Now I get to complain about Ferrel Gas...

Gas grill ran out while I was making lunch. No biggie...

First grill I've had, first time I ran out.

Out of curiousity, went to look up how much an exchange would be...

A noticed a comment from 2001 about Blue Rhino only having 17.5# in a 20# cylinder...

Looking at their website, the current picture...bottom of the label...

"Net Weight 17lbs"

Gotta wonder how many people notice there get a cylinder underfilled by 15% when they buy a Blue Rhino...

Grrrr...well, since I'd kind of like not running out of gas more often then necessary, I'll got get it filled properly!

They lose a 1/4" on a side to the planer.

I'm sure the modern lumbermills probably can cut them a smidge tighter and plane off a little bit...but they've always kept the nominal name to be the traditional unfinished dimensions.

The new standard wood is smaller than the old standard lumber, which is smaller than the real old wood that is not planed.

It's getting worse. And they've gone from buzz saws to high-tech thin band saws, so obviously they are getting more pieces of smaller wood from the same log, and pretending it's some made up size.

Drop siding, for example, lost a 3/8 inch - somewhere.

--->Paul

Like the detergent companies and others do at the grocery store -- reduce the weight, keep the box the same at least for a while so people don't realize they're buying less.

I'm happy I remembered who filled them locally...it's been so long since last time I did one, all the places I used to go have closed or don't do it anymore!

I still want to know the reason for 17 pounds as the "max" they'll do...that just sounds low compared to the math for what the regs I've found so far say.

The only thing I can find online is the standard, and where the OPD is supposed to kick in, is 80% of the liquid capacity.

On my tank, my 80% is 19.4#. Maybe it used to be 85%...that would get me 20.5#.

Filling these suckers to 17# is only 70%.

And that just doesn't make sense to me -- the safety factor for expansion is already built into the 80% number.

What part of the puzzle am I missing here?

I did save $8 because I remembered who around here fills them today and they charged $12 v. $20 for Blue Rhino.

CAVEAT #1:
Weighing my cylinder a few minutes ago on a bathroom scale, they also only put in 17# (cylinder had a tare weight of 17# stamped on it, total was 34#).

CAVEAT #2:
That makes no real sense...

The current NFPA regulations allow you to fill to 80% of the capacity.

My tank has a Water Capacity ("WC") stamped on it as 47.6#, which you multiply by .51 to get the Propane capacity...which is 24.22# And that's the number you're allowed under the current NFPA regulations to fill upto 80% of.

24.22 x .80 = 19.38#.

Hmmm...

I'll even concede at some point in the past what we call a 20# cylinder could have legally been filled to 20#, and under today's standards the same nominal size has to be filled a little less. Don't know for sure, but could be...

But still weight is weight, and that cylinder is designed under today's standards to safely hold more than 19 pounds of propane, and it's only being filled to 17...

Unless there's something else I'm missing???