Checking Gas bottle levels.

Apart from lighting a match to see down the hole!!!
Don't want a BLEVE here thanks.

Pour a jug of boiling water down the side of the bottle then slowly run your hand up from the base of the bottle. You will notice a change in temperature at some point ie hotter this is the approx level of the liquid inside.

sdc

Hi signman,

Weigh your gas bottle (use bathroom scales is usualy easiset) and subtract the weight of the gas bottle that is stamped on the collar. The difference between the measured weight and stamped weight is the weight of gas in the bottle.

Cheers

Captain

G'day signman

Easiest way is to buy from the shop a gas bottle gauge. For about $10.00 it sticks to the side of the bottle and you pour hot water over it. The indicator changes colour and shows you how full/empty the bottle is.

A few pictures/prices here

Gday signman,
the best way is to find the tare weight of your bottle. This will be labeled ie. T.C. 10.0 kg. Next to there will be the bottles water capacity. ie W.C. 22.0 kg. This means that the bottle's volume is 22 litres of water. A gas bottle by law can only be filled to a certain pressure, and when you fill it at the station, this pressure is achieved. The propane or propane/butane mix at that pressure will weigh about 41% of the water capacity. This means that: 41% of 22 Kg or L, is equal to 9 kg. This is a standard 9kg gas bottle. But this gas will occupy 22L of space, (not really, there will also be liquified gas present), but thats not important for now. So if you weigh your bottle once it has been filled, it should weigh Tare Weight + Gas weight ie 10.0 + 9.0 kg, should be around 19 kg. So after a few weeks, if your bottle weighs 15 kg, you have used 4 kg of gas, and have 5 kg of gas remaining. An empty bottle will still weigh 10.0kg (or whatever is stamped). If you use the same scale each time to weigh the bottle, this can be quite an accurate measurement. You can also check whether you have recieved a full fill from the gas station ie the bottle should weigh close to 19 kg full.

Pouring boiling water onto pressure vessels is a butchers way of doing it, and is deffinitely not something that is advocated in the chemical industry. But boys will be boys...

Hope this answers your question
Cheers

This is how i do it and it gives an accurate indication.

Make certain that there are no hoses attached firstly.

Then simply open the tap a small ammount so that a little gas is escaping.

Now tip the bottle slowly over.......possibly even starting to turn it upside down.

When you see the white gas (frozen liguid petroleum gas) escaping then that is the level of the liquid in the bottle.

ie........imagine it was water and you are tipping it over........so anything below the level line from that moment is what is left.

So if you turn the bottle hal;fway......ie it is at 90degrees to normal then u have a half full tank.

This works because the LPG is actually stored as a liquid in the bottle and will start to flow out as a liquid when given the opportunity just like water would.

When exposed to the atmosphere it turns into a gas.

Cheers.

Message to BUSHFIX
Here at our fire service, we call it a BLEVE
Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion.
Check out BLEVE on your search...there's some great pics.

To all other with the answers to my query...many thanks

Signman

weigh it!!!

I've got a really good way.... (I'm obviously not as clever as the other boys who replied earlier in this post) but I just went out and bought a 1kg bottle for $20 or so and when I run out I know I've got none left. LOL
The 1 Litire I then use until I get a chance to fill the big bugger back up. That way I'm always filling up (or exchanging) a totally empty bottle and get my $$$ worth.

PS I also have a 2kg bottle. Normally I take the 2kg and 1kg camping and the 9kg I use for the BBQ. But the principle works accross the whole lot anyway. I mix and match depending on the situation...

Weight it

These ultrasonic units are great. Work perfectly well on the Australian 9kg bottles because they are larger diameter, not taller than UK bottles.
Sonatic Gas Level System

My old 4.5kg Gas cylinder has an internal float connected to a little plastic gauge which gives an accurate reading of contents.

Have paid almost the cost of a new cylinder, to have the bottle tested and re-certified for another ten years, cause I really like this accessory.

I think they are still available on some brands of gas cylinders and can also be installed by a gas retail outlet, such as Maxbuilt in S.A. Price, don't know.

Haven't bothered to retrofit my other cylinders though.
If the 9kg Barbecue bottle runs out at home, I use the 4.5kg one with the gauge until the other has been refilled.

When camping, I have a 2kg bottle as an auxiliary.

Hi Signman;
Weighing the cylinder and subtracting the tare weight stamped on the valve guard/handle is obviously the most accurate way of determining the remaining amount of gas in your cylinder. However, I don't know too many people who go camping with their bathroom scales, quite appart from the fact that every set of scales that I have ever stood on have lied about my weight! I have a thing called a gasfuse on my 9kg BBQ cylinder. I think they were popular during the 80's as a christmes present. The gasfuse' primary job is to stop the flow of gas from the cylinder if there is a leaky hose/connection (safety first!), it also has a guage that gives an indication of the level of gas in the cylinder. I don't even know if they are still available but they were retailed through K-mart and Big W. Carrying 2 cylinders is a great way of insuring that you have a backup supply and this is our preffered method.
Cheers.

Never use mine without a GASFUSE anyway, It's got a gauge built in. Just make sure you get it back when you refill!!