How much gas is in my BBQ cylinder?
Small BBQ cylinders can be weighed on bathroom scales. The cylinder tare weight is stamped on the cylinder protection ring (T.W. or Tare is the empty cylinder weight). Deduct the tare weight from the overall cylinder weight to ascertain how much LP Gas is left in your cylinder.
For example:
Cylinder on Bathroom scales shows: 15kg
Subtract Tare: 8kg
The result – 15 minus 8 – equals LP Gas left in cylinder: 7kg
Run out of gas over the weekend?
A 9kg BBQ cylinder has the same connection as a 15kg – 45kg vapour cylinder. Turn off & disconnect your larger cylinder. Please note the connection is left hand thread. Place your 9kg cylinder safely at the regulator height and connect. Make sure the cylinder is upright – DO NOT connect the cylinder if it is laying down or is upside down. A soapy solution (water & dishwashing detergent) can then be used to test for leaks. By spraying this over any of your connections any leaking gas will cause the solution to bubble.
How much gas is in my cylinder?
You may not know this but LP Gas is stored as a liquid when kept under pressure. LP gas boils at -42°C to create the gas vapour that you require to use in your appliance.
To check where your level of liquid is in the cylinder:
- First boil your kettle.
- Carefully pour a 100mm wide stream of the hot water down the side of the cylinder from the cylinder shoulder.
- Please make sure you do not burn yourself while doing this process, especially your feet.
- The hot water will evaporate at a much quicker rate where there is no LP Gas in the cylinder due to the heat in the metal.
- Where there is LP Gas you will find a wet line has become visible, as LP Gas is extremely cold.
- This wet line will show you approximately how much LP Gas you have left in the cylinder.
- On wet days, it may be difficult to detect where the wet line is, as the cylinder is more than likely wet already. In this instance you can very carefully feel the cylinder from top to bottom making sure you do not burn yourself on the hot metal. Where there is no LP Gas the metal will retain the heat, where you do have LP Gas the metal will have cooled down dramatically.
- Please note 45kg of LP Gas will only fill 80% volume of a cylinder so do not be alarmed & think that you have been short changed when you see that a wet line is only reaching up to the weld line on a full cylinder
Feel free to download any of these handy hints PDF’s for your reference:
