Letters | Sunday, 17 January 2010

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Checking your gas cylinder

A lot has been in the press lately regarding Maltese consumers complaining that LPG cylinders are running out more quickly than they used to. People have been asking how they can tell if they are getting a full tank of gas. There are various ways of approaching this problem.
The empty tare weight of a gas cylinder can be found on a metal disc on the shroud, this gives the weight of the cylinder in pounds and ounces. To convert this to kilograms multiply this number by 0.453592. Once you have the empty weight of the cylinder you can put it on some scales, then you will have the total weight, so you can now take the empty cylinder weight off the total. This will give you how much gas you have left in the cylinder.
Another approach is to pour boiling water from a kettle down the side of the cylinder. Then run your finger down the side of the cylinder until you reach a point of temperature difference. When your finger goes from hot to cold that will be the level of gas in the tank.
It is also possible to buy little stick-on plastic strips which change colour to show the level but I don’t think they can be moved from one tank to another, so this would only be useful if you were getting your tank re-filled rather than swapping it for a new tank.
A better approach would be to fit a gas level indicator to the cylinder. A couple of examples can be seen at the links below to give you an idea what to look for:
www.irawoods.com/Maverick-GW-212E-Digital-Gas-Watch-Gauge-Propane-Level-Indicator

and exterioraccents.com/gaswatchi.html?productid=
gaswatchi&channelid=NEXTA

James A. Tyrrell
Northern Ireland, UK

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