What to do if you run out of propane

Stop and call us right now if you smell propane or a rotten egg odor, if your carbon monoxide alarm is sounding, or if you see or hear gas escaping. Get everyone outside first, then call (281) 259-2162 from outside the house. Do not flip switches, do not relight anything, and do not go looking for the leak yourself.

Written by Texas Star Propane

If you run out of propane, close the valve on your tank and call us. That is the whole first move. The gas being gone is not the problem; what matters is that the system is now open and has to be filled, tested and relit by somebody who does this for a living.

We get these calls every winter across Grimes, Montgomery, Walker and Brazos counties, usually on the first truly cold night. Here is what happens, in the order it happens.

How do you know you have actually run out?

An empty tank and a broken appliance look identical from inside the house. Check the tank before you call anyone out, because it changes who you need. The whole delivery picture, including how we schedule and what happens on the day, is in our guide to how propane delivery works.

Read the gauge under the dome

Lift the dome lid on top of the tank. The dial reads as a percentage of capacity, not gallons. Anything at or under 5 percent means you are effectively out, because the last of it will not hold pressure on a cold morning.

Check whether everything gas fed went out at once

If the furnace, the water heater and the range all quit together, that is the supply. If only one of them is down and the others still light, you have an appliance problem and a full tank, and you want a service technician rather than a delivery.

What should you do the moment you run out?

1. Close the service valve on top of the tank. Turn it clockwise until it stops.
2. Turn the thermostat down and switch off every gas appliance at the appliance, not just at the thermostat.
3. Call us, tell us you are out of gas so we flag it as urgent, and leave the relighting to the technician who brings the gas. Every pilot in the house has to be checked by law before anything is lit.

Closing the valve is the step people skip, and it is the one that matters. It keeps air and moisture out of the lines while the tank sits empty, which is what turns a simple refill into a longer repair.

Why we test the system before you get gas again

When a tank empties, the pressure that kept your lines sealed goes with it. Pilot lights go out. Air works its way in. Put gas straight back into that and you are pushing fuel through a system nobody has checked, past burners that are no longer lit.

So our technician does a pressure test on the whole system, confirms it holds, then relights and checks every appliance. It adds a few minutes to the visit. It is not paperwork and it is not optional, and no reputable propane company in Texas will skip it.

What made you run out in the first place?

Ranked by how often we actually see it, not by how interesting it is.

You were on will call and the cold came early

This is most of them. Will call puts the gauge in your hands, and a tank that looked fine in November empties fast over one hard week. By the time you notice, you are already low and so is everyone else, which is the worst time to need a truck.

Something started burning more gas than it used to

A new gas range, a pool heater, a shop heater left running, a standby generator that exercised itself all month. Your usage history stops matching your usage.

The truck could not reach the tank

A locked gate, a new dog, a washed out drive, a car parked across the pad. We cannot leave gas we could not get to, and a missed delivery in December rarely gets a second attempt before you are empty.

When to call us

Call the moment you suspect you are out, not after you have tried to sort it yourself. Call straight away if the gauge reads under 10 percent, if appliances are cutting out, if you smell gas at any point, or if you are simply not sure what you are looking at. We would far rather talk you through a full tank than pick up the pieces of an empty one.

If you would rather this never came up again, automatic delivery is the answer, and you can read more about how propane is used in the home from the US Energy Information Administration.

Frequently asked questions

Is it dangerous to run out of propane?

Running out is not dangerous by itself. The risk comes after. An empty tank can let air and moisture into the lines, and any pilot light that went out is now an open gas path waiting for the supply to come back. That is why the valve gets closed and the system gets tested before anyone relights anything.

Can I just turn the tank back on myself once you fill it?

Please do not. Texas law and our own safety rules put that test in our hands, and a technician has to confirm the system holds pressure before gas moves through it again. It takes a few minutes and it is part of the refill.

How fast can you get here?

We group deliveries by area, so a scheduled refill is usually next day. An out of gas call is treated as urgent and we work it into the route the same day where we can. Call us and we will tell you honestly what the window looks like.

Will I be charged extra for running out?

There can be a fee for an emergency run and for the leak test, because both pull a technician off the schedule. We will tell you what applies before we dispatch, not after.

How do I stop this happening again?

Go on automatic delivery. We track how fast you burn gas and how cold it has been, and we show up before the tank gets low. It costs nothing to switch and it is the single thing that ends runout calls for good.