heating propane

[jon_89]

any ideas on how to heat a propane bottle to get more pressure?i am thinking something small, safe, and portable.

[paaiyan]

Well, you can always just put more pressure in it, but I don't think heating it is a very good idea. not only will it increase th epressure of the gasses inside, but it could possibly reduce the amount of pressure that the vessel can effectively contain.

[jon_89]

i am talking about heating the propane.

[psycix]

It depends on the temperature you want to heat it to.
I would not recommend anything over 50 degrees celcius.
But if you are talking about heating it from freezing temperatures to warm room temperature, yes, you can.

You should put the bottle into water and slowly heat that water.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Rather that heating it, you could surround it with a water jacket in such a manner that it won't cool down as much while it's losing pressure. There are water-jacketed CO2 tanks available for model aircraft to achieve this effect.

[bluerussetboy]

After looking at one of my propane bottles warning labels, it is suggested not to store the bottle over 120F/50C.

I have on several occasions used a heated corn cozy wrapped around with a neoprene jacket. This works good if the bottle is not frozen but you want to shoot in the colder weather. I use this mostly when I'm working on my vehicles in the winter to have a nice strong flame. When the pressure drops I toss the corn cozy back in the microwave for five minutes and re-apply.

[jon_89]

I am looking to only take it to about 80 degrees. I was thinking on something to surround the bottle then plug it into a cigarette lighter in my car. I am curious because I would like to make my pneumatic more portable.

[brogdenlaxmiddie]

No matter what in the hell you do, don't use an open flame

[D_Hall]

When playing in cold weather, the paintball crowd (way back when I played) liked to keep their CO2 tanks warm. Two methods that were used....

1) Ever see those (battery operated) heated socks for cold weather camping? Yeah, put your tank in one of those and put a couple more socks over that for added insulation.

2) Skip the battery operated and just put a couple chemically activated hand warmers in the socks.


edit: I should probably say that I've no idea how well these methods worked. I simply modified my gun to operate on reasonably low pressures; thus I didn't have to heat my tank. But I did see others use the above techniques.

[jon_89]

You know I think I will use another blow torch to heat it up. (just kidding)