How to keep my Propane at a steady rate?

[idratherbeinmexico]

SoI have noticed with my new banjo burner that my propane tank gets small bit of ice and such on the outside of it after about 30 mins of use.

I have read the chemical explaination why this is happening.

But, I do notice that my pressure coming out of my tank keeps decreasing as as I use it longer in my boils.

I'm sure other people have seen this with their burners.

What do you do to keep the pressure from dropping?

Do you put the tank in a pool of water?
Do you put it closer to the heat source(yes, I said that)

Any help would be appreciated.

Brew on...

 

[RukusDM]

SoI have noticed with my new banjo burner that my propane tank gets small bit of ice and such on the outside of it after about 30 mins of use.

I have read the chemical explaination why this is happening.

But, I do notice that my pressure coming out of my tank keeps decreasing as as I use it longer in my boils.

I'm sure other people have seen this with their burners.

What do you do to keep the pressure from dropping?

Do you put the tank in a pool of water?
Do you put it closer to the heat source(yes, I said that)

Any help would be appreciated.

Brew on...

If this is happening durring cold temperature seasons, you can place your LP tank in water to help even out the temperature drop. I have a large bucket thats used to hold cans of pop or beer at partys. I put 70 Deg water in that and drop the LP bottle into it. It doesn't have to be full of water. Just enough to be about 1/2 way up the bottle.

Don't use hot water, you will make a bomb.

Edit...Of course if the bottle is near empty you may have floating issues

 

[Mikethepoolguy]

You are using propane faster than it (the propane) can boil. The easiest solution is to use a larger tank or combine tanks in parallel.

 

[Mikethepoolguy]

To be more precise ther is a pressure/temperature relationship of the propane. If its temp is already low, its pressure is low. When you release the gas you lower the pressure and thus the temperature even more. The water trick will work for a while, but you will be chilling the water also, so all you do is delay the enevitable. The correct and safe solution is to upsize the tank.

 

[msa8967]

Allowing the propane to leave the tank to your burner is an example of an adiabatic expansion of a gas. The rapid drop in pressure will result in a drop in temp of the gas in your tanks. If the moisture in the air is near the condensation point then water vapor is going to condense on the tank. You can place a towel around your tank or lightly wrap it to help limit this from happening. Placing the tank in water will also help moderate the effect for a time. How much this will occur will depend on the tank size and how rapidly you allow the propane to leave the tank.

 

[Golddiggie]

Just a thought, how about using some of the halogen work lights to keep the tank warm? You can get them pretty cheap these days... A single 500W light runs under $10 at Lowe's (a 600W is under $20)... Those things can throw out a good amount of heat, so they could be a way to add a little warmth to the tank to help keep the pressure/flow rate up...

 

[RukusDM]

The other question might be, do you need the gazillion BTU's the burner can provide?

My burner is a 50,000 BTU, but I don't run it wide open. It doesn't seem to need all of the BTU's available to keep a 7 Gallon boil going. I turn mine down until the boil begins to drop and then turn it up just a bit to keep it going.

I did this Sunday with 8 Deg outside air temp and had no issues.