Refilling propane bottles in States

[Lionelsole]

Hi,
I have been told that it is not permissable to re-fill propane bottles in New York state. Is this the case? Are there any other states on the east coast where I will have problems?

[Cheechako]

You mean the little green camping ones? or the usual 5-10-20# type?

[Tkeeth]

Never heard that.

[Lionelsole]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

You mean the little green camping ones? or the usual 5-10-20# type?

I have an 11 lb one, which just fits my gas locker, so I can't just exchange.

[Cheechako]

I have never heard of anywhere in the US that cant/wont fill approved bottles, but nothing surprises me anymore. I suppose the easiest thing is to look in the yellow pages under propane and see what turns up.

[td0tz]

Originally Posted by Lionelsole

I have an 11 lb one, which just fits my gas locker, so I can't just exchange.

Federal requirement is that the bottle is within certification period - date you are filling it is prior to date stamped on bottle, usually on the top flange. Otherwise, bottle has to be re-certified, which I've been told by my local California dealer is basically a pressure test. BTW, the valve usually goes first.
However, there are any number of small independent dealers and gas stations that may "overlook" said date. "Your mileage may vary" as we say.

[BobHorn]

The bottle also needs the late style valve which has a float inside to prevent overfilling. Old style bottles can be retrofitted. Had it done with an aluminum 11 lb bottle.

Had some smaller bottles that cloud not be excahnged on our previous sailboat and painted them with the black pickup truck bed paint to prevent corrosion. A place in FL would not refill them, told me it was illegal to paint the bottles.

[HopCar]

Originally Posted by Lionelsole

Hi,
I have been told that it is not permissable to re-fill propane bottles in New York state. Is this the case? Are there any other states on the east coast where I will have problems?

That's crazy. Who ever you talked to was misinformed. Next time you see a propane powered forklift, ask who fills the tanks.

[Benz]

Unless the propane bottles are of a sort familiar to the filling station, they'll get a very close scrutiny, and if the nomenclature is "off" (whatever that might mean to their suspicious souls), or a sticker is missing, or if they simply don't feel like it, they'll refuse to fill it. I've never met a more curmudgeonly and suspicious lot as propane fillers.
I've gone through two types of tanks that though perfectly kosher to begin with, were a complete hassle to refill--not all Mexican fillers have a forklift-type fill (who knew?), and once modified for sensible filling, no american station would touch my nice sideways-mount alloy tanks. Sigh.
A very expensive set of fiberglass tanks got blacklisted shortly after I bought them, and again no american filler would touch them. One of the biggest bummers of the Nanny State I live in. Luckily the Canadian fillers hadn't got the memo, so I go them filled no problem until I returned to New York State, where I just had to buy a standard 20# steel tank which didn't fit in my locker, but at least could be filled.
Now I have a special pigtail, acquired by cloak-and-dagger back-alley means, from which I draw propane from a regular tank into my condemned fiberglass tanks. Unless your special tank has some retarded safety valve that won't allow gas to flow in through the exit valve (which some do--notably my aforementioned alloy tanks), the pigtail should work for you.

[HopCar]

Ben, you might want to reconsider using the recalled tank. The reason they were recalled is that several of them failed. The company was pretty sloppy with their quality control and didn't report the failures in a timely manner.

[donradcliffe]

I'm trying to fill a tank with a pigtail, but the newer hoses have an 'excess flow' valve which prevents it. I'm currently scouring my friends for old BBQ's, and if that fails, I'm going to ream out the excess flow valve with a drill press. What they've done to propane systems is worse than what Microsoft has done to Windows.

[Benz]

Originally Posted by HopCar

Ben, you might want to reconsider using the recalled tank. The reason they were recalled is that several of them failed. The company was pretty sloppy with their quality control and didn't report the failures in a timely manner.

I did some digging--turns out the faulty tanks were a different sort: never a problem with the model I have, but because the company had to go under, the DOT (one of the Nanny State's biggest nannies) put the kibbosh on all of them, regardless of whether any had failed or not. It's a shame the company was used in that way, because most of their products were good--there was just one run of bad forklift tanks and a lot of spite.
But since I'm self-filling, I also took the stupid plastic frame off, leaving only the tank itself, and now they're really space-efficient. No way I'm gonna stop using them now!

[Benz]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

I'm trying to fill a tank with a pigtail, but the newer hoses have an 'excess flow' valve which prevents it. I'm currently scouring my friends for old BBQ's, and if that fails, I'm going to ream out the excess flow valve with a drill press. What they've done to propane systems is worse than what Microsoft has done to Windows.

I had a propane company make me up a pigtail designed to use two tanks in tandem--it's useful for high-volume applications like a plank steamer where one tank would get cold too fast--then pirated all the parts to make my pigtail. They used bigger hoses and fittings than the tiny BBQ ones, which means my tanks fill quicker.

[wsmurdoch]

Originally Posted by Benz

I did some digging--turns out the faulty tanks were a different sort: never a problem with the model I have, but because the company had to go under, the DOT (one of the Nanny State's biggest nannies) put the kibbosh on all of them, regardless of whether any had failed or not. It's a shame the company was used in that way, because most of their products were good--there was just one run of bad forklift tanks and a lot of spite.
But since I'm self-filling, I also took the stupid plastic frame off, leaving only the tank itself, and now they're really space-efficient. No way I'm gonna stop using them now!

I had one of the Lite propane cylinders. After reading the recall letter I destroyed mine. The story told in the recall letter is a little different from your telling. There were problems with the gas grill cylinders as well.

https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/staticfile...ion_Letter.pdf

Also check out the Amazon reviews.

https://www.amazon.com/Lite-Cylinder...ews/B00OUXZ7DI

[carstenb]

WEll I don't have your problems but I solved one that is worse.

Europeans use the blue Camping Gaz bottles (or others). These do not exist in the US and no one can fill them - so If europeans (me) visit the US, you need to buy new bottles (that don't fit the locker), drill holes, run hose, mount the bottles on the pushpit etc.

I found a place that sells a box of adaptors that they claim will fit any european filling station and adapt to any european bottle.

Got to the states and guess what?

One of the adaptor perfectly fits the US propane filling nozzle and so far I've had my Camping Gaz bottles filled in Florida, South Carolina, and New Jersey without any issues whatsoever.

Occassionally, my karma is good...........................