My torpedo heater keeps freezing the 20 lb tank how can I fix this? Temps run around 25 F. to 50 F.(Thankful for global warming)
Only open the valve on the tank a little bit, when large volumes go thru if you open the tank valve all the way, liquid propane tends to come out and that will shut it down. Hope that helps.
In order for your heater to have propane gas, your tank has to literally boil enough liquid to keep that gas flowing. Boiling takes heat. On a warm summer day this is not a problem. At 25F however, you don't get enough heat fast enough from the atmosphere to keep up to a big heater. One solution is to warm your tank. This is not something to be done without constant attention. If your tank is in the direct path of your heater and gets hot enough to blow the relief valve things go south in an awful hurry!
Get a larger propane tank. The problem is that your heater is sucking out the propane faster than the tank can handle. As the temp of the tank gets lower it puts out less pressure and the cycle just gets worse and worse. You will also notice that the heater does not put out as much heat as this happens. Look at a propane temperature, Btu chart to see what happens as the tank gets colder. Getting a larger tank will help as this will have more surface area to warm up from the air around it. I would not run a torpedo heater on less than a 100 lb tank, anything smaller always has problems.
I agree, bigger tank is needed... My 150k btu heater states in the manual to not use less than a 100lb tank. It puts a bit of frost on that when it's really cold.
yeah, you either need a bigger tank or to put the tank in a warmer area. A 100lb tank will still freeze up but it takes a lot longer, also once you get below zero the available heat to boil the propane goes way down. At some point the kerosene jet heaters really start to shine, and they make less condensation due to less pounds of fuel burned to generate the same amount of heat.
Mark , you don't need a bigger tank, just turn the tank valve down.....trust me...
http://www.thefind.com/appliances/info-power-blanket-gas-cylinder-warmer
Well turning the valve and fire down will slow the process and result in a lower flame overall. Propane int the tank wants to keep the head pressure in the free space at 40psi @25F. Now if you steal some of that gas off, some liquid boils off in an endothermic reaction (needs heat) now heat isn't to say fire, or flame but 25F air has heat that needs to move into the tank, in effect the tank temperature starts to drop rapidly in order to try and maintain 40psi. The more heat that can get into the tank the better the conversion rate from liquid to gas. So the colder the propane in the tank is allowed to get, the lower the pressure equilibrium gets. At -60F you could have a cup full of liquid propane and it would not evaporate. A frozen tank is probably -10F and only producing about 18-20 psi to run the burner, not very much, the burner flame will die back to equal the amount of heat getting into the tank. Bigger tank, more surface area, better at scavenging heat from the air. Even on a nice hot 90 degree day( 150 psi) , a big burner or big bbq grille will frost a small propane tank or at least make it sweat a lot. Pre warming your tanks someplace before using them can be helpful. Balloonists know about icing up propane tanks. They use a 120v heating cord wrapped around the tank to keep the pressure at 180 psi while they're filling the balloon so when they launch they have a nice warm tank. I have small tanks ice up all the time, I can't move a 100lb tank around too easily so I switch between 3 20 lb ones as they ice up. I might try a pipe heat tape and see how it goes.
Here is the propane temp vs pressure chart. The more that gets used the colder the tank gets. Simple answer is to heat the tank, Complex answer is to heat the tank without blowing it up. Hope this helps.
Oh ya, go to your propane dealer and tell him you want one of the old valves on ur cylinder as you are running a weed burner....
This whole thread has got me scratchin my head. Doen't the chart show at colder temps the pressure will be less? Seems to me things are getting cold because the liquid gas is expanding like in an AC evaporator. I get ice in my air compressor drain line every time I drain it, no matter the ambient temp. I don't get the part about endothermic phase change (not reaction) requiring heat. Doesn't the LP boil because you reduce the pressure when you open the valve? The most obvious thing to do would be to listen to the old guy first and try what he says.
Crap, I was wrong. Learn something every day
I thought there might be some easy trick but I think big tank is the only answer. Some one gave me a 200 half full I just need to move it. Thank you one and all.
When I turn down the valve and regulator it still froze even at 50 deg. but when a guy from northern Minnesota named Grandpa with Senior member after there name tells me something this fl boy must be wrong.
At grampa's age he forgot..lol that they came out with the new opd valve on tanks so it doesn't allow for quick release of propane ( uncle sam's way of looking out for us) . But I got a weedburner torch, and it will shut down unless you open the torch all the way, open tank a wee bit, start flame and then open tank til torch sounds like a jet engine, any other way and it will not work,,,,,, but must not have an opd valve on ur tank.
I would imagine in Minnesota they just chisel off a chunk of propane in the winter and toss one in the firebox once in a while to keep the beer at a perfect slush. Now that you mention it I did have my big propane heater get throttled back by the over flow restrictor, I moved the tank while it was running.
I have 150,000 btu Dayton torpedo heater and I use 20# grill bottle. I have 5 bottles with the old style valves, which I refill myself from my yard tank with a liquid hose. The tanks have a spit valve on them,when 80% full they will spit liquid out,shut valve and good to go again. You can get pretty good performance out of those heaters till the bottle is half empty. I have a 125 gallon horizontal tank and works great,its the surface area of the liquid you need to produce pressure. They sure beat fuel oil heaters.
I'd have to disagree on beating out the torpedo kerosene heaters. Kero has a lot more btu's per pound, indeed it needs 120v to run. But in burning less fuel, it makes a lot less condensation than propane/NG heat. I don't find it stinky if you don't run straight diesel or #2, There is a little stink with those but if you're freezing, it can really belt out some seriously directional heat.
By hooking up the bottles together your doing the same thing as hooking it to a larger bottle, on a 150,000 btu heater when its cold out we have to hook it to the 100lb tank to get constant heat out of it and then sometimes you might need to heat the tank, depending on the temp your operating in, a 20lb cylinder will work for a while but then ice up and quit, its sucking more vapor than can vaporize in cold weather, we used to have the same problem with corn dryers hooked to 1000 gallon tanks that sucked vapor gas to operate, the whole tank would be encrusted with an inch of ice and shut the burner off due to no gas pressure left, we finally solved those problems by coverting to liquid burners instead of vapor burners, they were much more efficient and solved the ice up problems. Bigger tank or smaller heater either one will solve the problem, or heat the tank as you run the heater, the problem there is you use quite a bit of heat to keep the tank warmed and your not gaining anything as far as heating anything else.
Hotair balloons have the same problem because of the air temp. at altitude it is cold !! They use electric heating pads on the tanks or nitrogen to pressurize the tank. My torpedo heater runs on jet fuel or #1 diesel.