A genuine Propane Puzzler
In the spirit of giving something back, I offer the following story of a weird problem my wife and I experienced on our first cold weather trip. I now know the answer and I wonder if anyone here can n...
Forum Discussion
WE HAVE A WINNER!
Actually, two winners, The observant SaltiDawg shames me into acknowledging that this WAS actually a trick question; Gettysburg is in PA not VA (where we purchased our RV)!
The grand prize however goes to our LPG guru ktmrfs who, in an admirable stepwise diagnosis, fingers Butane as the culprit.
As it turned out, the original owner had taken his one and only vacation in the RV down to Florida and while there he filled my gas tank with Butane. Apparently this is a frequent practice down South where it doesn't freeze in winter. Butane is significantly cheaper than Propane, and even though it doesn't have the equivalent BTU output as Propane, it's "Good enuf" for most folks.
When we bought the Freelander, it had almost a full tank so when we topped it off it only took a couple of pounds of Propane. If you think about it, the mix of Propane and Butane was the key to the puzzle because it created an intermittent failure that only showed up when it got below freezing and also after all the propane already "gasified" had been consumed by the appliances. The regulator of course had nothing to do with anything so now I have a spare reggy.
The solution in the end raised another interesting topic, purging the tank of butane. There's a Big Red thingy on the bottom of my (built-in) propane tank labelled "Purge," but I have been cautioned never to touch it.
I was advised to just turn on the furnace and let it run until the tank was empty.... it took three and a half days! When it was completely empty I put a couple of pounds of nice fresh Propane in the tank and all is well. The last time it froze here I sat out in the RV with the furnace blazing and watched the NE Patriots dominate the field in total comfort.
So, thanks for playing everyone! All hail ktmrfs as the golden gawd of LPG wisdom.
Cheers,
-Grouchy
Actually, two winners, The observant SaltiDawg shames me into acknowledging that this WAS actually a trick question; Gettysburg is in PA not VA (where we purchased our RV)!
The grand prize however goes to our LPG guru ktmrfs who, in an admirable stepwise diagnosis, fingers Butane as the culprit.
As it turned out, the original owner had taken his one and only vacation in the RV down to Florida and while there he filled my gas tank with Butane. Apparently this is a frequent practice down South where it doesn't freeze in winter. Butane is significantly cheaper than Propane, and even though it doesn't have the equivalent BTU output as Propane, it's "Good enuf" for most folks.
When we bought the Freelander, it had almost a full tank so when we topped it off it only took a couple of pounds of Propane. If you think about it, the mix of Propane and Butane was the key to the puzzle because it created an intermittent failure that only showed up when it got below freezing and also after all the propane already "gasified" had been consumed by the appliances. The regulator of course had nothing to do with anything so now I have a spare reggy.
The solution in the end raised another interesting topic, purging the tank of butane. There's a Big Red thingy on the bottom of my (built-in) propane tank labelled "Purge," but I have been cautioned never to touch it.
I was advised to just turn on the furnace and let it run until the tank was empty.... it took three and a half days! When it was completely empty I put a couple of pounds of nice fresh Propane in the tank and all is well. The last time it froze here I sat out in the RV with the furnace blazing and watched the NE Patriots dominate the field in total comfort.
So, thanks for playing everyone! All hail ktmrfs as the golden gawd of LPG wisdom.
Cheers,
-Grouchy
