andy6026
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- Jan 16, 2013
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It's good to have a healthy fear of propane tanks, especially when transporting them - such as to and from filling them up.
The last time I got mine filled I had an incident that gave me a bit of a scare. I usually get 2-3 tanks filled at a time. I take them up to Costco where they're very cheap to fill ($10 in Canada) and I do a load of grocery shopping at the same time. On this particular day I got two filled and on my way home I stopped at a bunch of other stores, making the trip home last well over an hour. I was driving a path-finder which has an open cabin all the way to the back where the propane tanks were sitting upright amongst a pile of groceries.
As I came into the home-stretch I could suddenly smell propane. I turned to look back at the tanks and I saw a combination of mist and liquid propane spewing out of one of them (it may well have been over-filled). There's that moment when you realize you've got a big potential problem - heart starts racing and so does the mind - what to do?
Now luckily all of the windows were at least partially open. However my instinct (rightly or not) was to not apply the brakes - since the spark from the break-light filament could possibly ignite the propane gas. Instead I used the hand break to slow down enough to make a left hand turn into an empty parking lot. Without thinking however, I did turn on the left signal light to make the turn, nullifying the decision not to apply the brakes. After coming to a stop, I took the tank out and being a little over-paranoid I put it on the ground about 20 feet away from the car.
On visual inspection of the tank, I could see that the leak wasn't coming out of the valve where you might expect a leak to occur. Instead it was coming out the bottom of the valve assembly where it attaches into the tank. It's not an out of date tank, nor would a normal visual inspection lead you to believe anything was wrong with the tank (such as rust or a loose fitting). Not being sure what to do, and not being able to transport the tank anywhere (where would I take it anyways?) I called the fire department and they came and took the tank away.
So, bottom line - be careful with propane tanks. It's never a good idea to put them in an enclosed space such as the trunk of a car. It doesn't happen often (at least I don't think), but it's not unheard of for cars to blow up from a leaking propane tank in the trunk, killing the occupants. The trunk fills up with gas, the driver applies the breaks and the spark in the filament ignites it. Just because a tank doesn't look old or have any visible signs of a problem, doesn't mean it's guaranteed to be safe.
The last time I got mine filled I had an incident that gave me a bit of a scare. I usually get 2-3 tanks filled at a time. I take them up to Costco where they're very cheap to fill ($10 in Canada) and I do a load of grocery shopping at the same time. On this particular day I got two filled and on my way home I stopped at a bunch of other stores, making the trip home last well over an hour. I was driving a path-finder which has an open cabin all the way to the back where the propane tanks were sitting upright amongst a pile of groceries.
As I came into the home-stretch I could suddenly smell propane. I turned to look back at the tanks and I saw a combination of mist and liquid propane spewing out of one of them (it may well have been over-filled). There's that moment when you realize you've got a big potential problem - heart starts racing and so does the mind - what to do?
Now luckily all of the windows were at least partially open. However my instinct (rightly or not) was to not apply the brakes - since the spark from the break-light filament could possibly ignite the propane gas. Instead I used the hand break to slow down enough to make a left hand turn into an empty parking lot. Without thinking however, I did turn on the left signal light to make the turn, nullifying the decision not to apply the brakes. After coming to a stop, I took the tank out and being a little over-paranoid I put it on the ground about 20 feet away from the car.
On visual inspection of the tank, I could see that the leak wasn't coming out of the valve where you might expect a leak to occur. Instead it was coming out the bottom of the valve assembly where it attaches into the tank. It's not an out of date tank, nor would a normal visual inspection lead you to believe anything was wrong with the tank (such as rust or a loose fitting). Not being sure what to do, and not being able to transport the tank anywhere (where would I take it anyways?) I called the fire department and they came and took the tank away.
So, bottom line - be careful with propane tanks. It's never a good idea to put them in an enclosed space such as the trunk of a car. It doesn't happen often (at least I don't think), but it's not unheard of for cars to blow up from a leaking propane tank in the trunk, killing the occupants. The trunk fills up with gas, the driver applies the breaks and the spark in the filament ignites it. Just because a tank doesn't look old or have any visible signs of a problem, doesn't mean it's guaranteed to be safe.