Propane system question/regulator

dougrainer wrote:
The purpose of the Auto change over Red/Green is to give a visual indication when the primary tank runs out of LP. You POINT the lever at the tank you want to use FIRST. Leave BOTH tank valves OPEN. When the FIRST tank runs out of LP, the system auto changes to the 2nd tank. Then that green goes to red. That lets you know the primary tank is empty and you are running on the 2nd tank. You then flip the lever to the 2nd tank, remove the primary tank to get refilled. A BIG misconception is to put the lever midway which defeats the purpose of the Auto change over design/

The "misconception" is that the indicator lever will "automatically" switch over from one tank that has emptied to a second tank that is full. The problem is exacerbated because most tanks these days wear a cover, either hard plastic or vinyl, but which in either case hides the indicator unless the cover is removed. That's a PITA so some will DIY a viewing window in the cover so they can easily see at a glance just what that indicator is telling them and therefore know when to manually move that lever to the in-use tank. I've chosen to not bother and instead run my tanks sequentially, then there's no need to see the indicator and I always in effect have a spare full tank when the first empties. What it seems is being missed is that just because one may choose to run the tanks with both valves open that doesn't mean the indicator will follow one tank until it's empty and then automatically switch to the second full tank ... it doesn't, the lever has to be manually switched over to point to the full tank, at which point it will turn green again.