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I am using a Mr. Heater in my hut. It uses one of those little green propane tanks. It's running for about 15 minutes then shuts off. The propane tank is ice cold at this point with frost on the lower half. If I switch tanks, it works again for about 15 minutes. If I put my original tank on at this point, it starts to work again for about 15 minutes. Anyone know why this is icing up on me and how to prevent it? We have a cold weekend coming up, and I'm not looking forward heater issues.
The boiling point of propane is -42 degrees F give or take a degree or two which means that the colder the propane cylinder the less efficient it is. For example, at a temperature of -50 degrees F, propane will remain in liquid form. The only way to change this state is to either warm it up or increase the pressure which lowers the boiling point. Since we can't safely increase the pressure the only remaining solution is to warm the cylinder. You are probably thinking, "but it is only -2 degrees F today so it could not possibly be caused by the temperature. As liquid propane is released from the cylinder, it changes to a gas to run whatever appliance you happen to be running, in this case a small heater. This changing state from a pressurized liquid to a gas produces a byproduct of extreme cooling. It is possible for the propane cylinder to drop below the -42 degree F threshhold even though the outside temperature is considerably warmer. When the outside temperature is say 10 degrees, the cylinder will stay above the -42 degree F temp but the colder the outside temp the less the warming of the cylinder. Larger storage containers have less of a problem with this simply due to the volume of the cylinder and the cooling produced in that cylinder being spread over a greater area. This means you could move up to a larger cylinder, say a 5# or a 10# when the weather is very cold and the effects of the frozen container will be less noticeable. However if it gets cold enough even a larger container will do the same thing. I use an 11# cylinder during the winter and have had no problems with it. One other thing to consider is the faster the liquid propane moves from the cylinder the greater the cooling effect. This means a higher heat setting will speed up the cooling of the cylinder. The recommended method of thawing frozen cylinders is cold water but this is obviously impractical. The handwarmer might be the ticket...
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