[crtrucker]

On our farm we don’t have natural gas on location and it isn’t a option either, I heat my double car garage with a “mr. heater” propane hanging heater which when installed I got a 100gal “pig” put in to use.
My question is can I use a 1000 gal dryer tank instead?
I have a 1000 gal full in yard and don’t own a dryer anymore, the big tank only has valve at bottom of tank and my 100gal feeds garage off the top. Can anyone help me here? TIA

 

[Kybol]

Thats what we did before we put in a gas line. We did have to put a regulator on top the tank though, to get gas instead of liquid.

 

[Transaxial]

As you have stated most dryers need liquid draw which usually is off the bottom of 500 or 1000 gallon tanks. You will need vapor draw to run your garage heater which will be off the top of the 1000 gallon tank. I would be surprised if your 1000 gal does not have a vapor outlet at the top. There must be a filling valve on the top of your tank? I have an old 500 that has a special valve and thread that the propane truck uses to fill the tank and I can draw liquid off that setup if I have the same connector. That setup has a valve inside the tank and the stem on the attachment screws down to push the valve in the tank open. But that tank still has another valve and port for vapor on top that is for brass JIC style fittings. Just crack open some valves and if you get vapor you are good.

 

[Transaxial]

Yes through a regulator.

 

[Northern Farmer]

I would be surprised too if you don't have a fitting that is designed to draw vapor for the typical operation of most heaters. I know my old 1000 gal tank has this funky tree fitting under the steel dome lid and it incorporates the propane trucks fill valve port and also the vapor withdrawl port with a shut off tap for the lines that ran to the house/garage ( and another mystery funky tap I don't touch also on that tree ! ). This tank also has a bottom tap which was used for running a dryer at one time but now I use it to fill 20 lb bottles that have the 85% valve to cause the pressure differential to fill them.

 

[crtrucker]

Just looked under the steel lid and I got a branch type thing with three knobs on it , if I loosen the mid sized one I can hear vapour coming out,(I didn’t open long or much), if I open big one that sits on top i can hear it banging around inside the tank but there is a reducer and a plug attached to that one so nothing comes out. The smallest valve turns also but nothing sounds or comes out anddont know where it might??

I’ll try put pictures up yet also, maybe someone can help me out.

 

[marshall]

Just looked under the steel lid and I got a branch type thing with three knobs on it , if I loosen the mid sized one I can hear vapour coming out,(I didn’t open long or much), if I open big one that sits on top i can hear it banging around inside the tank but there is a reducer and a plug attached to that one so nothing comes out. The smallest valve turns also but nothing sounds or comes out anddont know where it might??

I’ll try put pictures up yet also, maybe someone can help me out.

The one on the side of the tree is the one that you want . You would use a old style propane fitting ( you know the left hand threads ) to hook up . The other thing is that you need a pressure regulator to cut the pressure down as full tank pressure on a long hose will cause the propane to condense out and you will get all kinds of guck coming out after a while . Usually have the pressure at around 20psi . You don't have to move the tank as you can easily run 100 or more feet of hose easily especially to a small mr heater . The small tap is a bleed tap that the propane filler will open when filling the tank and will spit liquid propane out when the tank is full even if the gauge doesn't work .

 

[Northern Farmer]

That is what I suspected would be on your tank, that mult port valve with various functions although looks slightly different from what I have with that plugged off pipe fitting cap plug. The more steep angled tap I think is meant to shut in the whole valve to repair other valves but get more informed information then my guess on that. But if I am right about that, turning that valve unknowingly could shut off the flow to the vapor tap and fill tap "I think".

The valve you said had the hissing sound when you cracked it open, is it the one in the lower photo to the right and has the open threaded port ( and yes most likely its left hand thread ) as that looks to be the correct valve for connecting onto for vapor service. And like marshall said, you would require the proper pressure regulator right off of that valve before the line that you would run over to your garage. Depending on the tanks distance to the garage and if not an area you drive, you certainly could just lay down a temporary line for the winter but ultimately burying a line in the summer.

That small knurled knob with the small hole next to it, that is the liquid fill height indicator as a small tube runs down into the tank to the ... I think its 85% of total volume level, and when the propane is delivered that is how they tell when they have reached the maximum allowable fill level as liquid propane will spit out of that port, just like an NH3 tank being filled and using the same concept.