Recertification of small Primus LPG Gas Bottles

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Originally Posted by ian

Not wishing to be "that person" -- but last I looked Swap'n'Go would only accept bottles still in certification

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I did it with bottles out of date but they may have changed their policy since then as I seem to recall it was one of their big marketing advantages.

Found this

SWAP'n'GO BBQ gas bottle exchange allows you to swap your empty BBQ gas bottle for a full one, without having to wait for anyone to refill gas bottle at petrol station.

BBQ gas bottle exchange any 9kg* or 4kg* BBQ gas bottle refill, even out-of-date bottles.
You can also swap any brand or colour.

From here How to SWAP'n'GO: Just Swap for BBQ Gas Bottle Refill

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Originally Posted by Feckit

As much as I'm sure cracking open a gas cylinder with some gas in it would make an extraordinary utube video, I was planning on doing it post valve removal :D

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I'm not sure that some of the gas won't have dissolved into the metal of the cylinder. Pays to be sure.

It may well do Ian, I used 20kg cylinders for portable compressed air tanks before such things were popular and it took a lot of washing and compressed air to rid them of the odour.

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Originally Posted by ian

I'm not sure that some of the gas won't have dissolved into the metal of the cylinder. Pays to be sure.

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The amount of gas that dissolve back out of the metal can be minimized by repeatedly pouring boiling water into the bottle. What is much harder to remove is any mercaptan that has bled into any seams and under rust flakes. Mercaptan is the “stink” compound added to gas to give it an odor. Small amount condense in tiny cracks and seams. Adding detergent and shaking the gas bottle helps remove the mercaptan. If you want to really get rid of it then 5/6 fill the bottle and boil the water/detergent mix. Provided the valve is removed the residual mercaptan is not dangerous even if there is enough for ignition - it will make a bit of a “woof” but is a long way from causing any sort of explosion.

If you are cutting the top off the bottle you can also leave water in it almost up the the level you want to cut it.

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Originally Posted by Feckit

Thanks Lappa. At that price and the distance I'd have to travel, looks like I'll be breaking out the electric gas axe and turning it into a little piggy BBQ, for which I'll need another gas bottle.

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If you're going to attack it with a gas axe, from memory it should be done after the valve has been removed and the tank filled with water. Check the exact requirements. I vaguely remember that the water should have detergent in it, but it's a long time ago.

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Originally Posted by Feckit

ian

As much as I'm sure cracking open a gas cylinder with some gas in it would make an extraordinary utube video, I was planning on doing it post valve removal :D

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How about this utube video of explosive gas cylinders?.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBqZZ177Q9I

BLEVE

We used to show the first 1:30minutes of this film when we were teaching the LPG auto installers course

YouTube

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Originally Posted by Lappa

BLEVE

We used to show the first 1:30minutes of this film when we were teaching the LPG auto installers course

YouTube

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Certainly an everyday product that we have become very complacent about. Even see idiots smoking near the "swap n go" cages in front of the big green shed, and they don't like being moved on.

My best mate was involved as a firefighter in the Cairns Gasworks Explosion, 32 years ago now and still very fresh in our memories - "3:30pm on Monday August 17, 1987, a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) storage unit at the Cairns gas works had caught fire and caused a Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion (BLEVE)." My dad was working in a shed only a couple of hundred metres from the bleve site. I also worked with Peter Brkic, the photographer who took most of the images of the event. -

Cairns LPG explosion 30 years ago is Australia's biggest LPG disaster - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) <strike></strike>

I too like to re-use things rather than throw them out. I also have one of these small gas bottles that I bought with a Primus torch attachment, and it recently ran out of gas so I was left in the same predicament. After investigating all the options I chose to replace it with a new one from JayCar. It was $29.99 IIRC and uses one of those cheap camping stove gas cans that sell for something like four for $6. There are a couple of advantages to the new unit - it has piezo ignition and it also produces a much better looking flame (strictly subjective :)).

I should add that I don't use this device very much which explains why I've never had it refilled. I bought it in my mid '20s and I'm now 69 so when I was looking for a replacement the question of whether the gas bottles will still be around in another 49 years didn't really enter my head :)

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Originally Posted by artful bodger

How about this utube video of explosive gas cylinders?.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBqZZ177Q9I

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Wow. That's a bit too big to be described as an eyebrow enhancing moment that one.

As a firey we were shown a series of videos on BLEVE incidents and one in which a fire fighter in the US died. He was on top of a ladder with a hose putting water on a LPG rail tanker and it blew and he instantly disappeared never to be found again the explosion was that great.

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Originally Posted by Chris Parks

As a firey we were shown a series of videos on BLEVE incidents and one in which a fire fighter in the US died. He was on top of a ladder with a hose putting water on a LPG rail tanker and it blew and he instantly disappeared never to be found again the explosion was that great.

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Thats the link I posted.

We had a local news crew capture the safety valves popping on some propane cylinders. They were in the back of a pick-up truck (Ute?) and the truck was on fire. Some rather spectacular footage but not explosions.