If you have ever been caught with an empty propane tank when you were counting on the grill for dinner, you need to check out these tips!
How Can I Tell if My Propane Tank is Full?
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Whether you grill or barbecue, you need to know how much fuel you have before you get started. Here are three ways you can tell if your propane tank is full. No matter what tools you have available, you can figure it out!
Quick and Easy Method – Use Warm Water
This is my favorite. It’s fast, it’s easy, and all you need is some warm water! Pour warm water down the outside of your propane tank.
Then feel the outside of the tank with your hand.
The water will warm up the metal of the tank, but the liquid propane inside the tank will keep it cool. Feel where the temperature of the tank changes from warm to cool. This is how full your tank is. If the cool line is about halfway down the tank, it’s about halfway full.
That’s it! It’s a rough estimate, but it will tell you if you have enough propane to cook dinner tonight.
At A Glance Method – Use a Gauge
Using a gauge is more accurate than just the water test. It works sort of like the fuel gauge in your car. The arrow points to how full the tank is. In the photo below the arrow is resting right along the bottom of the logo on the gauge, so it’s a bit hard to see. The arrow is pointing about 1/4 way into the green. So I still have plenty for now, but I might need to think about refilling the propane tank soon.
Some grills have gauges built in, so there isn’t an extra piece. If your grill doesn’t have a built-in gauge, you can buy a separate one. (This one has a glow-in-the-dark dial, so you can even read it if you’re grilling after dark.) This does mean that you have two connections between your propane tank and your grill (one from the tank to the gauge, and one from the gauge to the grill), so that’s two possible places for a leak. Be sure to tighten the connections as tightly as possible to avoid propane leaks.
Most Accurate Method – Use a Scale
The most accurate method to determine how full your propane tank is, is simply to use a scale. You could take the propane tank inside to your bathroom scale, you could bring the bathroom scale outside to the grill, or you could even use a portable hanging scale (like this luggage scale).
Every propane tank should have a “tare weight,” or an “empty weight” stamped on the handle (the collar of the tank). You can see in the photo below, the T.W. (tare weight) of this tank is 17.5 pounds.
Liquid propane weighs about 4.2 pounds per gallon. Once you weigh your tank, simply subtract the tare weight from the total weight. Then divide that by 4.2.
My tank weighed 26.4 pounds. After I subtract the weight of the tank (17.5 pounds), I’ve got 8.9 pounds of liquid propane. Divide that by 4.2, so I have roughly 2.2 gallons of propane left in my tank. That’s definitely enough to grill a few steaks!
If you don’t want to do the math, you could get a hanging propane scale. They work the same way as a hanging luggage scale, but the scale tells how full your tank is instead of how much it weighs.
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Enjoy!
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Faylinn says
05/12/2016 at 8:45 amLast weekend, my husband was gone and I was trying to use the grill to cook my kids and I dinner. However, my propane ran out and I couldn’t finish cooking. I really wish that I knew how to tell whether or not it was low or not before I got myself in that situation. In the future, though, I will definitely try your warm water trick and so I really appreciate you mentioning that.
Marybeth says
05/12/2016 at 10:47 amFaylinn, I have been there! I hope you managed to get yourself and your kids fed, that is so frustrating! Here’s hoping you never run out of propane again.
Brooke McAvoy says
07/13/2016 at 10:25 amI like your tip about pouring the warm water. This seems like a really simple way to get an idea as to where your propane tank is at. Even using a scale is much simpler than I thought it would be, I can do this whenever more is depending on my grill’s ability to function. Thank you for all of the helpful tips!
Marybeth says
07/15/2016 at 12:08 pmIt’s my pleasure! I use the water trick a lot, especially as I get close to the end of my tank. Don’t want it running out in the middle of cooking a steak!
Daniel says
08/03/2016 at 1:55 pmThe gauge shown under the “At a glance method” section is just a numberless pressure gauge, it does NOT show how much fuel is left it just shows pressure.
