 7 or 8 welded together for stationary compressed air tank, a couple used for protable compressed air sources, and use one for CO2/welding (only put about 1-1/2 # dry ice into a 5 gal tank for a 150 or so psi)
Close range target practice.
Mr T
Happiness is a cold wet nose
Life is is never to busy to stop and pet the Doggies!!
I don't know if they'll still do it, but I traded in my old tanks at the grocery store for full ones. It cost more then it used to to fill the tanks myself, but signifigantly less then buying new ones.
Add a lead-acid battery, trolling motor, and a porthole.
Instant submarine for your cat.