How long does a propane tank last?

I was just wondering, since i'm just about to move from the stove out to the patio with a keggle and propane burner, just how long does 1 tank last? Will it last me the whole hour? Should I have a second tank on standby? It will be a 5 gallon recipe, so like, around 6 to 6.5 gallon boil at the beginning. What has your experience been?

blawjr said:

I was just wondering, since i'm just about to move from the stove out to the patio with a keggle and propane burner, just how long does 1 tank last? Will it last me the whole hour? Should I have a second tank on standby? It will be a 5 gallon recipe, so like, around 6 to 6.5 gallon boil at the beginning. What has your experience been?

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A tank will last you multiple batches. I've honestly not paid a lot of attention, but I would guess 4-5 batches on a tank. That said, having a standby tank is always a good idea.

BrewKnurd said:

A tank will last you multiple batches. I've honestly not paid a lot of attention, but I would guess 4-5 batches on a tank. That said, having a standby tank is always a good idea.

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Same here and I keep a spare tank on hand too

I get about 8 batches on a tank. I refill at uhaul, best price other than Costco.

theveganbrewer said:

I get about 8 batches on a tank. I refill at uhaul, best price other than Costco.

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5 or 10g batches?

Always try to refill if you can rather than exchange, when you exchange a lot of times the tanks are only 3/4 full. I take mine to a local propane dealer, they fill it to the max.

passedpawn said:

5 or 10g batches?

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I usually do 6 gallons

Wow ok, that puts me at ease, I thought for sure it would only last 1 batch, thanks guys!

same as everybody else, tank will last 4 or 5 batches ( 5 gallons), keep a spare on hand. Good luck, outdoor brewing is the best!

Bayou Burner SP10, 6 gallon batches, I usually get 5-6 brews from one tank and always keep a spare on hand. Often times I find as they empty out I get less pressure (naturally), so I have trouble bringing to a boil. So, I will hook up a fresh tank to bring to boil etc, and then hook up the almost empty tank once I have full boil to bleed it of all excess propane. I'll usually get another 20 minutes out of the almost empty tank.

estricklin said:

Always try to refill if you can rather than exchange, when you exchange a lot of times the tanks are only 3/4 full. I take mine to a local propane dealer, they fill it to the max.

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This is correct. There was a class action lawsuit against them:
http://www.stuevesiegel.com/CM/Results/AmeriGasClassActionSettlement.asp

Have your tank filled by your local welding supplier. There may be hardware stores that can fill your tank for you, but any welding supply store should be able to do it.

Check your tank before you take it to be filled!Theres a month/date stamp on the collar of the bottle (xx-xx). Your cylinder is only certified for service for 10 years from that date. If it has expired either swap it out somewhere or be prepared to pay a requalificiation fee to have it inspected. I don't recall if the requalification is good for five or ten years... I think it's 10.

I hope this helps... Gunn

That's not very nice to try to stiff someone with your expired tank. FWIW, the one time I had to do an exchange (caught short on a Sunday afternoon) they checked the date.

Well, they will short you. The exchange companies will fill a tank up to the month of expiration and then put it out to the public. If you got that tank and tried to get it refilled the next month, it would not be filled. I have no problem exchanging an out of date tank as I paid for use of the tank when I first got it. I actually think of that payment as lifetime rental(my life not the tanks) because I can exchange that tank regardless of the date. In fact, I do not know if they recertify the tanks, but I suspect not due to the cost of a new tank in bulk for them.

One thing to remember about using propane is that you can freeze the regulator and the gas will stop. The conditions have to be right for this and it does not always happen, but it has happened to me so I always have a spare.

Also a banjo burner will not use all of the tank. That is another good reason to get a refill vs exchange as you may have as much as a third left.

I use a Bayou KAB4 as my boil-only burner. I used to use it to heat my strike/sparge water, and then move to boil position (I have a variable 3-tier system) but I was running out of gas mid-brew by my third 6 gallon batch.

Now, I heat strike and sparge on my stovetop, and can get 5-6 brews out of a tank when using it for boil only.

I have 25 lbs tank and it lasts for 5-6 batches (boil only).

Standard propane tank weighs 20 lbs and holds 20 lbs of propane. If you are not sure if you have enough propane, you can weigh the tank.

Slacktime said:

Standard propane tank weighs 20 lbs and holds 20 lbs of propane. If you are not sure if you have enough propane, you can weigh the tank.

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There's a Tare weight on the collar as well.

Jeeze, if a tank only lasted me one brew, I'd start doing little 3 gallon batches on the stove top! That's some expensive beer, even for a 10 gallon batch!

