Refilling Disposable Propane Bottles ??

[PegLeg45]

Profesional fill small tanks by weight.  Any tank with a Guage is filled to no more than 90%.  Usually 80% in or going into warm weather.  When tanks are filled by a pump, like commercial portable fillers or by truck in larger tanks, no venting is needed or done.  When filling by tank pressure only venting speeds the process, but with patience you will get same safe fill level without venting.

NEVER FILL FULL - liquid exiting the vent.

^^^
This.

Ambient temperature has great effect on tank pressure. Tanks need that space to allow pressure fluctuation.
80% was what we filled to on forklift tanks via a manual venting valve and we used a pump. The tanks have a dip tube that go into the tank and the vapor starts to vent when the liquid hit 80%.
The little 1 lb cans have a relief valve also.



This explains it better:

The bleeder valve is designed so that during the filling process, when the propane going into the tank reaches 80%, liquid will come out of the opened valve. This lets the delivery driver know that the tank has reached its maximum filling capacity. The valve is connected to what is called a dip tube that goes into the container. The dip tube is fixed and set at length equal to 80% liquid level tank capacity. In other words, the tip of the dip tube is at the level equal to the container being 80% full. The dip tube itself should always be located in the vapor space and never submerged in liquid propane.

http://www.propane101.com/fixedliquidlevelgauge.htm

Also, I'm not saying not to fill the disposable bottles....if I used them, I'd fill them out of one of my 30# bottles. I have helped a friend fill his with a home-made filler. He weighed the bottles to see if they were full. I suspect those 1 lb bottles are designed to have the proper vapor space remaining after being filled with the 1 pound of propane (the Coleman label says 16.4 oz Net Weight).

[Timothy]

My two "100 gallon" tanks had 120 gallon capacity but were never filled above 80% of capacity.  A full load was about 190-195 gallons.

[Bidah]

I use the adapter to fill those bottles for a small propane heater that I use in the winter. I do not vent them at all either.  I freeze the bottle overnight, and make sure the 20# bottle is warm too (as in do not leave outside at 30 below).  I invert the 20# tank and wait till it stops filling (slight hissing sound). I do weigh them, and I usually am right at or just below a 1# fill. 

With the seals and all that, I will only fill a single bottle 10 times. A precaution on my end.

[Big Frank]

A friend of mine was refilling 14.1 ounce disposable tanks from a 20 pound tank to run a small heater. He could only fill the tanks half full with his set-up. He got tired of wasting time and bought an adapter to use a 20 pound tank with his heater and eliminated all the unnecessary work. I on the other hand bought a bunch of 16.4 ounce propane tanks on sale to use on my torches. I think I paid $1.99 apiece for them. Neither one of us refills smaller tanks now.

[les snyder]

I use the procedure Bidah uses...  cylinder in freezer for a couple of days, invert bulk tank to get as much liquid as possible... water check the Schrader valve

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