Propane Concern

Thank you everyone for your replies, maybe I'm just a little paranoid but I will definitely check the connections with soapy water just to make sure. I and definitely more at ease with the experiences and suggestions provided.

Water heater..depending on Brand and Model uses an 80000Btu (Atwood 6 gal), a 10000Btu (Atwood 10 gal) or 120000BTU (Suburban) Burner.

Propane has 21,500Btu per pound

Two FULL hours of burner operation will consume 1# of propane

20# in 24 days..........sounds about right.


Our normal usage with a 30# is 5-6 weeks

Probably sounds right to me also. We use our camper year round, until the outside temperatures reach about 10F above zero or less. In the Summer months we may go 2 months on 1 thirty pound tank. We run the water heater on gas too. In the winter, using the furnace, we can run through a 30 pound tank in 3 days. When the usage gets that steep, we move back into the house.

There is no set pattern for anyone's usage of propane except your own. Time of year makes a big difference with outside temperatures, even for water heaters and cooking on stove tops. In addition, the amount of water you use, the more hot water you use will require the water heater to run more too. If go from one shower a week to a shower every day, there will be a big difference if hot water usage. If you do 2 showers a day, it will be even more usage. You can only monitor your own usage and track it that way.

If you had a propane leak, I think your tank would empty itself MUCH faster than 24 days and you'd smell it somewhere.

The soap test is a good idea, just to ease your own concerns, and doesn't hurt anything, except, maybe the soap will wash down your pipes (which isn't a bad thing at all).

I think your usage is perfectly normal. Track it, see if it's consistent. If you start having to fill up a tank every other day.... then yes... you've got a problem if you've been consistent with a 24 day usage cycle.

Good luck!

I'd say that you're use sounds about right. I'm assuming your fridge is NOT running on propane but is in fact running on 110V.

I usually only turn my how water heater on about 15 minutes before taking a shower and then turn it off the rest of the time. The water stays sufficiently warm for other uses. Obviously I take "navy" showers.... as I usually dry camp.

I've used 3 20# tanks in 52 days - so your usage sounds about right. I also used the heater during this time.

Probably sounds about right. At first I thought you meant that you left the water heater on all day long but yes just turning it on to actually take a shower is what we do. We don't even fully heat the water to the point of letting it shut off on its own.

If if you had a leak there'd be a good chance that you would smell it somewhere around you rig. I had a t fitting underneath a TT with a loose fitting and it wasn't leaking real bad when I put soapy water on it to look for bubbles but just a little bit that it leaked I was able to smell it when I walk by.

If you can get to the tees and other fittings underneath, you can spray them with a soapy solution and look for bubbles. Also the hoses regulator.

I would start with soapy water sprayed on regulator lines. That's where I found my leak.