One way around this is to use chemical hand warmers on the output pipe or regulator. We you these for winter camping when it gets below zero and the gas will flow much better. The good hand warmer will last up to 12 hours.

  Dave,
  87 Syncro Westy Zetec

Richard A Jones <jones@COLORADO.EDU> wrote:
  > The heater worked fine until the gas in the tank
> reached the outside temp. About 1 hr. Thought it was the battery, tested
> it ,bat. good. Thought it was frozen, nothing frozen. Decided to turn
> that tank off and turn on the westy tank, worked fine all night. Temps
> the following night in the 20's. Put the barbie tank back on worked fine
> all night long. It has something with the surface area of the liquid
> boiling off into a gas. A tank standing up that is 6 in diameter and 30
> in long has a 6 in circle of gas exposed. Take that same tank and lay it
> down, you now have 6 in by 30 in of gas exposed. The more liquid gas
> exposed the more gas it produces.I know it sounds hard to understand but
> this was the way it was explained to me.

Does your barbie tank have a single-stage regulator? That might
be the problem. That's partly why we have two-stage regulators on
the Westy tanks.

This from:
http://www.propane.ca/Resources/page10.asp
> Reduced Freeze-ups/Service Calls - Regulator freeze-up occurs
when moisture in the gas condenses and freezes on cold surfaces
of the regulator nozzle. The nozzle becomes chilled when high
pressure gas expands across it into the regulator body. This
chilling action is more severe in single stage systems as gas
expands from tank pressure to 11" w.c. through a single regulator
nozzle.
>
> Two-stage systems can greatly reduce the possibility of
freeze-ups and resulting service calls as the expansion of gas
from tank pressure to 11" w.c. is divided into two steps, with
less chilling effect at each regulator. In addition, after the
gas exits the first stage regulator and enters the first-stage
transmission line, it picks up heat from the line, further
reducing the possibility of second stage freeze-up.

Richard A Jones
Boulder, Colorado

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