If you’re an airsofter you’re no doubt familiar with AI’s propane adapter, which allows you to run gas powered pistols and rifles on propane instead of green gas. Anyway in Canada there has been a batch of Coleman propane bottles which have deeper depressed retainer rings. This causes the propane nozzle to stick as documented here and spew out the tank’s contents.

Luckily there’s an easy fix for problem tanks and it takes about 20 seconds to complete. 😀 What you need is a 1/4-20 screw, a 1/4-20 nut, a 1/4″ washer that is minimum 1” in diameter and an appropriate screw driver. The approximate cost for the parts is less than a dollar and you put the pieces together as shown in the third picture.

After the screw, nut and washer have been assembled, screw the entire unit into the valve opening. You want to make two full revolutions and here’s tip so you don’t over tighten on the tank. Count the number of corners or slots (for instance you want to count eight corners with a Roberson head) so you don’t over tighten.

After the securing the screw in place, lower the nut so that it’s firmly sitting on top of the washer. Next use a wrench or pliers to turn the nut clockwise till it makes 1/2 a revolution (moves the nut farther from the head), that will raise the retainer ring thus stop it from squeezing the O-ring which in turn gets lets the propane adapter valve move back to its default position.

In the second picture, you can see how the screw grabs on the retainer ring.

Once that’s done you’re set! You’ve just raised the retainer ring which allows the AI propane adapter to function properly again. 🙂