How To Refill Gas Cooking Cylinder Accurately
Liquefied natural gas like methane had been the major cooking fuel for the majority of households.
Though it has the disadvantage of higher safety precautions in its handling, cooking with gas has many advantages which include; faster cooking, no black smoke stain, burning control, and reduction of electric power bills in places using digitally pre-paid electric meters, etc.
Liquefied natural gas is volatile and has considerable pressure inbuilt in its molecules when contained in a vacuum.
To make use of the gas for cooking, steel pressed and welded cylinders are used to compress it into various volumes according to the size of each cylinder.
The volume of the gas in each cylinder determines how long it would last while using it for cooking. Based on the research I made, filling a 1kg cylinder of cooking gas would cost between N1500 to N2000 depending on the dealers’ competition.
Occasionally, some petroleum filling stations like the NNPC do sell cooking gas as well, but there are special cooking gas refilling stations that are meant for the refilling of the cooking gas only.
Such stations do have the liquefied natural plant built in them with an accurate kilogram measuring instruments to ensure accuracy during their selling.
Besides the two places mentioned above, cooking dealers can also be located on streets and expressway stores.
This category of dealers can be found where there is no cooking gas and petrol filling station, and/or the cooking gas refilling plant within the area.
This last option offers lots of disadvantages and would not be advisable for a place where the gas plant filling station is available.
HOW TO KNOW THAT THE COOKING GAS IN A CYLINDER IS ABOUT TO FINISH
Understanding the sign will help you prepare for refill and budget the stipulated amount of money for your cylinder kilogram.
One of the major signs of a depreciated cooking gas volume is the change of color in the cooking flame.
After filling a steel cylinder with cooking gas, there would be a considerable volatile pressure which can be felt and heard once the knob of the cylinder is used to allow the gas to escape from the cylinder.
Due to that pressure, the initial cooking flame found on the gas cooker is blue and it will remain blueish for a considerable duration of time until the volume of the gas in the cylinder has gone down which will result in the reduced pressure of the flame.
At that stage of reduced pressure, the cooking flame will start showing the yellowish flame of a normal burning fire.
Though the severity of the color change is proportional to the drop in the volume of the cooking gas in the cylinder, some with inaccurate pressurized cooking gas may finish just a few days after showing little sign of yellowish flame.
Meanwhile, a properly filling gas cylinder will show a yellowish flame for a good number of days, or weeks until it consumes the last cooking gas in the cylinder.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR COOKING GAS LAST LONGER
It is important to know how you can use your gas properly to maximize its use and save you the cost of wastage. The cooking gas in a cylinder is a pressure-based liquefied gas, hence it works mostly on the pressure principle.
To make the cooking gas last longer, learn how to control the gas cooker knob for any size of cooking flame you want.
The lock and open control key located on the top of the cylinder shouldn’t be opened completely if the knob of your gas cooker is faulty or cannot give you the low flame you want.
The flame for cooking food like rice, beans, etc. is different from the flame used in frying potatoes, yam, fish, etc. hence, economizing the cooking gas means using the right flame for the right cooking. The idea will not only save your gas, but it will reduce the risk of food burning and fire accidents also when used.
Another way you can economize your cooking gas is to avoid being in a hurry when using the gas for cooking, my research showed that when food like beans is used on a gas cooker with considerable low pressurized flame it allows the beans to soften properly as it boils slowly and the total volume of gas consumed in cooking the beans is small though it took a long time in the cooking process.
Cooking the same quantity of beans with a highly-pressurized cooking flame will help it soften fast within a short time, but it does not soften properly and the process consumes more cooking gas than the initial even though the cooking was done within a short time.
If you are living where electric bills are not regulated by meters, using an electric cooking stove can be a good way of saving the cooking gas to last longer by using the electric stove whenever there is an electric supply for cooking foods that take time as the beans and rice while using the gas cooker only when there is no electricity supply.
SAFETY PRECAUTIONS WHEN USING COOKING GAS WITH A GAS COOKER
Safety remains the major issue in the use of gas for cooking. As a volatile liquid, the natural gas tends to diffuse into the air unnoticed when it sees any available space for escape. About 40% of all household fire accidents across the globe can be attributed to the unsafe use of natural gas for cooking.
