Portable Camping Stove Design Issue

1. You DO HAVE a regulator. Period. While you see the Tank hose at the tank, there IS a regulator connected to that hose.
2. The Gas line at the pic of the Range, that silver thing is the Range Regulator and it is there to drop the RV LP pressure from 11.5 inches to 10 inches which is what most RV Range/Ovens operate at.
3. Clarify, IF the Range is inside the RV in its mount hole does it operate and light OK?
4. It only fails to operate correctly when mounted outside?
5. If mounted outside, can you light the burners with a match?
6. Last, from your pic, there does NOT appear to be a Piezo or auto ignitor system. Your Range must be manually lit with a match or flame. Doug

porterwake wrote:
So I have a popup camper too, with a stove that moves from inside to outside. How nice since there are gas lines in both spots.

I hook the stove up, push the button down to lite, and try to light the burner. Nothing. Check that all valves are open, gas tank full, furnace works great. Nothing.

Take the stove unit, apart and this is what is under the top plate.


Curious about this design. I was going to say that I'm not chemist but, I am a chemist and gas doesn't follow a path that is open.

Pressurized gas at a high velocity however does "follow a path that is open" and shoots by those open spots creating a vacuum, siphoning the correct amount of air and mixing the gas and air at the same time to the correct ratio to burn correctly.

This isn't a "chemist" thing..

If stove works fine indoors but not outdoors you could have several things causing that..

#1, do you have gas at the connection?

Do you smell the odorant that is put into the propane when stove valve is on? You should smell it when not lit..

Sometimes you may find a shutoff valve inline with the quick disconnect, it may be turned off as a default for safety as quick connects sometimes leak when not connected..

Quick disconnects can also fail to pass gas when connected, did it ever work?

#2 too much wind?

While the burner and air gap may be protected from the wind pretty well, it doesn't take a lot of wind getting around the protection to prevent proper fuel to air mix. May need to create an additional wind break to shield stove in that case..

Many RV cooktops have a secondary regulator.

It sure sounds like the tubes between the orifices and the burners are clogged, or the burners themselves. Since there's gas coming out of the orifice, and not the burner, that's about all that it can realistically be.

The open slots are intentional, and are designed to mix the propane and the air. A Bunsen burner in the chemistry lab has pretty much an identical setup, albeit vertically, as indeed do most gas appliances. Often there's some way to adjust the size of the air holes to get the proper air/gas mixture if needed.

Sjm9911 wrote:
Oh, and if its double regulated, it will not work well at all. Thats why they asked if it has a seprate regulater.

When I replaced my cooktop, both the old and new had a built in regulator. I'm assuming that the built in regulator drops the typical 11" WC to a lower value. I replaced the old one because the regulator malfunctioned. It worked well prior and the new one works well.

Oh, and if its double regulated, it will not work well at all. Thats why they asked if it has a seprate regulater.

Its a low pressure system. Its should have the same flow as when you use it inside, if it dosent, you may have obstructions in the line. They could just be spider webs. You could try to blow out the lines.

Lynnmor wrote:
If that is a regulator where the copper line is attached, you cannot have two regulators, one at the tank and another in the stove. Possibly the wrong stove was supplied.

The gas at the front of the popup camper is directly in the tank, no regulator. When I light the gas at the point of the knob, it is very weak and does not come with with very high pressure.

Roger10378 wrote:
So what is the issue? Gas comes thru the small orifice and mixes with the air and travels to the burner where it is ignited. Can you hear gas coming thru the orifice before you try to light the burner? If not loosen the large brass nut at the bottom of the picture and see it you have gas flowing there. Work your way back till you find the problem.

I can light the gas at the point of the knobs.

Some campers use a high pressure regulator at the tank and step it down at the appliance.
The air gap is normal. That is basically a carburator that mixes air with the propane to get the proper mixture of fuel and air for burning. It looks wrong and dangerous but it is normal.

If that is a regulator where the copper line is attached, you cannot have two regulators, one at the tank and another in the stove. Possibly the wrong stove was supplied.