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Personally I don't like propane tanks close to structures. I have a 500lb above ground tank 50ft from my shop, and that's too close for comfort. I intend to move it farther away once I finish some dirt work.
Problems generally arise when a full tank get's hot (and under a deck it shouldn't but lets be hypothetical) and it blows off the pressure safety valve. Now you have a full 100lbs propane released into an oxygenated environment collecting under your deck and mixing there, with no way to escape to the environment quickly
One spark and **BOOM**
Not a great idea.
I've witnessed a 1,000 lb above ground tank blow off. It spewed a cloud of oxygenated propane over the house when a wood stove was running. We had a bunch of Boy Scouts at the property doing some work and I made everyone run like hell away from the house.
Propane is heavier than air so it settles to the low spot, having it under a deck which would seem like a low spot, especially if it's in somewhat of a containerized space, well, I suppose if you had the floor above it sectioned off to blow when the tank went, perhaps the explosion could be channeled upwards?
There's also a switch over valve that will let you have smaller bottles, when one gets empty it automatically switches to the other tank. Keeps things like pilot lights from going out.
I use 100 lb tanks on my forge. I have the tanks outside with a connection through the wall of the shop.
It works fine, but I'm also in a place where there's a lot of wind, sometimes up to 60+ mph, and the tanks are exposed to the wind.
No real chance for any leakage to pool with all that ventilation, so for me, it's pretty safe since there's a barrier of the wall between the tanks and the open flame of the forge. Plus I always shut off the tanks when not in use.
I don't know if the area under your deck is ventilated like my set up, but if not, if you have a bad hose or connection it could be a setup for a real problem.
I would not recommend it at all. I had a 100 lb. propane tank located right next to my house to fuel a small vent-free gas fireplace. A painter that was working at my house noticed a cloud of gas escaping from it. I called the fire department and they made me exit the house (had to leave my pets inside); blocked off four streets of houses and removed it with a crane to an adjacent field where they released some gas so they could take the tank back to the distributor. Ironically, the painter had gone outside for a smoke break - it's a good thing he didn't light up! I ended up switching that tank and the two on the other side of the house for a 500 gal. tank about 50 feet away from the dwelling. It was a much stronger tank and I never had any problems with it at all.
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