A month or so ago I got to an auction of a home building company. Among the things they did was apparently servicing their own HVAC systems in the houses they built. I presumed this by the hardware they were selling.

So at this sale I purchased a refrigerant bottle. It looks exactly like one of the 20# propane bottles that comes on your gas grill. Except the top 1/3 is painted yellow. It looks new. No dirt, no scrapes, no marks, no labels. I pick it up, feels empty. Don’t know what I’ll do with it, but if it goes cheap...

I get it for $5. I get it home and compare it to a propane bottle that I know is empty. This refrigerant bottle isn’t empty. Crack the valve, I get gas out. My sniffer is not educated.

How can I tell what I have?

What kind of value?

Thanks

There’s no markings on the tank?

Probably MAPP gas, usually gas bottles and tanks are color coded.
Yellow means MAPP, like a safer acetylene.

Sounds like a recovery tank for refrigerant. Should have 2 valves, one for vapor and the other for liguid.

Hey Brad! Glad to see you're still hanging around

If it has one valve it's likely a propane cylinder that someone painted to use a a recovery cylinder. If it has two valves it's a purpose made recovery cylinder. What color is the bottom part? Figuring out what's in it can be determined with a refrigerant identifier, which aint a cheap piece of equipment. The cylinder itself may be old enough to need reinspection. If that's the case, by law, it's useless. I believe the expiration date is 5 years after certification.

Its a refrigerant recovery tank.

Taking a pressure reading would give you an idea of what gas is inside.

The tank is new.

It has the two valves for refrigerant recovery.

It is not someone’s home paint job to look like something else.

The bottom of the tank is the standard gray found on all propane tanks.

There are no other labels stuck to the tank.

Standard propane tanks are white. Refrigerant recovery tanks used to be color coded but are now all gray with a yellow top. Any information will be stamped on the carry handle ring.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris42:
The tank is new.

Since you said it has gas in it, its used.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris42:
The bottom of the tank is the standard gray found on all propane tanks.

There are no other labels stuck to the tank.

Propane tanks are white.
There will be no factory attached labels.
There are aftermarket labels which can be bought to label the contents.

On a logic note, I believe the gas economic value is zero. No tech would use the unknown substance within for any repair.

If you vent the tank to atmosphere you will create a hole in the ozone layer and you will doubtless be eternally damned by the ozone police.

Just an FYI....
Legally speaking, you must dispose of the recovered refrigerant. You take it to a wholesale house usually, and they will recycle it for you.
You cannot legally use refrigerant that has been recovered unless it is going into the unit you removed it from, or you are a facility, and you use it in other equipment you own. IE: Government, schools etc.
To find out what you have, connect a manifold to it and read the pressure, compare it to the temperature and you MAY be able to find out what it is.
Depends on whether folks mixed gasses, or if refrigerant had leaked from system it was recovered from, and the blend it out of whack now.