Where to Store Those Small Green Cans?

We keep ours in the attached garage, I'd be interested to hear where others recommend storing them.

 

I've always stored them in the house with the cap on, never had a problem. We usually take one of the 20 lb. tanks off the pup to hook up to the grill when camping. I keep a couple of the little ones on hand for the buddy heater and back up for the grill. Guess I never worried about it.

 

Although I think fire departments recommend against it, I store a few in my attached garage. I always take half a dozen or so camping for the cookstove, lantern and cat heater. I have a large RubberMaid tote that I keep the lantern, cat heater and the propane bottles in. It rides in the TV.

I think the fire departments aren't worried about the propane bottles leaking so much as they are worried about them exploding if a fire starts from another cause and then get to them, causing them to explode. I have absolutely no concern about having them in the TV with me.

 

Buy yourself one of these adaptor hoses and be done with those NON-disposable green bottles.

 

I did buy the hose, and use it to power a BBQ and stove. I don't have a distribution tree yet, maybe in the spring.

Part of the motivation was having to buy the cans, the other part was disposal. The provincial parks won't let you throw them in the trash there, and the local garbage pickup won't take them either.

James

 

The green bottles work best for me because the three things I use them on are moved all over all of the time. I couldn't have the portability I need if I were tied to a big tank with a hose. The stove goes in and out of the TV two or three times per day, the lantern is on the picnic table then on the small portable table and then usually inside the PUP as we get ready for bed. That helps to warm the interior too. The same with the cat heater. We use it outside between our chairs for chilly mornings and evenings. I've run it in the PUP just before bed too, to delay the first furnace cycle a bit. I've only been to a few places where they had signs saying I couldn't toss the empties. In those cases (and when I'm boondocking) I brought them home and disposed of them from there.

 

Here those green bottles are considered hazmat so that requires a special trip to the dump, to get rid of them. Since as James mentioned, Provincial Parks won't take them, many private parks I have been too will take them but they charge about $2 per tank to dispose of.

I just need to get a "Y" adaptor so I can plug in both the stove and bbq at the same time.

 

I purchased this at Walmart for about $13.00 a few years ago. In NJ you need to bring the used green bottles to a hazmat drop off location. It was just a pain in the butt! So this little adapter makes life much easier by allowing us to hook up to a 20 lb tank instead.

 

since you guys were on about the little green propane tanks, it got me to thinking.
my dad was the one who towed the camper to the storage site, so i really have no idea where it is... I realize before he did that I never finished cleaning it out...... I now realize.... I left a green tank in there.... aww cr@.....p


......Here's My Sign........

 

The adapter is only used for the hose from the stove to the 20lb tank. So you can still carry the tank on the tounge of the trailer. No gas flows thru the trailer lines. We use this setup all the time with our Boy Scout Troop.

Also, when we did use the little green cans I stored them in the garage in a milk crate.

 

We store them in the attached garage. So far, I have not bought any, but Coleman now makes a plug to put in the empty bottle. I guess in some places, something like that is required to dispose of the bottles. I need to check current local regulations, since we have several empties.

I wish someone made an approved cap for transporting an opened bottle. We had one that did not reseal when we took if off the lantern to transport it. I think we ended up re-attaching it, but t is not the best way to carry the lantern, since it doesn't fit in the case with bottle attached.

Extra fuel bottles, and Coleman fuel, along with the Coleman stove & lantern, ride on top of the vehicle, in the Thule "box"; we prefer to have them out of the vehicle. One of our Coleman lanterns has to ride in the cargo area, it is too tall for the Thule.

We have been debating the hose situation on our 25-yo pup - whether to test, or just replace it. Didn't seem like the replacement would be too $$ for our size pup.

 

I just keep mine in the front storage trunk on the pop-up. I don't use them except for when I'm camping.

 

I usually just toss the propane bottles in the garbage when they are done. I store them everywhere, in the shed, in the basement, in the popup. I just acquired a dual fuel stove and lantern(runs on gas or coleman fuel) so I'm done with those little green bottles.

Another option and what I would do if I didn't switch to the dual fuel stove and lantern is a small bulk tank with short hose. They sell a 5 pound bottle that looks like a mini version of the bulk tank. You can even fill it up with an adapter from your bulk tank at home so it is waaay cheaper than those little bottles.

 

I prefer my Coleman fuel (not a dual fuel one) stove to cook on, for a number of reasons. However, we sometimes run into fire restrictions here in the SW, when liquid fuels are not allowed. In fact, we took the pup one weekend when we had planned on using the tent, because it has the LP stove. That's the reason we have both white gas and LP lanterns, though sometimes we have trips where we use both.

 

We too get tired of carrying the camper stove in and out and packing, and it hangs right next to the door...so we sometimes leave it at home and take our old coleman stove. Up till about 3 years ago the green bottles sat on a shelf in our grage with all the other campgear containers....but I saw a film about safe storage and showed what happened when just one green bottle exploded during a garage fire.....they went to the backyard on an enclosed shelf on the backside of a patio privacy fence about 100 feet from the house....the gas cans for the power equipment also went to same place, and we keep it locked and ventilated....but during camping season we just keep them in the popup in a plastic container that holds 3 bottles and camper is parked about 20 feet from house....... When we get to camp we hook up our lantern, stove and put the container with the spare under the outside sink.
And when theyare empty we toss in trash....but because of this topic we are going to research proper disposal....I hope they are recycliable.....good topic thanks for getting started....

 

In some places, they are recyclable, I haven't checked the local situation. The green plugs for the top are so it is obvious that the bottle is empty, which I would assume would be essential for any recycling. We still have 2 old tanks from the pop-up and grill, that are no longer eligible to be filled, sitting outside, until we figure out just what to do with them.

 

Matt O - I have an adapter my Dad bought for me to fill the little green tanks from a 20 lb. tank in order to reuse them but I've never tried it. Maybe I will this summer.

 

I have the adapter to refill the little green bottles and it works fairly well. I refill them to use in the Big Buddy heater.
JD