The only thing I have on my propane tank is tankless water heaters, therefore my usage is really low.

So, in order to keep it in my mind - and to prevent running out at a bad time - I set a reminder on my phone quarterly to check the gauge. I'd recommend you do the same until you get a feel for it.

Good luck on the new place!

Old RV Ag said:

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dr_boogs said:

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Not sure if it was your intent, but your reply reads a little bit condescending, particularly for a rookie. OP asked for some input, if you don't have anything constructive for him, no need to disparage. That's not the typical culture of this board.

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And yes I am a rookie on this place. But, I'm sure I'm older than almost everyone on here. Never posted on places like this. Heck, I don't even do email really. My apologies again if my tone is not calibrated yet. My 14 year old granddaughter is the one who taught me to post. Have just read for several years. I do like reading the content y'all post over here.

Now she has shown me how to edit a post. And she says to tell y'all that my cell phone is a flip phone and not a smart phone.

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Tell your grandaughter that at least one poster laughed.

This exchange was actually a great example of MOBGA, and how the board here self-moderates. A post that doesn't really fit was called out in a respectful way, and the poster didn't get butthurt by the response.

Now, since you're a new old fart around here, we all need to know what color sunglasses you wear fishing.

Hodor said:

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Old RV Ag said:

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dr_boogs said:

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Not sure if it was your intent, but your reply reads a little bit condescending, particularly for a rookie. OP asked for some input, if you don't have anything constructive for him, no need to disparage. That's not the typical culture of this board.

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And yes I am a rookie on this place. But, I'm sure I'm older than almost everyone on here. Never posted on places like this. Heck, I don't even do email really. My apologies again if my tone is not calibrated yet. My 14 year old granddaughter is the one who taught me to post. Have just read for several years. I do like reading the content y'all post over here.

Now she has shown me how to edit a post. And she says to tell y'all that my cell phone is a flip phone and not a smart phone.

---

Tell your grandaughter that at least one poster laughed.

This exchange was actually a great example of MOBGA, and how the board here self-moderates. A post that doesn't really fit was called out in a respectful way, and the poster didn't get butthurt by the response.

Now, since you're a new old fart around here, we all need to know what color sunglasses you wear fishing.

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I will tell her. She will get a kick out of it. For my sunglasses I'm not really into fishing as I don't have the patience for it and the good places are too far away. I live in a rural ranching area but fishing is a couple hours away. I still work full time with my business which is in agriculture even though I'm long long past retirement age. I do wear sunglasses all the time. Even indoors I wear dark ones as I've always been sensitive to glare so I look like an old country man who wears glasses like a mobster. It's good for napping on a lazy Sunday afternoon because lots of folks keep the conversation going even though I'm taking a siesta.

We have a 250 gallon tank on the community cabin at our deer lease. It gets turned off every time we leave so this may not exactly be a good indicator. We have people using the cabin (2 dearborn heaters, stove and hot water) just about every weekend in deer season and probably 10 times in the off season. That lasts us about 3 years.

You will likely just have to monitor it for a while to see your usage. I would guess you would get a solid 2-3 years out of it. Just make sure you get it filled at 25% or so. If you get it too empty they will have to test it before they will fill it up.

heater set on 60 seems too high to me. I would lower it to 50.

Old RV Ag said:

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dr_boogs said:

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Not sure if it was your intent, but your reply reads a little bit condescending, particularly for a rookie. OP asked for some input, if you don't have anything constructive for him, no need to disparage. That's not the typical culture of this board.

---

And yes I am a rookie on this place. But, I'm sure I'm older than almost everyone on here. Never posted on places like this. Heck, I don't even do email really. My apologies again if my tone is not calibrated yet. My 14 year old granddaughter is the one who taught me to post. Have just read for several years. I do like reading the content y'all post over here.

Now she has shown me how to edit a post. And she says to tell y'all that my cell phone is a flip phone and not a smart phone.

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Well you were welcomed to the OB in the "traditional" pitchfork fashion and survived.

LOL at the flip phone, I was just giving someone grieve about still having their pager number from 20 years ago in my contacts.

SPF250 said:

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For general propane knowledge, they never fill the tanks up all the way to allow for expansion of the gas. It's a safety thing.

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80% of tank plate capacity.

The OP should be able,to go 2 years at least on that tank with that useage, probably more.

I have a 200 gallon tank, 3000-ish SF house, water heater, stove and furnace are propane. Me and 3 females, it gets filled 2x per year on average. Like everybody else, we use a lot,more in the winter than any other time of the year. Dec-Feb is usually about a tank, the rest,of the year is a tank.

KenAg06 said:

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We have a 250 gallon tank on the community cabin at our deer lease. It gets turned off every time we leave so this may not exactly be a good indicator. We have people using the cabin (2 dearborn heaters, stove and hot water) just about every weekend in deer season and probably 10 times in the off season. That lasts us about 3 years.

You will likely just have to monitor it for a while to see your usage. I would guess you would get a solid 2-3 years out of it. Just make sure you get it filled at 25% or so. If you get it too empty they will have to test it before they will fill it up.

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Turning it off is a good idea in case it develops a leak.

I had one develop a leak once and it emptied out the entire tank in a few days.

Edit: After thinking about it, that was probably butane rather than propane. Of course it could happen with either.

Breezed through the comments. Not sure if I missed this. Fill it up again in one year and at least have an idea about 1 year of usage. Not completely scientific. I think your 400 gallons will last quite a while and as someone else noted, you have the opportunity to watch prices and top off when prices are low.

So are we taking guesses like the African death pool?

OP, what do we get if we win?

4 years 7 months 26 days from your fillup date

Somewhat related story that I think is funny, since OP now knows that he should be set for a good while...

I lived on the east coast for a year after undergrad, in an apartment a dude had built above his garage, which was on an alley. Had a "letter address" (fight club reference), like "#### A Whatever St." Anyway, since it was in an summertime beach community this cheap apartment only had a gas insert type fireplace in the living room for heat. There was a 200 gallon upright propane cylinder outside that was not hooked up and the owner said wasn't his and he had no idea how much gas was in it, and said the utility company had come and unhooked it years ago. Some mornings you could see that it was about 2/3 full. So come winter I have a cold apartment and a fireplace insert connected to a copper line that went down the side of the garage and stopped riiiiight next to the valve on a bottle that has about 130 pounds of wonderful warmth in it, but I'm not exactly sure why it isn't connected. A little time on the phone with the company whose name is on the bottle tells me that they have no idea this bottle is there (main house address or "A" address), they don't care, but they would be happy to rent me a bottle for (what seemed to me at the time) some ungodly amount of money. That was plan A. Procrastinating and broke little ol me came home from work one night dreading the thought of another night huddled by my space heater, and came up with plan B: go to Home Depot and buy a whole pile of fittings and some pipe dope, and hook up my gas. I found a combination of fittings that worked, turned on the bottle and went upstairs and started sniffing. Sniffed sniffed sniffed until I couldn't stand it any more (5 minutes at least), and turned on the valve at the fireplace insert. Kept a lighter on it until it caught and stayed lit, then turned the gas off and sniffed sniffed sniffed again to see if I could smell a leak. Nothing. Went outside and sniffed...nothing. Went back upstairs and cranked that fire up, then stayed toasty warm the rest of the winter for free!