As many of you know I moved from Washington to Idaho. I went from close to sea level to 2850. I brought my 5 gallon propane tanks with me to idaho. Went to use the weed burner the kid gave me and it would not generate the flame the other one I have did. Wrote it off to bad valve. Bought a BBQ the other day and could not get it above 250 full on. So I Google pressure change in propane tank based on elevation, no issue comes up but I see a listing that says at sea level then add butane to save money and it does not affect the burn at sea level. At elevation it does not generate BTU's. Short answer I filled the tanks with local gas and the BBQ is at 550 in a few minutes. SO for those moving small tanks from low to higher elevations beware.
Strange , Im at 300' above but go up into the mountains with the bird. Cook my lunch off of a propane one burner back pack stove (Space and weight thing , can of beans and sandwich ) seems the same to me , 5500 feet ive done this , Sloth
The real difference is the composition of the Gas you are buying to fill your tank… By adding Butane, the Gas guys are selling you less BTUs for the same money.. At Sea Level there is not a lot of difference, but at mile high, those missing BTUs sure make there absents known.. Buy straight Propane and you will not have a problem, no matter what altitude you burn it at….
I did not know that propane and butane are sometimes blended for purposes of the seller's economy. Are there notices posted of such blending at the seller's tank pump similar to the 10% Ethanol notice at gasoline pumps and <20% Biodiesel notice at the diesel pumps? It's very likely that such a blend of butane with LP could cause reliability running problems with a 3-way RV refrigerator meant to burn LP, and might explain problems I had a year ago with the Norcold RV fridge we have. Good info & thanks for the heads up BTP.
