propane use for hotbox.

[cmturner]

We just got our propane hot box running right the other day, that day we ran it a couple hours. Last night we ran it about 5hrs and ran out of fuel. Does anyone have any ideas to increase my run time on my tanks? I have 2- 45lb tanks on the trailer that cost about 32.00 each to refill, seems really expensive to me to run the hotbox at these kinda costs. Does anyone run a larger tank on their trailer? Thanks for any feedback.

[Dave Olson]

Hello Curtis,

The Red truck that you saw last month in Decatur has 2 80 gallon Lp tanks. We have about 150 gallons of usable fuel.

Currently we are paying about $1.40 per gallon for Lp.

Dave

[cmturner]

How often do you guys have to fill up? Which surely your burner is going to burn more than mine, mine is a small water cannon hot box, rated up to 6gpm. Looking at this page here http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_size_..._are_available

I am thinking my tanks are only 30lb tanks, so I guess I only have about 7 gallons in them. So that means from my current vendor I am giving about 4.50 a gallon for propane. I got to check around for some better pricing and a bigger tank.

[Jim@GarageCleaning]

Try 3.40 here in Cali. a gallon. I do not like propane. To many possible issues. We have equipment that we rent that has propane and it seems to use more of the fuel than when we rent the same equipment but with diesel. Plus there are no vapor locks and diesel is way cheaper here in California then propane.

There are benefits to propane, allot less exhaust pollutants. Burns very clean for the environment and your boilers. Burns hotter as well. Also will explode easier then diesel when in an accident.

One side ... its cleaner and a hotter burn

The other side... It harder to find, pain to refill, explosive properties, more general issues and cost more, at least here in California, to run.

[Dave Olson]

Curtis - We use the most propane during the winter months. We pick up water just above 32 degrees F and then we try to make 180-200 degree water to clean with!
The boiler on that truck is rated at 980,000 Btu. We also run a space heater in the back of the truck and our Genset runs on Lp too. I suppose we use 6-8 gallons per hour depending on how hard we’re running.

We self fill our tanks at a local bulk service center for propane. This allows us to have access to Lp 24 hours per day. This facility is just 4 miles from my shop.

Jim - We have never had vapor loc problems that I’m aware of.

Dave Olson

[Ron Musgraves]

I try keeping it light.