Filling 1 lb propane cylinders

[timberland]

It seems like everything nice and packable for camping uses those 1 pound disposable propane canisters. We are bringing 5 appliances theat run on them. Grill, shower, stove, lantern, and heater. So this year we purchased an adapter to fill them off a 20 lb tank. For those that are fortunate enough to live at some sort of altitude, is there going to be any issues filling them at lower air pressure. Anybody else do this? It kinda bothers me to throw away that many bottles (Lots in a ten day hunt) if we can reuse them. Thats why we went this route, not the $2 we\'ll save

 

[colorado russ]

First, I never knew you could refill those 1 lb canisters so good to know and I\'ll follow this thread. I\'d like to see the setup for safety and such but would save the environment lots of little propane cans.

The Bass Pro Shop here in Colorado Springs ran a special at .99 each but you could only buy 6 at a time. I ended up with 18 when my wife said that was enough! We\'ll be running everything you mentioned on our possibly 6 days in the woods.

Anxious to hear what others have to say.

 

[bowhunter]

I have filled them at 600ft. They don\'t seem to get as full as a new one. I usually use an adapter hose to a 10 pound tank.

 

[timberland]

Doing a little research, it says to freeze the canister and warm up the tank for the best results. guys are getting 60-100% fills. but I wonder what happens at 9,000 ft.

 

[cnelk]

I have filled them before.
Not sure about filling them at lower alt and bringing them to higher but like mentioned above they don\'t get full.
Something I did was put the empty ones in a freezer for awhile and chill them before filling.
They will fill more by doing this.

 

[cohunter14]

Another option is just running most everything off of the 20lb tank. They have converters that you can hook up to that and run multiple things off of them. This is what we do in camp for pretty much everything except lanterns. One 20lb tank for the stove and lantern at the cook station, one 20lb tank for the heater, and then a few small ones for the lanterns that we hang. You could easily detach the tank from the heater and use it for the shower too, then swap it back to the heater. Might be easier than hauling up a bunch of small tanks and constantly trying to fill them.

 

[colorado russ]

Found that Bass Pro has the adapter for $20 and got mostly all positive reviews. I happen to have a gift card with $22 and some change so looks like I\'ll be buying one today. We live around 7,000\' so be a good test. I\'ve read about freezing the refill and having the 20 lb in the sun for best results. I\'ll also weigh them before and after to see results. If not very good, I\'ll return the adapter. But, if I can fill one 75-80% full in a minute, it\'d be worth it for our use. I just read the \'one minute or less\' comment somewhere so will be sure to time as well.

 

[Swede]

I get good results with my refills by freezing the 1 lb. bottles and keeping the larger bottles where it is warm. I have no experience with taking the small bottles to 10,000 feet. I would advise refilling the 1 lb. bottles only once. You may or may not get away with multiple refills. Some of mine have started leaking after a couple refills.

 

[colorado russ]

Great to know that Swede - I really hadn\'t thought about only refilling once. Now I have to mark the cans! But, better than having one leak.