Shnozzle - SAFEST Propane Refill Adapter for One Pound Tank Small Cylinders

1st time ever got into propane refilling. Was a bit concerned about the safety but it's not so bad after all. I'm getting a measured weight of 2 lbs 2 oz on the refill! What you have to do is make it a huge temp contrast between the two sources. The 1 lb canister should be frozen. The 20 lbs tank should be refilled during sunny warm days. 60-80 F is a good temp range to work. If you're in 30-40s, likely it'll be 50% due to the small difference in temp. Ambient outdoor temp is very important for it to work naturally. Flip the tank over. Open the valve. Let the process go for 2-3 hours in warm weather (65-75 F). It'll fill up and automatically shut off. For me anything less than 1 hour I'm getting it half way fill. Others I read here left it for 24 hours. I don't think it's necessary to sit it that long. I didn't have to modify any pressure release valve. When all done flip the tank to the normal position. Shut off the valve. Slowly unscrew the 1 lb canister. If you slowly do it, glove is not necessary although I will get one just to be safe. I unscrew the 1 lb canister at the far back end. All of the short bursts with audible hiss noise of gas pressures are at the front. Whola! A filled 2 lbs canister that would cost you at least $3. I'd do all of the refills at home and don't have to worry about setting it up at your remote location. Buying about 5-10 cans is good start. I don't know how many refills I can do per canister. I'll probably won't go after 20 refills. After that, it'll be retired. Performance wise I don't see anything different than what I got it at the store brand new. A fully refilled can lasts just as long as the new one. Propane is propane. No variations that I'm aware of. More real world experiences to come. So far so good UPDATE Nov 30: I was too lazy to remove the tank and left it overnight with about 50 F. Next morning only have a half way fill. This tells me that the temperature difference between the two MUST be substantial in order to get a full refill. With that in mind, if you have sun shining on to your propane tank and a just taken out of the freezer bottle, it will work. The propane seems to automatically equalize back and forth if both sources' temp are about the same. Will test to see if I only have 1/4 left on the tank and it will still give me full filling. The theory is that the pressure is too little with 1/4.. DEC 15 update: Tried on 11 lb/2.5g tank and it didn't work. So it has to be at least a 20 lb tank due to to the high pressure. I also noticed that the 20 lb tank has to be filled up and used only about 2 gallons out of the 5. After 2 gallons consumed, there seems not enough pressure and the refill doesn't work. There are 3 limitations to this: temp difference, tank has to be always full to about 35% depletion, freezing in the freezer. Otherwise waste $6 for 2 gallons of disposable cans.

I found an easy and surefire way to get a 100% refill every time and without the rigamarole everyone says is absolutely necessary: Leave the bottle attached to the tank for 24 hours. I learned this by accident, of course. I had tried a number of times to refill 1 lb. bottles from a 20 lb. tank using this adapter, following all instructions religiously – evacuate the bottles, freeze them for at least two hours, attach to a full, inverted tank for anywhere from 20 minutes up to two hours – and never got better than a one-third fill, often less. It was quite frustrating, and I was about to give this thing a 1-star review. Then I put on a bottle one evening, got distracted and forgot about it. I noticed it was still on there the next evening, and it weighed in at 2.25 pounds. I thought it probably had been full for awhile, so I left the next one on for just 12 hours. It got only about 75% full. So I just decided 24 hours was easy enough. Decided to try it without either evacuating or freezing the bottle first, and it was fine – full in 24 hours. I have 6 bottles, and if I keep them all filled, I can't imagine ever needing to do a refill in less time. As long as you do this in a safe place and secure the tank so it won't get knocked over while you're not watching it, I also don't see any downside.

Every time I pitched one of those little green tanks it pained me . . . it just seems like such a waste . . . and it was. The Shnozzle was the perfect solution and it works like a charm. Well constructed and the safety feature is explained in the documentation that comes with the device. Follow the steps and you'll have nicely refilled 1lb propane tanks where you used to just have garbage. Couple tips . . . (1) Empty your 1lb tank completely by screwing the Shnozzle onto the tank all by itself. This will open the valve on the tank and let the air and any remaining propane to escape. This way you'll have an empty tank with room for your refill. I've seen suggestions to jam a needle nose pliers into the valve to release air and extra propane, but why not use a device that was intended to open that valve(less chance of damage). (2). Get the green tank COLD and the big tank room temp to allow for a better fill. Since my purchase I've had the chance to see some other versions of these propane refill adapters and none seems as nice or as well build as the Shnozzle. Even adapters built by big name companies don't come close to the quality. If you are in the market to refill your 1lb propane canisters, buy a Shnozzle . . . you'll be glad you did.

Update: Have now used this for months. Has saved me a bunch of $$. But- you must drill out the check valve in it. You'll see why when you use it as it comes originally. They have to put this in it to sell it, but it simply doesn't work. Get rid of the check valve and it will fill a tank in 30 seconds.Great idea. I should have ordered one of these years ago. This will easily save me its cost in short order. I have filled one bottle so far, and was only able to get it about 50% full, but that still is ok with me. Better than buying new all the time. My problem may have been that you have to let any remaining propane out of the bottle before refilling, and I may have left it draining too long which allowed air to enter the bottle. I do know that all propane bottles are initially supposed to have a vacuum in them or have a vacuum pulled on them. But I still like this product. I will probably be able to improve my results over time. Update: after two months, I had trouble with the check valve. Drill it out and make it a flow through. It now fills the 1 lb. tanks in 30 seconds!