Podmods, Maintenance, Tips and Tricks: 20lb or 30lb Tanks

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20lb or 30lb Tanks

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Topic: 20lb or 30lb Tanks

Posted By: Astro2020
Subject: 20lb or 30lb Tanks
Date Posted: 09 Dec 2021 at 6:47pm

Does anyone know the furnace run time for a 20lb tank for a RP176 pod? I realize colder weather and thermostat setting can put the answers all over the board. I'm using the guideline of it will be 20 degrees and night with the thermostat set to 60 degrees. Just looking for directional information. Based on feedback I may upgrade to a 30lb tank vs. the 20lb.

I only plan to use the furnace on propane and maybe a few quick meals with the stove, no fridge.

Replies:

Posted By: jato
Date Posted: 10 Dec 2021 at 6:02am

One gallon of propane has 91,502 BTU's. A full 20# tank carries 4.6 gallons of propane giving a total of 420,909 BTU's. Our furnace (2011 R-Pod 177) is rated at 20,000 BTU per hour when constantly running. So by dividing total BTU's by furnace usage you will get 21 hours of run time IF furnace were to run constantly. That doesn't sound like a whole lot yet remember how long does the furnace run each time and how long is it off between cycles.

Our records for camping are in much warmer conditions where night temps are normally 40 to 50 degrees and during the bulk of the day furnace is off while we hike. Propane is also used for fridge and HW as well. A 20# tank will last easily 3 weeks for us using the above scenerio. We carry a pair of 20# tanks, easy to switch when one runs out. If you carry only a single 30# tank then you are going to be in a pickle when it runs out, unless you carry a spare. From 11 years experience with a 177 the tank always runs out sometime between 11 pm to 5 am. Wonder why?

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God's pod
'11 model 177
'17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost
Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake
"...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free."

Posted By: john in idaho
Date Posted: 10 Dec 2021 at 8:19am

Some places you travel to do not allow vendors to fill tanks on site, so you have to buy a refilled tank exchange. Tanks are built to only fill to 80%, but those exchange places sometimes fill only 80% of that, charging you for the "real" 80%. Plus giving you a beat up tank. You just can't win. I have found that a spare tank fits in the back of the truck nestled in a plastic milk crate quite safely, I think. And we have found that we don't run the furnace at nite if we put a couple of extra blankets on the bed. that way we don't use a lot of propane and get to fill our good tanks at home. A full tank weighs about 36 lbs. Refill when they are in the low 20s. I have a 30lb tank I found on sale that I have never filled because I didn't want to lose it if I had to exchange it .Your mileage may vary.

Posted By: lostagain
Date Posted: 10 Dec 2021 at 9:45am

john in idaho is right about the exchange tanks, in that they are generally a very expensive way to buy propane and you can end up with a nearly expired tank. There is a bit of a bright side though if you have a nearly expired tank and want one with a longer life. We had an old tank that was probably the original with our 172. I needed to refill it, but decided to use the tank exchange system to find a much newer tank. I convinced the store to let me look through the expiration dates on the tank and found one that was almost new. The gas was a little more expensive, but the savings realized from not needing to dispose of a tank on the verge of expiration and its replacement with a practically new tank made it a worthwhile effort. Generally, I look for a Tractor Supply to refill LP tanks. They are usually pretty competitive on price and most have refill services available.

We carry a spare 20# tank in a milk crate, and, if we're going to be gone a while, carry two in the back of the truck. In the winter the tanks come in handy at home to heat the garage.

We spent a couple days in sub freezing temps in early April of this year through Utah and Wyoming, passing the night with a low of 11℉. I ran the heater all the time and we had no issues with frozen plumbing except for the exposed last couple inches of the low point drain valves. The bottom of the trailer is closed in with a small heater duct blowing into the area. Keeping the heat on in the trailer kept everything above freezing including the tanks below the floor. We sure went through a 20# tank fast though.

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Never leave footprints behind.
Fred & Maria Kearney
Sonoma 167RB
Our Pod 172
2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost

Posted By: StephenH
Date Posted: 10 Dec 2021 at 9:46am

Estimating run time is difficult as it has to do with ambient temperature, winds, the set-point of the thermostat, and much more. On our winter camping trip with temperatures in the single digits confirms that you will go through a LOT of propane if you try to heat the RPod to 72 degrees. If you reduce the temps to mid-60s during the day and lower at night, you will not use as much. Putting a jacket and knit cap on saves you money. Using a good sleeping bag at night saves you also.

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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,...

http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=7712 - ouR escaPOD mods
Former RPod 179
Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS

Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 10 Dec 2021 at 10:17pm

Depends where you are whether exchange tanks are a good deal or a bad one. We used to live on Hatteras island and the one or two places that refilled tanks charged the same as the tank swap guys did. Also that is a highly corrosive salt environment so by exchanging tanks I could avoid winding up with a rusted out tank. Then too there is the convenience of exchanging vs refilling. You could easily be 5 minutes from a convenient store which exchanges tanks but an hour from anywhere that will refill. You can't exchange 30 lb tanks anywhere I know of.

For all those reasons as well as to keep my lift weights below 50 lbs as recommended by my orthopedic surgeon I wouldnt want 30 lb cylinders.

And yes it is perfectly legal to store a limited number of propane cylinders in your tow vehicle (whether a pickup or enclosed SUV) as long as they are stored upright and strapped in place. I used to carry a second 20 lb cylinder in the back of my Highlander on most trips. Being portable also made it much easier to place it and my generator with propance conversion away from the campsite to limit noise issues.

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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold

Posted By: Colt
Date Posted: 14 Dec 2021 at 1:22am

Originally posted by Astro2020

Does anyone know the furnace run time for a 20lb tank for a RP176 pod? I realize colder weather and thermostat setting can put the answers all over the board. I'm using the guideline of it will be 20 degrees and night with the thermostat set to 60 degrees. Just looking for directional information. Based on feedback I may upgrade to a 30lb tank vs. the 20lb.

I only plan to use the furnace on propane and maybe a few quick meals with the stove, no fridge.

When I was in E. Ky, the nights got down to the low 20s, the days were 45-ish. I used a 20 lb tank every 7 days. Set the temp to 65F at night and 70 during the day, but the sun kept the furnace from running much in the day. I kept the water heater on full time.

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John
'16 R-Pod 180

Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 14 Dec 2021 at 7:21am

A 20 lb cylinder holds about 430kbtu of propane. The furnace is rated at 20k btu. So it should run for about 21 hours continuously on a 20 lb cylinder. The actual duty cycle you get will depend on too many factors to guess at. If it runs 25% of the time it would last for about 4 days. If you get a 2nd tank you can just switch over when the first one is empty and go refill or exchange it, no need for guesswork.

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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold

Posted By: Ben Herman
Date Posted: 14 Dec 2021 at 6:23pm

Another vote here for twin 20 lb tanks. Its a pretty easy modification and takes away the worry of whether your single 20 or 30 lb tank is low.

Posted By: TheBum
Date Posted: 16 Dec 2021 at 12:21pm

I bought a 30lb tank for running generators at home and it's a lot harder to move around than a 20lb. Not only do you have to move around another 10lbs of fuel but the tank itself is considerably heavier. In retrospect, I would have gone with dual 20s in that application too.

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Alan
2022 R-Pod 196 "RaptoRPod"
2022 Ram 1500 Lone Star 4x4
Three cats