Is mapp cannister empty?

2tumblingdragonz · #1 2011-03-04, 10:43am

Hi,

The flame goes out. I shake the can. All I hear is the tiny bead or whatever rattles around in there. But I still smell gas.
So I take it outside attach torch and open valve. And it hisses and hisses and hisses and hisses, smells like gas but is it? Torch won't light. Can doesn't seem to be empty. Is it gas or accelerant or odor stuff? How do I know? If it's hissing does it still have gas?

How do I know? I want to be as safe as possilbe.

Is it ok to leave the can outside, upstairs on the deck propped up in an empty clay flowerpot with the torch valve open while I go back inside? Or do I have to stand there holding this yellow can trying to be discreet?

Namaste
Rowyn

jaci · #2 2011-03-04, 10:50am

It is not empty. You may not have enough pressure to light it with your HH, but it is not empty. You might get a bit more out of it if you let it warm up a bit, and go back to torching. Why are you trying to exhaust the gas from it anyways? Just unscrew the torch. Less work.

2tumblingdragonz · #3 2011-03-04, 10:57am

Thanks Jaci

I noticed a smell after I unscrewed the torch. Put it outside overnight and still had a smell. When I had the can that was defective someone said to attach torch and let it empty. I called bernzomatic and they said what you said, not enough gas to light torch but still some in there. then it happened last night with a worthington can. so I have 2 now that won't seem to empty and won't light my torch and they're both cool or warm--sat overnight....

We don't have hazmat recycling here until 3/26, so I have to drive about 45 minutes with, at this point 8 empty cannisters. I want to make sure they are empty and not leaking.

I should have been more specific...

Angel Blessings
Rowyn

jaci · #4 2011-03-04, 11:35am

The HH does need a bit of pressure. I hated using the little bottles! They never gave me enough torching time!!!! You should be able to just store them outside in a box with no troubles. By the time you have to put them in your car to return them there should not be anything left to leak out if they were outside. The expansion of gasses great enough to cause a leak if traveling in your car would have to occur in an almost full bottle of gas. There is almost no way that would happen to an almost empty bottle without it having a defect, and again, that is what the box on the porch is for. You will smell the 'gas' sometimes when a bottle has exhausted. What you are smelling is not actually the gas, but the additive they add so that you smell it. If you sniff the top of the bottle or your hook ups you will smell it. It lingers a bit more than the gas itself, and can actually stick onto some surfaces for quite a while.

I switched to a bulk 7# tank of MAPP and then Propylene and was VERY VERY happy. I could literally torch for 6-8 hours at a time with no worries. The tank usually lasted me about a month. It had a deposit on the tank, but then was about $30-40 to re-fill/switch out. Check out a local welding supply store to find out more info on the gas costs. It saved me a bunch of money, and time going bulk. (on a long (30 min) summer drive home from the fill up store, I actually packed it in a cooler with ice one time, to keep the expanding gasses from leaking out the safety release valve into my car!!!!)