Refilling the small green propane bottles

Propane Transfer Value – This is a small brass value that allows you to transfer propane from your larger 10-20 lb tank to those small green one pound bottles that fit the grill.   It means that you don’t have to carry a bunch of these small bottles to last you for the entire cruise. You can buy a few full ones to start you off, or, go buy any campground on Sunday afternoon and check the dumpster area for freshly used ones. I hunt for the ones that have the plastic bases.

I grill a lot, and the small green propane bottle last me for several weeks each. So this would be a smart thing to buy if you are going out for longer than a month or two. You would also be hard pressed to find these little propane bottle outside of the USA.

Yes, I know you can run a hose from a large propane tank to the grill. But sometimes this idea isn’t best for your particular layout. I like to use everything out of just one propane tank, that way I know that my spare tank is always full. On my boat, because of where the grill is, I’d have to use the spare tank, or run a hose to the far side of the boat. In addition, carrying several of the small bottles gives you and extra couple of months of grilling gas.

The way these work is you put the empty bottle in your refrigerator and get it cold. Then connect it to your larger propane tank, and turn it upside down. Let it run down in the small bottle for several minutes. Then disconnect, and you can feel the propane in the small bottle.

Some of the small bottles have a label on them that says not to refill these. I’ve been doing it for years myself, and never had an issue. I don’t know if there is a danger, or if they just want to sell you more bottles.

Here is the best deal on the value.

Note Added Oct 23; This is from Gary on his Catalina 350 “Best of Times” who sails out of Clearwater, Florida.

For those of us on shorter cruise schedules that don’t carry a spare big tank, another issue is running out of propane in the ‘big’ tank. That happened to us once. I’m not sure if we accidentally left it on and it leaked out, or if we didn’t check the capacity before we left. (using the Luggage scale you talk about) But the bottom line is that after a few phone calls, it took us nearly 3 days to get the tank refilled.
There is an ‘adapter’ that I think addresses this problem. I believe what you need is a CAMPCO #59213 I haven’t done this yet, but I believe you simply screw this onto a 1 lb bottle, then screw the boat propane system regulator onto the adapter. That should give you 1 lb of propane to use below deck until you can get to someplace where you can get the big tank refilled. It’s on my Christmas list, along with your ‘adapter’.