I have a 2 burner setup for my strike/sparge and BK. I'm getting about 3 brews. The last brew had a 90 minute boil time though. I'm currently in the process of switching to natural gas because propane is so $$.

oakbarn said:

Well, they will short you. The exchange companies will fill a tank up to the month of expiration and then put it out to the public. If you got that tank and tried to get it refilled the next month, it would not be filled. I have no problem exchanging an out of date tank as I paid for use of the tank when I first got it. I actually think of that payment as lifetime rental(my life not the tanks) because I can exchange that tank regardless of the date. In fact, I do not know if they recertify the tanks, but I suspect not due to the cost of a new tank in bulk for them.

One thing to remember about using propane is that you can freeze the regulator and the gas will stop. The conditions have to be right for this and it does not always happen, but it has happened to me so I always have a spare.

Also a banjo burner will not use all of the tank. That is another good reason to get a refill vs exchange as you may have as much as a third left.

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I DO exchange my tanks every other year, I use my tanks for a lot more than just brewing beer. Every other year is probably overkill but I work in the oilfields and I'm scared to death of pressurized hydrocarbons.

I think part of the problem with propane is it has a high boiling point, say 35 F, so I would guess the warmer the tanks is the more you can use out of it. But yeah, what you say is right, if you exchange your paying for a whole tank of gas, if you refill you pay for what it takes to fill it up and no more. Fill ups are about 13 bucks here.

We use brush burners at work to thaw out lines sometimes and the tanks and hoses freeze up QUICK like that.

In round numbers, 20lb of propane is about 400,000 BTU. If you had a 50,000 BTU burner it would last 8 hours if we assume 100% efficiency and 100% drawdown on the tank.

What are the real numbers? Dunno...my WAG is 70% and 90%. That would mean about 5 hours in this example.

I made a "chimney" out of 24" flashing to surround the burner/brew pot, then just domed a piece of flashing for the top. This has significantly reduced my propane usage by keeping heat in and wind out. Added bonus, I reach boiling in about 10 minutes.

zendog said:

I made a "chimney" out of 24" flashing to surround the burner/brew pot, then just domed a piece of flashing for the top. This has significantly reduced my propane usage by keeping heat in and wind out. Added bonus, I reach boiling in about 10 minutes.

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I'm planning to do this as its winter here and windy. Do you have pics? Where did you get the equipment?

zendog said:

I made a "chimney" out of 24" flashing to surround the burner/brew pot, then just domed a piece of flashing for the top. This has significantly reduced my propane usage by keeping heat in and wind out. Added bonus, I reach boiling in about 10 minutes.

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Yeah good idea, as mentioned some pics if you get a chance?

I only get 2 - 2 1/2 batches out of a 20lb tank. That's running it 30 minutes to heat my strike water, another 30 for the spare. Sometimes takes up to 45 mins to get a rigorous boil going and finally the 60-90 minute boil.

By the time I'm boiling my tank has frosted up and sometimes need to swap out the unfrozen spare to get a good gas flow towards the end.

I have thought of putting the tank in a water bath to see if I could stop the freezing but easier to have a spare than something else to trip over.

Just finished 7 all grain 5 gallon batches on one 15 lb tank. Considering pushing it and going for one more. Maybe a 30 boil experiment.

We normally brew 22 gallon batches and use three propane tanks when we brew. We use fresh tanks each time (We have 10 tanks). When most have been used we take them done to the local U Haul and have them refilled. 10 tanks refilled is about $100. If we exchanged it would be at least double that. Of course, there is a lot of propane left in the tanks when we refill. The price is discounted when you reach a certain volume. You do need to check where you are refilling. Some places do charge a flat fee to refill a tank (much like the exchange) and not by volume. Also there is the empty weight along with the date on the handle of a tank. I just went out and looked at 2. One had an empty weight of 18 while the other was 16.6. So a "full" tank on one would be 38 # and 36.6 on the other. Good way to check if you are being shorted on an exchange. I also had seen people trying to get a "heavy" tank by feel at the exchange. With the tare weight being so different, that is not a good method.

Basically screwed together 4 sheets of 20" roof flashing, plus a removable top. I put the burner on patio pavers spaced a bit to allow air from underneath.

http://s1169.beta.photobucket.com/user/zendog616/media/Brewpix001.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

I have propane service at my house. I still use 20# tanks for brewing. I set them out at the home tank and my truck driver fills them during my home delivery. I don't have to haul them to have them filled. I get home delivery every 75 days. I have 2 small tanks so I would say each lasts about 4-5 batches.