Propane

[Bravheart]

Does propane freeze in the bottle? If so at what temperature?



Had a propane burner running yesterday and after a while the flame was almost out so switched it all off. Picked up the bottle today to get a refill and seems like plenty gas in the bottle you can feel it swishing about and slackened the top and loads of gas but next to nothing yesterday.

Frozen or a mystery?

 

[Tim.S]

Off the top of my head I think it stops evporating at -20 but the pressure drops off the colder it gets and there is always some left in the bottom of the bottle, butane I think, stops at +5 thats why you can't use it for permanant heating.

 

[Domdom]

Yes, propane freezes in cold weather. You can normally see ice on the outside of the bottle when this happens. It gets worse as you use gas out of the bottle, that's due to the liquid propane absorbing heat from the top part of the bottle as it turns liquid to vapour for the heater to use.

Warming the bottle gently can help. Note the word GENTLY.

 

[Bravheart]

Thanks all a tractor in the same open shed was reading -10 don't know how accurate that is also bottle was white with ice . Now got a worst case with bottle half full but more likely to freeze again or swap out a half full bottle .

 

[Shox Dr]

Heat loss to evaporation of the LPG into Gas. If the ambient temp is low enough and gas take off is high enough it will freeze up.

We had a moosive space heater at one place I worked, we had another smaller one pionted at the bottles to stop them freezing up

 

[Pete.]

Propane requires energy to change from liquid to gas which is gained as heat energy taken from outside though the cylinder walls. If the temperature outside is so low that it cannot replenish the heat in the cylinder, the bottle will chill until water vapour from the air forms ice. Since ice has a very low thermal conductivity this prevents heat getting through the cylinder walls and then there's not enough energy going into the bottle to turn the liquid into gas. Your best bet if you keep having freezing issues is to have two bottles and swap them about.

EDIT: what Shox said.

 

[voipio]

Boiling point for propane is -42 deg C. The outside of the bottle will frost over if the gas is being used at high rate. Try pointing an infrared thermometer at the cylinder to find out what the liquid gas temperature is. The propane is unlikely to freeze inside the cylinder, as its melting point is -188 deg C.

 

[Seadog]

If so at what temperature?

-188°C. So no, it doesn't as such.

 

[Bravheart]

So probably lacking enough energy to change from liquid to gas then. Lesson learnt! The annoying thing was I was trying to get an old forklift started, not many electrics on it just cables and the stopper cable had been left pulled out and frozen. Plan B was space heater underneath to thaw cable but gas flow stopped Grrr. Yesterday was a school day right enough and a bl###y cold one.

 

[Justme]

More likely that your regulator has moisture in it and that froze.

 

[Bravheart]

More likely that your regulator has moisture in it and that froze.

That's a possibility right enough, quickly tried turning the regulator but it wouldn't move so switched everything off.

 

[Chippie]

Just been watching a guy at the end of our estate trying to start a propane powered genny…..flattened the battery on it, so hooked up to his Nissan to jump start it…still no go…think it’s too cold for his gas or reg……

 

[winchman]

More likely that your regulator has moisture in it and that froze.

I have seen regs freeze on a couple of jobs just down to the volume of gas passing through

 

[Bobupndown]

Currently using the caravan for a few nights. It hit -4°c last night. Glad I swapped the butane cylinder for the propane.

 

[merryman]

Gas carb set ups on forklifts have coolant water heated regulators as they would otherwise freeze up.

 

[Chippie]

Currently using the caravan for a few nights. It hit -4°c last night. Glad I swapped the butane cylinder for the propane.

The last caravan we bought ( 2019 Bailey model ) we swapped out the existing bottles on our part ex for propane for that reason….there were times when we went out in the van that the butane bottles were not performing…

 

[Cobbler]

Gas carb set ups on forklifts have coolant water heated regulators as they would otherwise freeze up.

The gas setup on my sons V8 Landy has a hot water evaporator

 

[Robotstar5]

Mrs Robo bought a Butane powered heater for her tackroom a few years ago when we had a cold snap, it wouldn't light due to sub zero temperature so she contacted the seller for a refund, his answer was keep the cylinder indoors for a few hours before using, once she explained the inconvenience of transporting it 5 miles before and after use she got a refund and bought a propane powered heater.

 

[roofman]

In really cold weather when using the Paslode nail guns the butane gas cells freeze up on them...we always have a spare in the front pockets and keep swapping them out. Regarding propane bottles freezing on our roofing torches in winter, i solved this many years ago by putting the 19KG bottles into black plastic dust bins and filling with water....no more freezing bottles and pressure stays stable, your are left with a ring of ice on the top of water but the bottles stay ice free

 

[Bobupndown]

The last caravan we bought ( 2019 Bailey model ) we swapped out the existing bottles on our part ex for propane for that reason….there were times when we went out in the van that the butane bottles were not performing…

Yeah we usually run butane which seems to give better heat in normal conditions but have 2 propane cylinders especially for winter caravanning.