Pressure (Bar) in a propane tank
What pressure should I expect in a new refilled 3.9 Kg propane tank? I have a HILO propane gas gauge connected inline with my refilled gas cylinder and it is reading 5 bar, approx 1/4 full (outside temp. 5 deg C if relevant). Have I been given an empty tank?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
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Here is a photo to describe better what I mean. Are all cylinders of this type filled to a similar pressure, for a given temperature? Why is 15-16 bar considered full is this for a particular type of cylinder?
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Hopefully somebody with better technical knowledge of LPG than myself will comment on your question, however, with my limited knowledge I do know that the pressure varies enormously with temperature so I don’t understand how a pressure gauge would be of any use at all unless all the readings were referred back to the same ambient conditions.
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Thanks Hitchglitch, I think that is what is going on here, I just chose a cold day to change my cylinder adding to the confusion! According to the first table here, 5 deg C is ~ 5 bar, roughly what I'm seeing. So it might be that for a full cylinder you achieve the table values dependent on ambient temperature, and as you exhaust the liquid, the pressure drops of the vapour above the liquid so you see a drop in pressure relative to the ambient full cylinder case. It's all a bit confusing for a layman !
On a side note, the other dodgy thing about the gauge is that I believe if I opened the gas tank on the RHS without the LHS connected to a regulator, the unregulated tank would vent, which seems a bit dangerous!
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