One of the most important things to understand about your propane tank is that the fuel gauge shows you the fuel level as a percentage of the capacity of your tank, not the total amount of gallons in the tank. 

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While not all propane tanks have the same gauges, their purpose remains the same: to show you how much propane is left in the tank. Most gauges are “float gauges,” (like the fuel gauge in a vehicle), which reads the level of liquid propane in the tank via a floating arm. As the level drops, so does the float gauge.

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If you have a propane tank for home energy usage, then you’ve probably noticed that after a propane delivery, the tank gauge reads 80%.

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Don’t worry, you’re not being scammed and there is nothing wrong with your tank or the gauge. Although you use propane in gas form, propane is stored as a liquid in your tank to allow it space to expand and contract as the ambient temperature rises and falls. The maximum fill percentage is always going to be 80%. 

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You can perform some simple math to determine how much gas is in your propane tank. Just multiply the tank’s capacity by the reading on the tank gauge.  

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For example, if your 500-gallon tank is showing a gauge reading of 60%, that means you have 300 gallons of gas remaining in your tank (500 x 0.6). 

 

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