She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie…propane

Common, but overlooked until there is a problem, 250 gallon propane tanks are a necessary part of rural homes with no access to public gas lines. Instead of an urban network of supply lines, these tanks hold enough propane to last several months and service the buildings they are next to. Periodically a driver comes to fill them. The one in the farmhouse supplies gas to the stove and the hot water heater.

I hadn’t filled it up in a couple of years, so I had my supplier come check it. He felt the side of the tank — it’s cooler below the level of the propane inside, for the same reason water form on the outside of a glass of cool water — and checked the gauge, which I didn’t trust. But both of these indicators led him to think the tank was at about 50%, and not worth topping off. “It’s cooler below the halfway point,” he said. I looked up at the August sun. “Yeah, but that’s the part that’s in the shade of the tank. Are you sure?” He performed a pressure test, which was fine, and replaced an old regulator with a new one.

But then a guest at the farmhouse said the stove wasn’t staying lit. I went over to investigate and got the stove to work, but an hour later he said it had gone out again.

I solved the immediate problem — his dinner — with another tank and stove.

So I had my propane guy come out early the next week.

He checked the gauge — 50%.

He checked the new palm-sized regulator he had installed last time, which insures constant pressure, and found it was set to be far too restrictive. A few turns of an adjustment dial got pressure where he wanted it.

Inside, the stove fired up and the hot water heater turned on. He went to gather his tools to leave.

But when I tried the stove again, the high setting looked more like medium, and turning the knob to low killed the flame. “Not so fast,” I told him.

He inspected some more, came inside, and said, “Your gauge is broken. You’re out of propane. Come here and I’ll show you.” We went out to the tank and he pressed down on the fill valve with his thumb with no resistance. It released. “I couldn’t do that if it were full. There must have been just enough to have things light, but not enough to maintain.”

Before he filled the tank he removed the faulty gauge, and discovered that it had been installed upside down. What read as 50% was in fact zero. He flipped the gauge right side up, put some propane in the tank, and set off for the next delivery of the day.

I went inside, put a kettle on for tea, and the hot water heater audibly went about its only job.