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Looking for advice on closed loop recovering

homiejohntrees

New member
First time posting, I apreciate the help and patience in advance.

I Just purchased a closed loop system, currently plan to recover the butane passively.

I’ve open blasted in the past, but I am completely new to the recovery process, and have a few questions before I give this a go.

I have the following to work with

-CLS -Vaccum pump (standard pump not a recovery pump) -20lb tank of butane (not sure exact size, will have to check but looks like a BBQ tank) - two recovery tanks same size as the BBQ tank, red and blue valves

Heres where I am need of some help

I was told to pull a vacuum on my empty recovery tank prior to recovering.

Let’s say then I use all of the butane in this tank for delivering until it’s empty. I will once again be using it as a recovery tank.

Do I pull a vacuum once again, even though this tank has been exposed to butane? Just my guess but this seems unsafe.

My next question is,

if I have one recovery tank full of 20lb of butane, and another tank empty..

I do a run and say use 2.5 lb butane, and recover to the empty tank..

I now have 17.5 in one and roughly 2.5 in the other

On my next run, am I good to use the tank containing 2.5 lb to recover? Or do I need an empty tank that I can vac?

I apologize for that probably being hard to follow, but I guess I’m just confused on how to manage my butane between my tanks.

if you have any good resources you wouldn’t mind sharing my email is homiejohntrees@gmail.com

Thanks again!
 

Gray Wolf

A Posse ad Esse. From Possibility to realization.
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
First time posting, I apreciate the help and patience in advance.

I Just purchased a closed loop system, currently plan to recover the butane passively.

I’ve open blasted in the past, but I am completely new to the recovery process, and have a few questions before I give this a go.

I have the following to work with

-CLS -Vaccum pump (standard pump not a recovery pump) -20lb tank of butane (not sure exact size, will have to check but looks like a BBQ tank) - two recovery tanks same size as the BBQ tank, red and blue valves

Heres where I am need of some help

I was told to pull a vacuum on my empty recovery tank prior to recovering.

Let’s say then I use all of the butane in this tank for delivering until it’s empty. I will once again be using it as a recovery tank.

Do I pull a vacuum once again, even though this tank has been exposed to butane? Just my guess but this seems unsafe.

My next question is,

if I have one recovery tank full of 20lb of butane, and another tank empty..

I do a run and say use 2.5 lb butane, and recover to the empty tank..

I now have 17.5 in one and roughly 2.5 in the other

On my next run, am I good to use the tank containing 2.5 lb to recover? Or do I need an empty tank that I can vac?

I apologize for that probably being hard to follow, but I guess I’m just confused on how to manage my butane between my tanks.

if you have any good resources you wouldn’t mind sharing my email is homiejohntrees@gmail.com

Thanks again!


You only have to vacuum the atmosphere out of the empty tank. Once it has only LPG and vapors, it isn't necessary to vacuum before recovery.


What size is the tank with the red and blue valves? If it is a 30# recovery tank, that rating is its water capacity 100% full, and butane has a specific gravity of .601.


You can also only put 80% of its maximum capacity in the tank to allow for expansion, so 30# X .601 X 80% = 14.4lbs.


A 50# tank X .601 X 90% is only 24# full.


It also gets harder and takes more time to recover into a a tank as it gets closer to full, because it has less surface area to condense the vapors.


If you switch tanks in mid recovery, you do need to vacuum out the atmosphere trapped in the hoses. Less safe is to burp it out later, but it has to be removed.


What size are your columns and what size is the collection tank?
 

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