Can A 30000 Btu Propane Heater Run On A 20 # Tank With Out Freezing The Heater?
I’m not quite sure what you mean by “freezing the heater”…
If you run the heater with the propane cylinder lying on it’s side, you could see frost on the hose and the gas valve assembly. This is because you are putting liquid propane to the heater instead of vapor. This can be VERY dangerous and should not be done. The cylinder must always be upright.
The only other thing I can think of is sometimes if the burner is too large for the size of cylinder it is connected to, the cylinder itself can frost or freeze up, but not usually the heater.
30,000btu is a pretty light load. Unless you get down into very low temperatures ( -15°F or -25°C ) a 20# cylinder should feed it fine.
EDIT: If the heater is shutting down, it is not because of the cylinder. A 20# cylinder has more than enough capacity to feed a 30k btu heater. It sounds more like you may have a problem with the 100% safety valve. The thermocouple is a short piece of thin tubing that runs from the gas valve to the burner pilot. Make sure it is threaded in tight at the gas valve, and the tip of it is right in the flame of the pilot. If it doesn’t sense the flame properly, the gasvalve will stop the flow of propane. You may possibly need to replace the thermocouple…they do go bad from time to time.
