I would very much appreciate input to a puzzling propane situation I had recently.
Background;
One of my many 20 lbs. propane cylinders was used on 2 different heating devices this past month.
One is a tank top heater that we more commonly refer to as a sunflower heater.
The other is a Mr Heater Buddy Heater. Both heaters were used with a 12 ft. assessory hose..
The 20 lbs cylinder was used approximately 8 hours with these 2 heater and the ambient temp. was in the mid 20 (f) both times.
I set up the buddy heater last Monday and and it was also in the mid 20’s (temp) and upon igniting the stove it would not stay lit. I assessed the cylinder and the weight indicated there was plenty of fuel remaining in it. I tried to lite the heater with a burns-o-matic torch and I had no luck getting stove to light. I then assumed the stove was malfunctioning.
Then on Tuesday I rapidly packed the Grandsons into truck for another evening of ice fishing and had intended to bring along the other stove(sunflower). I attempted to again light the Buddy heater and after several min. drove back home and attached the sunflower heater to the 12’ assessory hose. I then attempted to test light the stove in the garage. I could not light this stove even though I had what sounded like plenty of fuel flowing through the venturi. I then used the burns-o-matic torch and having again what sounded like plenty of fuel flowing I could not ignite any fuel. I had the thermocouple heated up with the hand held torch so that I didn’t have to hold the bypass open. After several attempts at igniting , and checking to make sure i wasn’t creating a danger to myself and the garage with gas buildup, The heater then lit!. I shut it down and then re-lit the stove with the regular igniter and the stove lit just like it should have. I then re-attached the Buddy Heater and the pilot ignited 1st push on the igniter and burned properly the rest of the night.
Now my question is why did this stove work 8+ hours on this cylinder and then dispense a gas that would not light and then after 2 days of fiddling again dispense a flammable gas???:dubious: I probably purged this tank through my stove for about 10 min. before flammable fuel again dispensed.
I do know that cylinders I own were originally purged, however after researching this problem I find that the purging to my cylinders were not done exactly as what isrecommended here; and other sites I found using ask dot com. (The purging was done with liquid not vapor).
I have to think I had air in this cylinder and for some reason the air was layered in the cylinder OR There is a remote possibility someone did a tank switch on me when they couldn’t get it to work for them:dubious::dubious: I do not have my name on all my cylinders YET!
The majority of the information I have found says I would probably have a poor mix of fuel resulting in poor performance with air in the cylinder to being unable to run device.