"Gaslow"?

Formerly "Full Up Industries"?

Actually I have had this for about a year now and it works great. I live in MN and there are 3 "gauges" on this thing for ambient temp, since it is a gas and temperature will screw with the gauge reading it shows you how full it is when it is hot, warm or cold outdoors....so far it has been pretty spot on.

Real men use charcoal!

Bah - go with a built in grill plumbed with natural gas; then you don't have to worry about a thing.

I live in MN also(hence the screen name) and I recieved one of these free with purchase of my new stainless steel 4 burner gas grill. Apparently I got a bad one because it sucked from the first day I had it. Just threw it away last fall after eight years of non performance. HIGHLY NOT RECOMMENDED! For those of you who don't want to waste 25 bucks, pour HOT water on the side of propane tank and look for the condensation from the cool propane for a "visual guage". Your welcome.

I agree with TerryInSt.Paul. I had one of these and it always registered full until the last 20-30 minutes when it would drop quickly. Not much use when getting for a big job.

For the price of one of these guages you can buy a second tank, and then you always have a spare and don't care if you run out.

Unless you didn't fill the spare...

You can actually tell a tank is running low by just picking it up. Still, if you do not trust your ability to judge the weight, just buy a backup tank to have on hand - I assume the cost will be similar to this, anyway.

For $25 you can purchase a bathroom scale. Weigh the empty tank before you fill it and then you will always know when your tank is getting low by checking the weight periodically. I also like TerryinSt.Paul's tip with the hot water. I actually have a full 2nd tank on hand at all times. Trashman, charcoal is great for slow-cooked BBQ but it sucks for flame control when you are cooking a variety of food, and it takes a lot longer to get the grill ready to cook.

I used to fill propane tanks, and ive seen several of these devices and unless theyre brand new they were worthless and didnt work. the hot water test mentioned, or the basic weight tests are best...

how about this novel concept, have 2 tanks so when your grill dies you have a back up. Most of us would end up with 2 empty tanks and feeling like an idiot, but still better than spending money on this device.

Another tip for grillmasters everywhere:

Always fill your tank at a U-haul or other fill station instead of doing the Blue Rhino trade services. Blue Rhino tends to not fill completely to the top for security and safer transport reasons, and it's always more exspensive. Around here, trade in services run 18-25 dollars depending on where you go, and my last fill at U-haul was 14 and some change.

Like the rest that said this: Have a 2nd tank. Depend on refilling. Don't use Prefilled tanks-recycles (ripoff).

Do know that tanks have a date on them and DO expire (metal fatigue in question...rust...inside). Replacing a tank every 5 years isn't that bad.

Tank weight on scale is more accurate.

Thanks to some idiot(s) and their lawyers, you now have LESS propane in a tank than before. And that auto-tip shutoff is the reason. (you get 3/4 instead of full fill).

Natural Gas is FAR more expensive than Propane...and Propane burns twice as hot (2500BTu versus NG's 1100Btu).

I have had these on my tanks for years...

I prefer not unhooking the tank to lift it or weigh it. Work well, but old news.

Another vote for having two tanks. If you've got a spot-on guage that tells you exactly how much you have left, which auto-senses the food you're going to grill and how many minutes that translates to (correcting for ambient temperature and barometric pressure), all displayed in real-time on an OLED display -- I GUARANTEE that it'll tell you the tank's empty when you and your guests have laid the stakes on the side tables.

Nothing beats never running out of propane and being able to refill at your leisure.

Thanks for all the advice grillmasters.

A 5 gallon propane tank (normal size for a full-size outdoor grill) weighs about 18 pounds when empty and 37 when full, so you can gauge the fullness accordingly after weighing.

Actually, the reason is that propane in the tank is liquid. The 80% limit means you can't have more than 80% of the tank's volume full of the liquified gas, which is a good thing. If you have it filled to the top, then any warm day would turn it into a bomb.

(it's not just for transportation, but general safety as well).

You cannot get an accurate estimate of the in-tank quantity of any liquefied gas using a pressure gauge. This type of device will basically only change with temperature (since that changes the pressure of equilibrium between the gaseous gas and the liquefied gas) until the tank is very near empty (ie there is no liquefied gas left.)

Weighing tanks is absolutely the best way to quantify their contents. I hadn't heard of the hot water trick -- sounds pretty neat but I bet it won't work very well on my aluminum CO2 tank that stays in the cold with the beer!

Hammacher Schlemmer has a digital one for $49

I filled propane for a living while i was in college and learned that propane gauges like this almost never work properly. Since the pressure in the tank remains constant until you are running on fumes, it will only trip when you are drastically low on gas...heres a few good pointers that don't require you to buy a 25 dollar meter:

if you look on an lp tank, it will have a TW stamped into the rim, then a number. the number is the weight of the empty tank. so if you have a bathroom scale, just weight the tank and when it gets close to that number, just fill it up again. for a standard 20# propane cylinder thats usually 18 pounds. The next thing you can do is what someone mentioned earlier, just poor hot water over the side of the tank and a condensation line will form at the level of the liquid propane. for this to work properly though, the tank has to be open and the grill has to be running. Otherwise if you don't want to fiddle with that method, weber grills now come with tank scales on the side which are reasonably accurate.

Must disagree with bigTrue. Companies like Blue Rhino use overfill protection devices, which are required by law. An overfilled tank can potentially leak gas on a hot day, which can cause problems. You can take your chances at refill stations, but I prefer a clean tank that has been inspected (seams and valve) for safety and filled to the proper, safe level.

Also saw a stat somewhere where half of all grillers run out of gas while cooking. To avoid the wrath of my other half, I've taken the advice of others and have invested in a spare Blue Rhino.