How to tell if your propane tank is expired

How long are propane tanks good for?

Propane tanks are incredibly resilient, built to safely contain liquid propane gas stored under pressure while also standing up to extreme weather and elements. But even the sturdiest tank has a shelf life, and as such must be periodically reviewed and inspected. A propane tank is good for 12 years from the date of manufacture. A recertified tank is good for 5 years from the date of certification.

How to tell if your propane tank is expired.

The easiest way is to inspect the collar or handle area of your propane tank. This won’t give you a direct answer to the question “when do propane tanks expire?” but it will tell you when the tank was manufactured or last certified. Then you will be able to figure out if it is expired.

How to read the markings on a propane tank.

Near the handle, you will find a series of stamped markings. These provide important information about your tank’s origination and capacity rating. A date should appear on the handle, near the valve indicating the manufacture date. It most often reads in a standard Month-Year format. So if your tank was built in June of 2020, it would read “06-20.” Then you add 12 years to that date to see if it is expired or not.

If it is expired, look around the collar some more to see if you see a marking with the same month-year format with an E after it. It would look like this “06-20E” This would indicate that the tank was recertified on this date, meaning it is good for 5 years after this date.

Additional Propane Tank Markings.

Additional markings indicate the empty weight of the cylinder, listed as “TW.” This is helpful if you want to weigh the tank to gauge how much propane is left available for use. The stamp “WC” indicates the water storage capacity, which helps dealers know the precise amount of propane that can be safely stored inside the tank.

How to know how much gas is in your tank?

The best way to figure out how much gas is in your propane tank is to weigh it. Find the marking on your tank that starts with TW. This will tell you the weight of your tank empty. Then weigh your tank and subtract your empty tank weight by the weight of your tank currently to figure out how many lbs are left in your tank. A typical 20lb propane tank that is used for grilling will weigh 17lbs empty and they hold 20lbs of gas, so a filled grill tank will weigh 37lbs. So if you weigh your tank and it is reading 27lbs, that means there is 10lbs of gas left which is 50%.