Burners stopped with tanks half full

[BrewVegas]

I'm using a 20psi regulator, as I
have always done with my propane tanks. I've had two full tanks and they both stopped working after using about 1 gallon of propane. I had them topped off and they each would only take one gallon. After I got them topped off, they worked with the burners for 40 min, then stopped. Is this a tank or regulator problem? I certainly had enough gas.

Thanks.

PS. Just posted this with the HBT iPhone app, pretty cool.

 

[Bulls Beers]

I'm not sure we had the same problem, but I freaked last week when I was in the middle of a 90 minute boil when my gas shut off. I usually have two tanks around, but the other one was empty. I ran to HD to fill the other and started the boil again. My problem was I didn't screw my burner to the gas tank tight enough. There's a valve in the tank to release the gas. My guess is that it loosened from the tank and stopped pumping out gas. When I tightened securely, it worked great.

 

[pavs]

Sounds like the regulator of freezing during use. Are you using the same burner?

 

[BrewVegas]

Those suckers were on tight. I freaked too b/c I just finished sparging and was starting the boil. I had to wait over an hour to get more propane, hope it didn't mess any thing up.

 

[BrewVegas]

@pavs: my regulator is plumbed into my single tier which has three burners, same problem for all three. I bought a low pressure burner (waste of time) from Lowes and it pumped the gas, but it wasn't powerful enough. Just can't figure out why it only works for the first gallon of propane from each tank, then cuts off. It always worked fine before. Made for a long frustrating day.

 

[Raider-11]

I had the same problem with a trash can job heater, the regulator would freeze up because of the high volume passing throu it, I have also read in HBT threads to take the regulator off the tank and perg the pressure and reconnect and that might help.

 

[Catt22]

IMO, the above reported problems are a direct result of drawing too much propane too fast from too small of a tank. This can happen when running mutlple burners at high output from a single 20 lb tank. What is happening is that the tanks chill as the propane evaporates inside the tank. The vapor pressure of the propane drops as the temperature drops. The propane cannot change from a liquid to a gas fast enough to supply the burners. The solution would be to use a larger tank (maybe a 100 lb tank) or multiple smaller tanks. The regulators do not actually "freeze up" in the ordinary sense of the word. It's a problem of substantially reduced vapor pressure. You can also mitigate this problem by placing the tank(s) in a warm tub of water. Switching out tanks will also work for awhile, but the problem will resurface if the replacement thank chills enough for the same reason. I would go with the tub of warm water as the easiest solution. Starting off with the tank in warm water would probably be the best way rather than waiting until there is a problem. The big Banjo burners are notorious for this and especially when running more than one burner at a time, but even a single banjo running wide open can cause this phenomenon.

 

[P-J]

Catt22,

Hot damn! You nailed it, as usual.

 

[BrewVegas]

@Catt22: That make great sense. So, now that it has been over 4 hours and it should have warmed-up enough to use again. If this is the case...problem solved. I'll let you know.

 

[Catt22]

@Catt22: That make great sense. So, now that it has been over 4 hours and it should have warmed-up enough to use again. If this is the case...problem solved. I'll let you know.

You should be able to warm tank and get it back into action fairly quickly. Rocking the tank speeds up the process considerably.

 

[BrewVegas]

Just tried it and the ambient temp is probably 50 degrees. I was able to light a burner but it was bit high pressure. Is it possible to still be that cold from 4 hours ago?

 

[BrewVegas]

Just tried it and the ambient temp is probably 50 degrees. I was able to light a burner but it was bit high pressure. Is it possible to still be that cold from 4 hours ago?

Typo "bit" should have been "not" high pressure. Gotta love the autocorrect on the iPhone.

 

[LordUlrich]

If freezing is your problem (as i suspect it is) there are a couple of ways to fix it. Somebody makes a regulator that draws from 2 tanks at the same time (neither tank is likely to freeze). Alternatively you can place your propane tank into a tub of water, the water helps to equalize the temperature of the propane tank to ambient temperature.

 

[Catt22]

I'm using a 20psi regulator, as I
have always done with my propane tanks. I've had two full tanks and they both stopped working after using about 1 gallon of propane. I had them topped off and they each would only take one gallon. After I got them topped off, they worked with the burners for 40 min, then stopped. Is this a tank or regulator problem? I certainly had enough gas.

Looking back at your original post, I noticed that you said you used about 1 gallon of propane in a 40 minute period (assuming that the second try was similar to your first). That's one hell of a lot of propane usage in that short time frame. What type of burner are you running and how many of them?

Did you try warming the tanks in water? Four hours should be way more than enough time to warm the tanks sufficiently. Try disconnecting reconnecting the tank and be sure that the burner valve is closed before you open the tank valve. Open the tank valve slowly at first, then open it fully.

 

[BrewVegas]

Thanks for all the input. I believe you are correct as I ran the boil kettle burner for 20 min this morning and it worked like normal. Being in Vegas, I don't normally brew in cold weather. Hopefully this won't happen too often. I'll make sure to put the tanks in a water bath if it's cold next weekend when I brew a Dogfish Head 90 clone.

I'm using this burner from Bayou Classic:

Here is a picture of my single tier, my dog and a dead catcus (didn't survive the winter this year)

 

[pavs]

Don't take this the wrong way, but, you have a nice looking rack! That is some serious brewing!

 

[BrewVegas]

Thanks...I pretty learned it all on HBT. I moldeled my design off the Brutus 10 and another HBT member that had a great video demonstrating his automation. I forget who it was, but his rig was painted dark red. I tought myself how to weld on this project, too. Good times...

 

[BrewVegas]

Just wanted to let you know that I brewed the next weekend and the problem went away after putting the tank in a hot water bath. Thanks for all the troubleshooting help!