The pressure of any liquefied by pressure gas AKA refrigerant varies directly with temperature, it doesn’t matter if there is 1 drop of liquid in there or if it is completely full with a single vapor bubble the pressure will be the same if the surface of the liquid in contact with the vapor is at the same temperature. For example pure propane (R-290) will always be 150 PSIG if the liquid-vapor line is at 90° F, 104 @ 90° for R-134a, 168 @ 90° for R-22, Etc.
LP is a varying mixture of propane and butane, with some odorant and other random stuff thrown in. Propane boils at -44° Fahrenheit, butane at the freezing point of water, hence such a gauge is almost meaningless as you never know what mix is in the cylinder.
The gauge reading in the photo could be from a full cylinder on a cool day and/or with a high butane percentage.
To be fair though the propane will tend to boil off first lowering its percentage since it has the lower boiling point so as the LP is used the pressure will fall off some for the same temp, but without a larger more precise gauge and unless the liquid is the exact same temperature every time you start to grill you won’t notice.
The cylinders with a gauge built in to the valve will probably have an actual float measuring how much fuel is left, on these if you rock the cylinder the reading will bob up and down as the liquid inside sloshes back and forth. This is how the one I use is.
The website linked is a P/T for varying mixes.
Marybeth says
08/16/2016 at 10:07 amThanks for your comment and the great information, Daniel!
Kyle Winters says
05/01/2017 at 6:13 pmThis is some great advice, considering how annoying it can be to refill a propane tank that isn’t that empty, I can definitely see some people making use of this. I especially like that the best tip you offer is to use a scale. After all, most tanks have the amount of gas they can hold written on them some where, so with a scale and some simple math you can figure out how empty it is.
Marybeth Feutz says
05/03/2017 at 11:17 amThanks for your comment. I get more worried about running out of propane in the middle of grilling a fantastic steak! 😉
Ashley Turns says
08/18/2017 at 9:53 pmSince my husband and I are about to host a huge neighborhood BBQ, we want to make sure the propane tank for our grill is full. So thank you for mentioning that using a scale to see how much propane is left in the tank, since it weighs 4.2 pounds per gallon. I’ll be sure to pull out the scale to make sure that we won’t run out of fuel for our BBQ.
Marybeth Feutz says
08/30/2017 at 4:08 pmI forgot to check mine, and ran out of propane in the middle of grilling some burgers the other night. So disappointing!
Steele Honda says
10/30/2017 at 4:43 amI had no idea that I can check if my propane tank is full so easily! This method with a temperature line is brilliant, and after I checked my tank with its help, I’ve realized that the tank is almost empty, and I need to find a delivery service urgently! My husband was the one doing it usually, but now he is n another country, and I will have to do everything myself.
Marybeth Feutz says
12/04/2017 at 9:46 amSo glad I could help!
Hannah Schroeder says
12/04/2017 at 9:37 pmThanks for the tips about weighing your propane tank to see if it’s full or not. I went to turn on my grill yesterday, and it wouldn’t light. When I get more residential propane, I’ll weight it more often so I know when I need more.
Marybeth Feutz says
12/10/2017 at 8:57 pmI’ve done that before, or run out in the middle of cooking. It’s no fun when you are really looking forward to something cooked on the grill!
Derek Dewitt says
03/05/2018 at 11:00 amI want to start cooking outside with my grill soon, but I can’t tell if my propane tank is full still or not. I had no idea that liquid propane tanks weighed about 4.2 pounds per gallon. I’ll have to crunch some numbers once I weigh it so I can calculate how full the tank is.
Propane EZ says
04/13/2018 at 2:49 pmWeighing your propane tank to see how much is left is such a great idea. This post could help a lot of our customers.
Drew McPherson says
05/16/2018 at 3:22 pmThere are at least 2 different sizes of gallons In canada 4 gallons equal 5 us gallons big difference .