Propane Barbeque grill dos and donts

[JRobyn]

Not sure if this should go in the Safety Forum or in some other sub-forum appropriate for Darwin Award nominees.

Florida couple transporting grill injured after SUV explodes when woman lights cigarette | Fox News

 

[dragoneggs]

Wow! Surprised they weren't killed.

 

[/pine]

More like DON'T procreate...!

 

[cqaigy2]

More like DON'T procreate...!

Please. :thumbsup:

 

[k0ua]

You have to wonder why the grill was "turned on". Inside the car? This doesn't make much sense. I would have had reservations about transporting the propane bottle inside of the car to start with. I always transport them in the back of my pickup truck in a milk carton carrier strapped down. But if an enclosed vehicle is all you have, then test for leaks before you put it in the car. When you put a bomb in a car, try to make sure it is as safe as you can make it.

I bet it was one heck of a bang inside that car. huh?, what did you say?:shocked:

 

[dragoneggs]

I do leave my propane tank turned on when hooked up to my BBQ and outdoor heaters. But when transporting... the tank would be disconnected and valve tightened. :confused3:

 

[RNeumann]

Sad Story and easy to do. I feel for moms, dads, sons and daughters of the folks injured in this freak accident.

The most unlucky part of this story is the extremely narrow flammable range of propane. In other words. slightly less or more leak and nothing would have happened.

 

[rd_macgregor]

So, what is all the white stuff inside the SUV? It almost looks like foam.
I always knew smoking was hazardous...

 

[coolreinfarm]

Airbags

 

[plowhog]

I've flown single engine aircraft in Alaska over "sparsely settled areas." FAA regulations require you to carry a firearm and two weeks worth of food if you do that. They want you alive at the end of the search lol.

Climbing above 10,000 feet to avoid some weather, all of a sudden the tops to all the sterno cooking cans popped off, filling the aircraft with the strong smell of fuel. Yikes. We opened windows and I didn't turn any electrical switches on or off before landing. Later in my flying career I would have two different planes catch on fire while I was the pilot, fortunately, that one did not.

 

[Wakey]

Always Floriduh.

 

[/pine]

Always Floriduh.

Most likely one of the millions of idiot yankees that moved south out of the armpit north...

 

[CincyFlyer]

I do leave my propane tank turned on when hooked up to my BBQ and outdoor heaters. But when transporting... the tank would be disconnected and valve tightened. :confused3:

I turn mine off every time, ever since a rodent chewed through the hose and wasted fifteen bucks worth of propane! I hope he froze his face off ...

 

[CincyFlyer]

Florida is very populous, and very diverse, so you'll always get a lot so stories from there. But we have our share of idiots here in the Buckeye State, as well ...

 

[dragoneggs]

I turn mine off every time, ever since a rodent chewed through the hose and wasted fifteen bucks worth of propane! I hope he froze his face off ...

You know that same thing did happen to my propane weed burner hose last winter. Do rodents like the smell of propane?

 

[Gary Fowler]

I think everyone knows that it is illegal to transport propane tanks inside of a car (suv) or any enclosed vehicle but they do it anyway mainly because not everyone has a truck and who wants to wrestle a 30# tank up to the top of their $75K SUV and scratch up the paint. I suppose if all you have is a car or SUV and want to haul propane tanks, buy yourself one of the trailer hitch cargo carriers to transport your gasoline and propane tanks from the store to home. It would work for transporting a BBQ pit also. Much cheaper than risking an explosion.

 

[JRobyn]

I'm guessing that it was one of the small portable grills that run on a 1lb. propane "camping" cylinder. Would have been MUCH worse if it was a 30lb!

 

[mapper]

No sense of smell? You can smell the stuff that they put into propane at levels way way lower than it will ignite at.
Gee honey I smell propane, let me light a cigarette to cover it up.....

 

[CincyFlyer]

I think everyone knows that it is illegal to transport propane tanks inside of a car (suv) or any enclosed vehicle but they do it anyway mainly because not everyone has a truck and who wants to wrestle a 30# tank up to the top of their $75K SUV and scratch up the paint. I suppose if all you have is a car or SUV and want to haul propane tanks, buy yourself one of the trailer hitch cargo carriers to transport your gasoline and propane tanks from the store to home. It would work for transporting a BBQ pit also. Much cheaper than risking an explosion.

It is not illegal to transport propane cylinders inside of a closed private passenger vehicle, within NFPA limits for private use. (Commercial transport is a whole other animal, with DOT rules, etc.) So when I grab a couple of 18-pounders and toss them in the Flex (well, stand them upright in the area behind the seat, wedged in with a cooler) I'm good to go. You can get four or five in your vehicle before hitting the NFPA limit (which also requires that upright transport, and a few other things. Look it up.)
Note that the gasoline in the plastic fuel tank is the real big nasty thing you are hauling about!

 

[k0ua]

No sense of smell? You can smell the stuff that they put into propane at levels way way lower than it will ignite at.
Gee honey I smell propane, let me light a cigarette to cover it up.....

Yeah that Ethyl Mercaptan is pretty powerful stuff. And that response to smoke a cigarette is even more powerful. It overrides all good sense. Nicotine addiction is at least as powerful as Heroin addiction.