Does Anyone Refill Their Own Gas Bottles?

[plumbandplumber]

I've seen a few US videos of people buying an adaptor to join a large bottle of propane to the type used for plumbing torches. Then refilling the small bottle from the large one. Must save a lot of money for those that use a lot of gas.

Does anyone on here refill their own gas bottles?

 

[buckley plumb]

used to do it with my mig welding gas when I worked as an engineer - to be honest it used to scare me .filling my small bottle from large one at work . you will be ok as long as the fittings are upto it .we used a heavy duty connector that was made to join multi bottles together I would not risk anything home made

 

[Centralheatking]

Dont do it - please its illegal and all that stuff but read on

Around 1977 we were young and silly and spent awhole summer
doing explosions and big bangs aged 19 or so and having fun.

WE did IRA pipebombs thy are easy we make all sorts of stuff
BUT the biggest one was a tall red propane cylinder pulled
over in a big field in Wiltshire by a chain onto a well set fire with the
top valve slightly open. We were in a deep ditch along way off.

Oh my God when it went off it must have been something like the 1st
World War - mud and dirt came down on us three for ages and a big
bit was not too far from where we where - shrapnel I suppose

It was fun and we survived many others have not - there is more
if you want to read it :45:


Centralheatking

 

[basildog]

Dont do it - please its illegal and all that stuff but read on

Around 1977 we were young and silly and spent awhole summer
doing explosions and big bangs aged 19 or so and having fun.

WE did IRA pipebombs thy are easy we make all sorts of stuff
BUT the biggest one was a tall red propane cylinder pulled
over in a big field in Wiltshire by a chain onto a well set fire with the
top valve slightly open. We were in a deep ditch along way off.

Oh my God when it went off it must have been something like the 1st
World War - mud and dirt came down on us three for ages and a big
bit was not too far from where we where - shrapnel I suppose

It was fun and we survived many others have not - there is more
if you want to read it :45:


Centralheatking

Some people really are determined to remove themselves from the gene pool ,just such a shame so many fail !!!!!!:smartass:

 

[lame plumber]

Once you have seen an acetylene cylinder exit a burning farm engineering workshop, you dont tend to bugger with gases n bottles. Seeing 10 plus firemen hitting the deck was fairly amusing, watching the flaming bottle pass clear over ones head wasnt!!!

 

[rpm]

I`ve seen the hole one made in a brick wall very glad I wasn`t around when it came through!

 

[lame plumber]

the wall disappeared when the workshop went up and the bottle came out of it, got to say full respect for the firemen, as they carried on, as there was a barn full of trapped cows that couldnt escape till the flames were damped down, and there was another O2 bottle and full oxyset still in the workshop.

 

[brum]

When I was a kid me old man always used to say that if he could invent an adaptor to fit his a***hole that would refill his lighter he would make a fortune and patent it..brum

 

[Sparkgap]

I've seen a few US videos of people buying an adaptor to join a large bottle of propane to the type used for plumbing torches. Then refilling the small bottle from the large one. Must save a lot of money for those that use a lot of gas.

Does anyone on here refill their own gas bottles?

I know someone who refills small bottles from 47kg ones 'because they're cheaper per kg'. The danger is in filling the other bottle FULL of liquid (normally they leave 20% space to allow for evaporation IIRC) which leaves no room for expansion and you get a good chance of liquid gas going down the hose with all the dangers that presents. :82:

 

[Thedeester1]

I know someone who does this and frankly it scares the hell out of him and me. We both admit it. He fills small bottles for his portable mig from large "Cheaper" bottles of gas. If you cannot regulate the fill you can overfill the smaller bottle. Also when we experimented with this the smaller bottle got really hot and was slightly worrying! I prefer not to be around when my "tightfisted" m8 does this.

 

[Centralheatking]

You are quite correct - on the older diesel hunter killer submarines
my great friend - The Rev Cain ex submariner Rn
told me that in order to avoid the wrath of
the whole boat if one needed to break wind you would call
'match' and one of your nearest buddies would strike his lighter and
your smelly would be no more - burnt up as you produced the issue.

On the outside of their fatigues of course !! Centralheatking

When I was a kid me old man always used to say that if he could invent an adaptor to fit his a***hole that would refill his lighter he would make a fortune and patent it..brum

 

[Arthur]

Too dangerous to consider. There are companies out there who produce cylinders & valves for re-filling - extenda stay, Alugas Gazlow - but all specific & manufactured.
Ebay kits are available to DIY but depending on who owns the cylinders - the full & the empty one- the company owning the cylinder can prosecute.
Calor for example have issued this statement:
Dr Terry Ritter, Calor’s Head of Health and Safety said “The public might think it is an easy and convenient way to top up a cylinder, but they are actually putting themselves and others at risk of serious injury or even death. Calor has taken successful court action against individuals for unauthorised filling and will continue to do so.”

 

[lame plumber]

I know someone who does this and frankly it scares the hell out of him and me. We both admit it. He fills small bottles for his portable mig from large "Cheaper" bottles of gas. If you cannot regulate the fill you can overfill the smaller bottle. Also when we experimented with this the smaller bottle got really hot and was slightly worrying! I prefer not to be around when my "tightfisted" m8 does this.

thats because your supposed to have the bottle being filled in a water bath as your doing it be it air, o2 or propane, but the lower end of the Darwinian scale wouldnt know that of course.

 

[solutions]

There was a post not that long ago that had a rep for one of the gas torch manufacturer s stating the safety issues with this at the same time as selling the virtues of a refillable system they sell compatible eith rothy torches etc. Not sure what happened to ot as was reported for advertising without being a sponsor.

 

[Ermintrude]

Cousin died when he was 16, my uncle held his hand as he bled to death. Not big not clever bloke responsible did 5 years . My uncle lives with out his son 25 years later and you can see he still hurts.

 

[Nostrum]

If the price of gas bottles are affecting you that much (ie enough to go messing around with dangerous stuff) you need to put your prices up. Roll of lead free solder is twice as much and lasts half as long!