How much propane will I use?

A 12 CF refer should burn for 38 hours on a gallon if cooling full time. A 1200 size refer would burn a bit more but still in even hot weather 4-5 days should be expected on a gallon. My 1200 on a 38 gallon tank running the stove oven hotwater heater and furnace would take 14 gallons in maybe three month on the road.

The half gallon a day sounds about right in warm weather. My 18cf Norcold drinks the stuff with the burner running pretty constant when it gets pretty hot during the day.

My Norcold that uses 1/2 gallon per day is 12 cubic feet, so twice as big as yours.

People often challenge my 1/2 gallon per day--I know I was surprised when I first calculated it. But I gathered the numbers while boondocking for weeks at a time, and they're not complicated by use of propane for hot water because we use solar for that, and it's not cold so there's no furnace use, and nobody around here is a cook. So 1/2 gallon per day it is.

EstorilM? We've been dragging an estoril blue M-Coupe around for 14 years of fulltiming. It's beat to hell, and that's just the parts you can see. :)

Rice wrote:

SidecarFlip wrote:
I did a test on my Dometic propane 3 way fridge a while back, running just propane and a full 20 pound cylinder lasts about 40 days straight continuous running.

I did something similar on my Norcold 4-door refrigerator, and it used 1/2 gallon per day. I'm pretty sure it's a bigger refrigerator than would be in the OP's travel trailer, but might be of interest to others.

Yeah it's a Dometic 2652 6cu ft.

Though the ironic thing about this entire thread is that the AC plug came out of the receptacle at some point since I purchased the unit, and even though it's been "off" when I wasn't camping for the first two trips, when I got back I decided to leave it on after reading the forums here.

Well, both my propane tanks are empty now (this started a week ago ish) - so that thing uses a little more than I thought - though I can't be exactly sure when the plug came out.

Only had the trailer for 5 weeks, at least two+ weeks it was switched off, and I've used the oven and stove a couple times.

Kinda a bummer.

SidecarFlip wrote:
I did a test on my Dometic propane 3 way fridge a while back, running just propane and a full 20 pound cylinder lasts about 40 days straight continuous running.

I did something similar on my Norcold 4-door refrigerator, and it used 1/2 gallon per day. I'm pretty sure it's a bigger refrigerator than would be in the OP's travel trailer, but might be of interest to others.

SidecarFlip wrote:
Hope you didn't 'kill' them past 50% discharge or they are on their way to become fishing sinkers.

Not sure, they just sounded empty - doesn't the "automatic switcher" only switch once one is dead anyways? What's the point of that system if it switches once one is "too dead" to be used again?

Also, don't we all run our tanks till they're dead-dead on grills, etc and just get them refilled perfectly fine?

For the other poster - when I pulled the cover off I could smell propane, but I have really sensitive smell. Still, after 1500mi there shouldn't be any smells under there unless something is leaking, right?

They used teflon tape but I'm a WAY bigger fan of the liquid thread sealant permatex makes now.

I doubt I'll have to upgrade to 30lb tanks, that's really far forward on the frame and I'm trying to keep my hitch weights down as much as possible (this floorplan is about 60-75lbs heavier on the tongue than similar units for some reason.)

Hope you didn't 'kill' them past 50% discharge or they are on their way to become fishing sinkers.

Pauljdav wrote:
Propane will last a super long time unless you use the furnace.

This. Camper has 2 30s in it. Took one out last year for more storage before a long trip (summer). It was almost full, only a long weekend trip and 10 days living in it prior year.
Long weekend plus 3 week trip, fridge on propane pretty much 24/7 except for couple hours a day when generator on and a few days plugged in to shore power.
Went through about 350-400 gal of water with water heater on as needed for dishes and showers (not on all the time) and an average? amount of stove use.
May have run the fridge here and there for a month total maybe on top of that.
So like 5 weeks constant use and a little here and there= 1 30 lb bottle in the summer.
Tank was empty this spring.

Opposite, 4 days camping in right around freezing for a high temp and teens/single digits at night. Heater on except for 6-8 hours during the day. Went through almost 2 bottles 30 pounders. Kept the slide out though and lots of cold air leaking in. Nighttime the furnace would kill 2 batteries by morning almost.

Standard bbq tanks are 20lbs and if you have 2 on ur rv you could do some mods to put 2 x 30 lbs for more capacity. Most TT's have a threaded rod with a wingnut holding them down and a pvc cover to protect them. All can be changed out from rv or online vendors. Back in my tt days the 20 lb propane tank lasted month's with a mix of full hook ups and dry camping. Now with a 12 cu/ft fridge dry camping I use a 30 pounder every week or two depending on hot water and furnace usage. Fridge is still the smallest user of LP with furnace being worst. Also do you use your oven/stovetop a lot. A few more trips and you will figure out your average usage. Also you might want to ensure no leaks as our systems have a bad track record of leaking at the regulator etc.

Thanks everyone for the continued comments - and yes as someone mentioned, they appear to have been under-filled or not topped off at all when I bought it. They "sound" hollow now, and the indicator was red. I wonder if there might be a leak somewhere? Everything still works so it's hard to tell.

The indicator was red, so I believe that means it switched to the next tank?

I was also wrong - they are the standard "grill" size tanks, not the tall ones. I haven't filled one of those up in so long, I honestly have no idea how much it should even cost.

I REALLY want to know if I have an external grill hookup for the propane though. I seem to remember that it was listed in the specs for the unit, but haven't had enough time to crawl around under there yet.