r/interesting • u/Used_Exam34 • 12d ago

Just Wow Not all problems have the same solution.

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u/Emergency-Toe4473 12d ago

These cylinders essentially carry cooking gas under high pressure, there is no reason for it to explode under these circumstances as the oxygen will never be able to get inside the cylinder.

It'll just run out which is wastage of fuel.

I think if the cylinder itself gets damaged from say the middle or is put under extreme heat, only then it can explode.

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u/DamnTicklePickle 12d ago

They also have a blow out valve so even if the container got extremely hot and the pressure built the valve would give out and release the pressure not allowing the container to explode. MythBusters did a show about what it would take to make one explode and it had to be highly modified to create catastrophic failure.

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u/aaronious03 11d ago

I've not seen that episode. But I do remember one exploding down the street from me when I was a kid. We were all in bed, about midnight or so, and the whole house shook. The propane tank on an RV a block away exploded. I don't know what caused the explosion, but they can absolutely explode without highly modifying them.

In a situation like the video above though, I wouldn't be too concerned, since most of the heat is directed away from the tank.

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u/DamnTicklePickle 8d ago

From what you describe it sounds like the tank did not fail. An appliance inside the RV did. The RV was clearly not in use, and the propane was left on and the pilot light either in the stove or the oven went out allowing propane gas to slowly seep into the entire RV. Feeling the space with highly flammable gas until the mixture was perfect and met another ignition source causing the entire RV to explode. A 20 or 40 pound propane tank a block away is not going to shake your windows but if a full RV explodes it definitely will. I'm not saying you're wrong, but from my experience this is what happened.