The Average Lifespan Of A Propane Tank For Your Grill

It is inevitable that, when you become a new homeowner, once the summer weather hits, you're going to look around and want — nay, require — a new grill to match your new backyard and cook up delectable meats to serve your friends and family (and neighbors, if they're lucky). Whether you splurge on a high-end luxury grill or find that a basic starter model will do the trick, at least for now, if you buy a gas grill, you will also need to pick up a propane tank to fuel it. Luckily, there are a number of accessible and convenient places to purchase one (your closest gas station likely carries them), but as you fork over your cash, you might be wondering how long it will last. Luckily, on average, you can get up to 20 hours of use from a single 20-pound tank.

Of course, there are some circumstances where you might get more time or less. For example, if you're using a big grill with six burners, it will use propane faster than a more modest model with three or four burners. And if you like to cook with the temperature cranked way up, that will also drain the propane more quickly than if you stick to low or medium flames. Further, if you regularly opt to grill when the weather is subpar, those conditions can also drain your propane more quickly (though it is possible to grill effectively when it's rainy and windy).

On long, hot evenings, sometimes it feels as though cookout season will never end, and if you've ignited your grill more times than you can keep track of, you might be wondering how soon you'll need a replacement or refill. There are a few tricks for figuring out how much propane you have left, including a method where you pour warm water down the side of the tank. Run your hand down the path the water took, and when you feel the temperature go from warm to cool, that's where your propane level is (the cool section). While it's not a precise measurement, it will at least give you a general idea of how much fuel is left, such as whether the tank is half-full or quarter-full.

You can also try weighing the tank using your bathroom scale. For a 20-pound tank, the tare weight is typically about 17 pounds (but the exact weight of the tank itself is listed on the collar that encircles the valve as "TW," so be sure to find that for greater precision). Set the tank on the scale and subtract 17 from the total. That's how many pounds of propane are left, so if the weight comes out to 20 pounds, that means you only have about 3 pounds of fuel remaining, and it's time to get a backup or be ready to swap that one out.