Can propane freeze or stop flowing in very cold weather?
Mills River's rural, large-lot homes mostly run on propane, and the reassuring part is that propane never freezes at any temperature this valley reaches. It can stop flowing, though — and in Mills River the fastest version of that isn't the house tank, it's the small cylinder on an outdoor fire pit, which frosts and loses pressure much sooner in the cold.
Small cylinders frost first
This open valley is built for outdoor living, and a gas fire pit is a favorite here — but a 20-pound fire-pit cylinder has very little liquid surface to vaporize from, so on a cold evening it frosts over and the flame shrinks within an hour of hard use. That's normal physics, not a bad tank: the vapor is boiling off faster than the small cylinder can replace it. A larger tank or a hard-plumbed gas line to the pit solves it.
The house tank is a bigger buffer
Indoors, a properly sized tank — a 500-gallon buried or above-ground tank feeding the house — has plenty of liquid surface to keep up, even when a fireplace, furnace, and water heater pull at once. The homes that stall are the ones on a small tank drifting toward 20 percent. Keep it above 30 percent through winter and size it to the whole connected load.
Plan pits before entertaining season
We permit and hard-plumb gas fire pits and lines with Henderson County — licensed gas work a hardscaper legally can't finish — and late spring is the time to plan them, before the entertaining season. If a house flame weakens while the tank reads full, that's a regulator call for a licensed tech. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Mills River
We install and service fireplaces throughout Mills River and the rest of Henderson County — just 25 minutes south from our Asheville-area showroom.
Related questions
- Why does my propane fire pit tank frost over or lose pressure while burning?
- At what tank percentage should I schedule a propane refill?
- What should I do if there's a propane shortage during a cold snap?
- Can natural gas service be interrupted in extreme cold?
- What happens to my gas fireplace when the propane tank runs empty?