SAFETY TIPS IN HANDLING COOKING GAS CYLINDER
Improper handling of a cooking gas cylinder and its uncontrolled ignition can burn down a full building destroying everything in it including the occupants. For the sake of safety, I have highlighted these few tips as few safety measures to be employed when using the natural gas for cooking:
- A standard kitchen using a gas cooker should have a fire extinguisher of at least 1 kg size and hang on a wall which should be visible to anyone in the kitchen.
- The gas cylinder should not be kept in the kitchen rather it should be kept outside the building preferably at the back of the kitchen.
- The gas cylinder will be connected to the gas cooker using a suitable hose, but if a metallic tube-like copper is available it will offer the best safety than the popular rubber hose.
- The hose should be anchored on any building wall it passes but shouldn’t be close to the building ceiling or roofs.
- Where it needs to pass on the floor, the hose should be buried in the ground until it reaches where the gas cylinder is located.
- The fixing of the hose to the gas cylinder should be tested for any trace of leakage to ensure it does not leak any gas from the cylinder when locked or opened for cooking.
- The fixing of the other end of the hose to the gas cooker should also be tested for any trace of leakage to ensure no gas coming from the hose escapes into the atmosphere during the use of the gas cooker and when it’s knob has turned the gas cooker off.
- The gas cylinder should always have a red color painting to signify its danger and potential for a fire outbreak. In the case where other colors were used to paint the gas cylinder, a sticker or written sign should notify its body that it is a gas cylinder and should be touched unnecessarily.
- Children should not be allowed to play in any kitchen that has a gas cooker, and the place at the back of the kitchen where the gas cylinder had been kept.
- Having a gas tester in a standard and busy kitchen like that of a hotel can be very helpful to help access the kitchen atmosphere of any possible gas leakage within the kitchen before igniting the gas cooker for cooking. Otherwise, an atmosphere filled with leaked liquefied natural gas has the tendency to fire outbreak when the lighter is ignited or the automatic ignition ion of the gas cooker is turned on.
- It is advisable to open the kitchen windows and door and allow ventilation for some time like 30 minutes before igniting the gas cooker if you suspect the presence of leaked cooking gas in the kitchen. However, if you adopt the method as a measure of safety by opening the windows and door for some time whenever you want to cook with the gas cooker, it will be great.
HOW TO ENSURE YOUR GAS CYLINDER GETS REFILLED PROPERLY WHEN THE GAS HAD FINISHED
Because the cooking gas in the cylinder is controlled by the gas pressure, ensure that no pressure remains in the cylinder when the gas in the cylinder is finished. To achieve that, open the lock key of the cylinder and leave it open until when you want to take the cylinder to the refilling station.
This practice allows the whole pressure left in the gas cylinder to escape making the pressure in the cylinder balance with the normal atmospheric pressure.
To ensure you get an accurate volume of gas in the cylinder to make the refill with gas plant filling stations because they have a gas pumping mechanism in the form of compressors to force the required volume of the cooking gas into the cylinder.
Refilling the gas cylinder with those dealers using already refilled cylinders wouldn’t give accurate volume since their system works with a pressure differential.
This is because a hose from an already filled gas cylinder will be connected to yours and the gas will be made to move to your own cylinder conventionally without any force.
It means that the moment the pressure in the supplying cylinder balances with yours, the gas will stop moving into your cylinder no matter how long you allow the connections to stay. Besides that, a considerable volume of gas does leak in that process than in the gas filling stations.
WHY GAS CYLINDERS ARE NOT PLASTIC (advantages and disadvantages)
The reason cooking gas cylinders are mostly made of iron and steel is based on safety. The metals mentioned have greater toughness and fatigue resistance than plastic and they are fire-resistant.
Though they are higher conductors of heat which are not needed for gas transportation, their positive properties outweigh the negative in that regard.
Any gas cylinder made of plastic is usually manufactured with a special plastic material like the thermoset plastics and they usually have a good wall thickness.
Such a cylinder may offer the advantage of allowing the user to visually see the volume of the gas in the cylinder and use it to predict when it would finish.
An excellent blog to know how to refill cooking gas effectively. Thanks for sharing the informative post.
Thank you for explaining that the reason behind gas cylinders being made of metal is because it is sturdier. I can’t imagine what would happen if a gas cylinder exploded because ot was mac out of a bad material! My sister has a couple of propane tanks that she doesn’t need, I will send this to her so she can know more about them and maybe how to get rid of them.
Thank you, Sandra
Please can I refill my gas cylinder when it still has gas left in it? Thank you.
Yes, you can.
However, you need to do it at gas filling station for safety and use of proper measuring system that ensures you are not cheated.