Propane tank recertification.

[Mountain high]

I just exchanged 2 damaged grill tanks for 2 Rhino tanks. I weighed them and each had about 17lbs. So not quite 20 but more than 15. For the convenience of trading two unserviceable tanks for two that looked pretty decent and were nearly full, I think I got my $21 worth. But generally I do get them filled, if nothing else even if I don't get a full 20lbs I only pay for what was actually dispensed.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

I just had our 500 gallon home propane tank filled. They don't fill to 100%. Same with the portable cylindrical tanks. Our home's above ground tank was filled to 75% with 305 gallons from 20% in 0F outside temperatures. Usually the highest fills are 4.2 gallons for our 5 gallon (20 lbs) from empty on the hottest 100F days. I don't want to have more due to it allows for expansion with temperature changes versus a bomb.

 

[Wasillaguy]

Relief valve keeps 'em from blowing up. Never supposed to fill above 80% to allow for expansion.
Tanks are painted white or silver to minimize solar heating.
At USCG mountaintop sites up here, Forest Service mandated that tanks be painted green (presumably so cruise ship tourists wouldn't notice the development on the mountain peak). So contractor would fill tank to 80%, then sun comes out and relief valve vents out 10 or 20 gallons (from each tank, at least 5 per site) and then USCG wonders where their fuel went.

 

[Mountain high]

Relief valve keeps 'em from blowing up. Never supposed to fill above 80% to allow for expansion.
Tanks are painted white or silver to minimize solar heating.
At USCG mountaintop sites up here, Forest Service mandated that tanks be painted green (presumably so cruise ship tourists wouldn't notice the development on the mountain peak). So contractor would fill tank to 80%, then sun comes out and relief valve vents out 10 or 20 gallons (from each tank, at least 5 per site) and then USCG wonders where their fuel went.

I knew of the relief valve. It's not a good thing to have fuel releasing whether it's 10 to 20 gallons of propane or gasoline.

 

[Wasillaguy]

Propane was intentionally chosen for mountaintop fuel because there's no issue when it leaks. It just disperses in the air and that's the end of it. Spill diesel in the wilderness and the nightmare never ends.
It's really expensive to ferry and transfer propane with helicopters, but way more expensive to transport tons of polluted soil.

 

[Old_Crow]

Propane was intentionally chosen for mountaintop fuel because there's no issue when it leaks. It just disperses in the air and that's the end of it. Spill diesel in the wilderness and the nightmare never ends.
It's really expensive to ferry and transfer propane with helicopters, but way more expensive to transport tons of polluted soil.

I worked at a Chevy dealership in Hemet, CA back in the 90's.
The EPA came in and required that they remove the gas pump and tank that had been used to fuel new vehicles (remember when you used to get a full tank of gas when you bought a new car?). The tank had had a leak for a long time and hadn't been filled in years because of that. By the time it was said and done they had a hole that was 50'x75'x 40 ' deep. The EPA required that all that dirt be sterilized by burning it. The corporation that owned the dealership bought the machine that was used to basically burn all the hydrocarbons out of the dirt because it was cheaper than renting the thing. Bonus was that after they finished burning our dirt they could rent the machine to other people who needed to clean up similar messes. They also had to truck fill in from somewhere else as they weren't allowed to put the sterilized dirt back in the hole. I left that dealership over a year later and that sterilized dirt was still in a pile on the back lot as they couldn't get rid of it.
I remember that they were getting about 3 propane deliveries every 2 days. I actually ended up putting a clutch in one of the propane trucks that broke down during the delivery.

 

[Wasillaguy]

Jumbo shrimp will sell like hotcakes, but there's no market for clean dirt.
They should burn all the dirt clean over at the La Brea Tar Pits, could make a sterile mountain. Oh wait, that's natural petrochemicals so it's good for you. We'll make it a Park and live all around it!

 

[Old_Crow]

Jumbo shrimp will sell like hotcakes, but there's no market for clean dirt.
They should burn all the dirt clean over at the La Brea Tar Pits, could make a sterile mountain. Oh wait, that's natural petrochemicals so it's good for you. We'll make it a Park and live all around it!

Best thing was that at some point they'd built a 2 story motel next to that edge of the property. They came damn close to having to dig under the motel. That would have been fun.
I went by that dealership a few years after I quit. The dealership had moved and the old building torn down. There was a perfectly level piece of ground with a big mound of dirt in the back corner. Still no weeds growing on that pile.

 

[Rene T]

If that soil was sterile and it met EPA’s standards, why couldn’t it be used again for anything

 

[Old_Crow]

If that soil was sterile and it met EPA’s standards, why couldn’t it be used again for anything

What I don't know about removing hydrocarbons from the soil would fill a textbook. I was just a mechanic at the shop. I asked why they just didn't put the dirt back in the hole but got the same answer as the 6-year-old got from his daddy..."because".