Shnozzle - SAFEST Propane Refill Adapter for One Pound Tank Small Cylinders

Every time I pitched one of those little green tanks it pained me . . . it just seems like such a waste . . . and it was. The Shnozzle was the perfect solution and it works like a charm. Well constructed and the safety feature is explained in the documentation that comes with the device. Follow the steps and you'll have nicely refilled 1lb propane tanks where you used to just have garbage. Couple tips . . . (1) Empty your 1lb tank completely by screwing the Shnozzle onto the tank all by itself. This will open the valve on the tank and let the air and any remaining propane to escape. This way you'll have an empty tank with room for your refill. I've seen suggestions to jam a needle nose pliers into the valve to release air and extra propane, but why not use a device that was intended to open that valve(less chance of damage). (2). Get the green tank COLD and the big tank room temp to allow for a better fill. Since my purchase I've had the chance to see some other versions of these propane refill adapters and none seems as nice or as well build as the Shnozzle. Even adapters built by big name companies don't come close to the quality. If you are in the market to refill your 1lb propane canisters, buy a Shnozzle . . . you'll be glad you did.

I followed the directions included with the Snozzle. I put the empty Coleman bottle in the freezer overnight and left my 20 lb propane tank outside to warm up to ambient temperature, which was about 80 degrees. I connected the Coleman bottle as directed, turned both tanks upside down and turned on the valve. I could hear the propane filling. The sound stopped about 5 minutes later. I then tilted and gently shook up the big tank, and more propane started to fill. I repeated this shaking for about one minute until the propane stopped filling. When I disconnected the small canister, I could tell it wasn't as full as buying a new one, maybe 2/3rds as much. So I put the Coleman canister back in the freezer for a couple of hours, and repeated the process. This worked very well and more propane filled the canister. When I unscrewed the canister and compared it to a new one, it felt just as full as a new bottle. Everything worked perfect, especially with the slight tweaks that I mentioned I used.

It works as described and as I expected . I followed the instructions exactly and filled a completely empty cylinder with it. The filled cylinder was 72% full as I weighed it before and after the filling process to verify this. Physics dictate that when the pressure in both cylinders equalize ,the flow from the big propane tank to the small one will stop. No doubt the filling process where the small tanks are manufactured operates at a much higher pressure and would fill the tanks more completely. So,for using the large tanks available to the consumer and a DIY refill process this is as good as it gets and a definite money saver over continually buying ,using and trashing the small tanks.

Excellent quality from a craftsman/machining perspective. Bronze threads look great, and the surface finish is consistent across the entire piece.That said, it works OK. For some reason it works good with 20lb propane tanks, but I have trouble filling it from my 100lb unit.

1st time ever got into propane refilling. Was a bit concerned about the safety but it's not so bad after all. I'm getting a measured weight of 2 lbs 2 oz on the refill! What you have to do is make it a huge temp contrast between the two sources. The 1 lb canister should be frozen. The 20 lbs tank should be refilled during sunny warm days. 60-80 F is a good temp range to work. If you're in 30-40s, likely it'll be 50% due to the small difference in temp. Ambient outdoor temp is very important for it to work naturally. Flip the tank over. Open the valve. Let the process go for 2-3 hours in warm weather (65-75 F). It'll fill up and automatically shut off. For me anything less than 1 hour I'm getting it half way fill. Others I read here left it for 24 hours. I don't think it's necessary to sit it that long. I didn't have to modify any pressure release valve. When all done flip the tank to the normal position. Shut off the valve. Slowly unscrew the 1 lb canister. If you slowly do it, glove is not necessary although I will get one just to be safe. I unscrew the 1 lb canister at the far back end. All of the short bursts with audible hiss noise of gas pressures are at the front. Whola! A filled 2 lbs canister that would cost you at least $3. I'd do all of the refills at home and don't have to worry about setting it up at your remote location. Buying about 5-10 cans is good start. I don't know how many refills I can do per canister. I'll probably won't go after 20 refills. After that, it'll be retired. Performance wise I don't see anything different than what I got it at the store brand new. A fully refilled can lasts just as long as the new one. Propane is propane. No variations that I'm aware of. More real world experiences to come. So far so good UPDATE Nov 30: I was too lazy to remove the tank and left it overnight with about 50 F. Next morning only have a half way fill. This tells me that the temperature difference between the two MUST be substantial in order to get a full refill. With that in mind, if you have sun shining on to your propane tank and a just taken out of the freezer bottle, it will work. The propane seems to automatically equalize back and forth if both sources' temp are about the same. Will test to see if I only have 1/4 left on the tank and it will still give me full filling. The theory is that the pressure is too little with 1/4.. DEC 15 update: Tried on 11 lb/2.5g tank and it didn't work. So it has to be at least a 20 lb tank due to to the high pressure. I also noticed that the 20 lb tank has to be filled up and used only about 2 gallons out of the 5. After 2 gallons consumed, there seems not enough pressure and the refill doesn't work. There are 3 limitations to this: temp difference, tank has to be always full to about 35% depletion, freezing in the freezer. Otherwise waste $6 for 2 gallons of disposable cans.

This works exactly as advertised. I think a lot of the reviewers who can't get the 1 pound tanks all of the way full are not following the instructions and/or not being patient.As the instructions recommend, I put the 1 pound cylinders in my freezer for a few minutes and left the 20 pound cylinder inside for a while to get to room temp. Then you attache the shnozzle, the 1 pound cylinder, turn the whole thing upside down and open the valve until you hear the propane flow stop.At 5 minutes, the cylinder was at .43 pounds. At 10 minutes it was at .82 pounds. At 15 minutes, the flow stopped and it was at 1.2 pounds... still safe but more than completely refilled.