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Many of us have learned the hard-way that propane gauges can only be trusted to a certain degree. We may be worried that we do not have enough propane left for one more cook, so many of us will exchange that tank before it is truly empty, because we are worried about it running out in the middle of the cook.

So how can we tell if we are exchanging propane tanks too soon? The best way is to weight the tank to see how much it weighs. Simply remove it from the grill and place the tank on a scale. Empty tanks will typically weigh about 18 pounds. A full tank will weigh 18 + the weight of the fuel, which now a days is typically 15 or so pounds. As a result, a full tank will weigh 33 + pounds.

Fun fact - when cooking at medium/high temperatures on an average size grill (approximately 500 sq inches), you can expect to use about 1.5 pounds of propane for every 1 hour of cooking. This means that a full propane tank should provide you with about 10 hours of heat when cooking on medium/high heat.

Of course, if you want the best way to never run out of fuel, you will want to purchase a second tank as a back-up. This way you will always have a full one to replace the one that comes off the grill!