Propane bottle repair?

Does anyone know of anywhere along the front range that can repair propane bottles? I have a mini bottle that needs new guts (the tip over valve is stuck, so I can't fill it or use it). It's a $70 bottle and there are no exchanges on the mini sizes. I'd love to get it back into service.

Google isn't turning much up, I'd assume it's going to be some old dude still tinkering or an RV shop, neither of which advertise their whole list of services on their (possibly non existent) websites.

I'd also entertain the idea of DIY repair but only if I don't have to buy a bunch of expensive special tools I don't have.

I don't have any specific places but try a welding shop that sells bottled gasses they can usually inspect and repair tanks.

You can have mine for 40$ if you pick it up in South Denver.

Would a welding shop have propane and propane accessories? Aceteline and stuff like that would definitely have different fittings than stuff from the camping section of Cabela's. Maybe they can order parts though.

Grant, PM me. I'm interested.

Check out AAA Propane Center in Wheatridge. I've worked with them in the past and have always come away impressed.

Ya a lot of welding supply places do. Propane is a fairly common fuel gass in cutting operations.

AAA just quoted me $55 to replace the valve....

nicelegs wrote:AAA just quoted me $55 to replace the valve....

Kai Huang wrote: $53 free shipping

Cool update to add.

I took it to AAA and they unjammed the float and filled it, all for the cost of a fill up. $5 and change.

What they told me was that places like uhaul and other filling stations that aren't special just crank the pressure to full. This causes the float to jam on the mini bottles. They don't have the experience to do it right, I'll be sure to supervise my propane fills from now on.

They also told me that most places have no clue as to the capacity of anything other than a 20# tank so they just open the overflow valve and fill till it squirts. This also causes problems and overfilling. My tank, the same as what Kai linked to above and I see lots of people camping with is labelled 11# and 12lbs water weight. This means that it takes 5lbs of propane, pumped in slowly.

Hopefully this is useful info to some of you with the same bottle.

Awesome! Glad to hear AAA worked out for you. Great business.

That's interesting about filling methodology, btw. I have a smaller tank, too, and I've honestly never seen anyone do anything but the "fill it 'til it squirts" method. What are they supposed to do? Measure the propane going in? What if your bottle isn't completely empty?

I learned a lot yesterday.

My bottle weighs 11 pounds empty. That means it weighs 16lbs full. The filling nozzle adds 2lbs. Using this info, it's pretty simple to fill it even if it's not empty.

They had a chart that showed capacity based on the numbers stamped on the side. I think the water weight was the critical number to know capacity from. I'm sure this can be looked up online for any size bottle.

This is why I take the 5# tank we use for camping to a propane dealer to fill it. I don't let gas stations and RV places touch it. Propane dealers aren't hard to find in most places.