LP Auto ChangeOver Regulator

time2roll wrote:
Only use tape on pipe thread fittings, not on flair fittings.

If regulators are over 5 years old I would be replacing both. I like my Cavagna brand.

My blood pressure is not nearly as high as that of previous posters, but I'll ask anyway:

What is the downside of using tape on flare fittings?

(My auto-changeover regulator has two flare fittings (input) and one pipe thread fitting (output).

The flair is designed to seal without tape. If it leaks you need new fittings. The thread on these is not designed to seal the junction and will only get in the way by either interfering with the flair or preventing the threads from being properly tightened and not mating the flair.

Same as you do not use tape on a brake line or the ACME nut to the propane cylinder.

Chris...........

Nicely done!!!

Why oh why , do ya need to " quote , Quote " are you proud to have high speed internet ? Lots of us do not ! Out here where the lonely people are it takes a minute or two to load this only to see it is Quote , Quote !

Sorry, working on a small touch screen makes editing tough.

As a retired AC/heating tech, on any fuel gas gas pipe we were required to use only Yellow Teflon tape or Rectorseal type compound on threads. The white is for water or air lines. I choose using all those codes for our safety as well as my nieghbors
My understanding is that any fuel gas deteriates white teflon but I have disassembled many a gas pipe with white stuff. On flares you put a TINY drop of oil on the outside of the flare then pull up nut & tighten. Stops the copper pipe from twisting

sayoung wrote:
On flares you put a TINY drop of oil on the outside of the flare then pull up nut & tighten. Stops the copper pipe from twisting

Now that sounds like a good tip :)

Problem solved! It seems I assumed myself into trouble!

The rest of the story:

I'll refer to the auto ChangeOver Regulator as my #1 regulator (streetside), and the curbside regulator as my #2 regulator.

Back in May, my #2 regulator started leaking thru its vent hole. I took it out and went to an Ace Hardware store in Camp Verde, AZ looking for a replacement. The salesman showed me a regulator that was labeled "For RV's". It looked identical to the old one (same silver color, same basic shape) except it had a large vent instead of a small hole, and the “Out” port was larger. The salesman solved that problem by selling me an adapter.

Important Fact: The new regulator was a low pressure regulator and the old one was a high pressure (30 psi) regulator which is what I should have bought.

Off I go - fat, dumb, and happy. I install the new regulator and everything worked fine with no leak. Keep in mind that the auto regulator was pointing to the #1 tank.

Fast forward four months to September when the #1 tank had emptied, the auto regulator had switched over to the #2 tank, and a while later the #2 tank reached half empty. (I still do not understand how the auto switchover happened with the #2 regulator outputting 11 column-inches of pressure, but it did and all LP appliances worked fine including the furnace.)

When the #2 got to half empty, I shutoff the #1 tank and pointed the auto regulator to the #2 tank. I took the empty #1 tank and got it refilled. After hooking it up, when I opened the valve on it, gas poured out of the #2 regulator’s vent. This gets us to when I started to troubleshoot the issue and made my original post.

Note: I must have overlooked Old Biscuit's post as I see today that the answer was there all along. ****!

Since the responses to another but similar post pointed one or more fingers at just about all components in the LP supply system, I started by replacing the #2 (low pressure regulator), then the auto changeover regulator, and was about to replace the #2 pigtail when nothing was making a difference.

This is when my web research stumbled onto an article on RV LP systems that mentioned a “high pressure regulator” that is used on 5th-wheels with “split tanks” (A tank on each side of the trailer.) The light finally came on, I installed a high-pressure regulator, and all is good now!

And my spare parts locker is closer to full as I now have 2 low-pressure regulators that are wrong for my trailer, and an auto changeover regulator that I don’t need (now).

As I said at the beginning, I shouldn’t have assumed that any “RV LP regulator” would be OK.

Great to hear it is all working again :)