Next I will be looking to see if I have any issues with LP Gas system. The stove, furnace and fridge appear to be working fine. I have not tested the water heater yet as I have it in the winterized mode.
From what I can tell, I need to put a pressure guage near the regulator, turn on the gas at the tank, then note the pressure, turn the gas off and hope the pressure does not drop. I should have done the leak down test first, before I tested the appliances, but I didn't know about it then and still made it out alive.
Could someone suggest a guage? I think I want to put it on the 4-port tee, maybe on the 1/4" inverted flare fitting. As someone suggested, I may want to rotate the T ports down to where the 1/4" port is pointing down.
Thanks!
From what I can tell, I need to put a pressure guage near the regulator, turn on the gas at the tank, then note the pressure, turn the gas off and hope the pressure does not drop. I should have done the leak down test first, before I tested the appliances, but I didn't know about it then and still made it out alive.
Could someone suggest a guage? I think I want to put it on the 4-port tee, maybe on the 1/4" inverted flare fitting. As someone suggested, I may want to rotate the T ports down to where the 1/4" port is pointing down.
Thanks!
Hey everybody, finally got around to doing the leak down test. (TLDR, go to 'Present')
Background:
Calhoun Falls State Park, on our 5th night there back in Feb, I had a dream that something was making an alarm sound. Nope not a dream, the new propane leak detector was going off. Never heard it before so it took me a minute to figure what was making that noise alarm. Anyways, I opened the door to let any gas flow out. Sure enough it stopped yelling at me and I went back to sleep. (Yeah, not the dumbest thing I ever did, but close to it.) 2 hours later it went off again. This time I shut off the propane tank. It was cold outside, but the little electric heater we was doing OK, so I went back to sleep again.
Actually I had forgot about that issue, till I was reviewing my to-do list, but by then we were prepping for Myrtle Beach State Park and didn't have time to look into the issue.
So at MBSP same thing almost. We spent our week watching planes go overhead and it was great! Let the COLD waves wash over our feet and then walked to the end of the pier. On the way back traffic was horrible going out on hwy 501 AND on both sides of Columbia on I-20 / I-26 (note to self: DON'T GO THROUGH COLUMBIA AROUND 5PM!). We were had just got into Columbia when that alarm started again. Found a parking lot, opened the door, waved the gas out the door. 10 minutes later it went off again. I shut off the propane, we had the fridge running on gas while in transit, moved the ice trays from the freezer to the fridge to help it stay cool for that last 2 hours home. Yes, 3 hours, not the normal 1 hour. Two, TWO! Two Tractor trailers had broke down on I-26 in the construction zones, no way for them to pull off the road. Spicy words were spoken often.
Present:
Just built the manometer with 5/8" clear tube, a 1x4 2ft long and zip ties. (https://youtu.be/QnlfQK-8qy4) Hooked it up and did a measurement, 12" of water column, close enough for me. And it was rock solid, for a minute, then it dropped all of a sudden. I was going to bleed off a little pressure to see if the shutoff valve had a bypass leak. When I touch the stove knob, that's when it dropped. Hmm... tried it again, no drop. Went around banging on stove, fridge, furnace and water heater no more sudden dropping, till after the banging, it did again, just dropped after about a minute and then slowly went down.
So now I need to find the propane leak. After some more thinking I will probably order a sniffer off Amazon to help find where the leak is.
STRANGE how it drops all of a sudden after a minute, then slowly leaks down.
Before the drop (6" mark)
After dropping:
Edit, added this pic:
Background:
Calhoun Falls State Park, on our 5th night there back in Feb, I had a dream that something was making an alarm sound. Nope not a dream, the new propane leak detector was going off. Never heard it before so it took me a minute to figure what was making that noise alarm. Anyways, I opened the door to let any gas flow out. Sure enough it stopped yelling at me and I went back to sleep. (Yeah, not the dumbest thing I ever did, but close to it.) 2 hours later it went off again. This time I shut off the propane tank. It was cold outside, but the little electric heater we was doing OK, so I went back to sleep again.
Actually I had forgot about that issue, till I was reviewing my to-do list, but by then we were prepping for Myrtle Beach State Park and didn't have time to look into the issue.
So at MBSP same thing almost. We spent our week watching planes go overhead and it was great! Let the COLD waves wash over our feet and then walked to the end of the pier. On the way back traffic was horrible going out on hwy 501 AND on both sides of Columbia on I-20 / I-26 (note to self: DON'T GO THROUGH COLUMBIA AROUND 5PM!). We were had just got into Columbia when that alarm started again. Found a parking lot, opened the door, waved the gas out the door. 10 minutes later it went off again. I shut off the propane, we had the fridge running on gas while in transit, moved the ice trays from the freezer to the fridge to help it stay cool for that last 2 hours home. Yes, 3 hours, not the normal 1 hour. Two, TWO! Two Tractor trailers had broke down on I-26 in the construction zones, no way for them to pull off the road. Spicy words were spoken often.
Present:
Just built the manometer with 5/8" clear tube, a 1x4 2ft long and zip ties. (https://youtu.be/QnlfQK-8qy4) Hooked it up and did a measurement, 12" of water column, close enough for me. And it was rock solid, for a minute, then it dropped all of a sudden. I was going to bleed off a little pressure to see if the shutoff valve had a bypass leak. When I touch the stove knob, that's when it dropped. Hmm... tried it again, no drop. Went around banging on stove, fridge, furnace and water heater no more sudden dropping, till after the banging, it did again, just dropped after about a minute and then slowly went down.
So now I need to find the propane leak. After some more thinking I will probably order a sniffer off Amazon to help find where the leak is.
STRANGE how it drops all of a sudden after a minute, then slowly leaks down.
Before the drop (6" mark)
After dropping:
Edit, added this pic:
Hmm, the new-new one is too long when using the 4-port tee. Too long by about an inch. Guess I'll be sending the Tee back also.
Here's a side-by-side, couldn't get contorted enough to show the excess length at point of installation.
Edit: added installed pic
Here's a side-by-side, couldn't get contorted enough to show the excess length at point of installation.
Edit: added installed pic
SCADAMAN29325 wrote:wolfe10 wrote:
A little difficult to tell from the picture, but it appears the regulator vent in in the long axis of the regulator. This is NOT the correct PN for a horizontal installation.
The vent (quarter sized screen) needs to POINT DOWN.
The place you bought it should have asked if it would be installed horizontally or vertically.
Yes, this is a safety issue.
I found a pic of the old installation, so I need to rotate the regulator like this, correct? BTW, I did this (and learned that the input end has left hand threads). I don't want anyone else taking credit for my screw ups!
I think someone mentioned this before and I thought they were talking about the 4-port T.
NO, the part is different. I would be very surprised if you are able to rotate the second stage to where the vent faces down. And, if you could, no idea what you would damage in the regulator. Said another way, I would not recommend even trying this. But, if you are considering doing this, please contact the regulator manufacturer for their advice. Propane devices are not something to take lightly.
Go back to the store where you bought it and talk with a manager. They SHOULD have asked if it was to be installed vertically or horizontally. At the very least, they should sell you the correct one at cost.
wolfe10 wrote:
A little difficult to tell from the picture, but it appears the regulator vent in in the long axis of the regulator. This is NOT the correct PN for a horizontal installation.
The vent (quarter sized screen) needs to POINT DOWN.
The place you bought it should have asked if it would be installed horizontally or vertically.
Yes, this is a safety issue.
I found a pic of the old installation, so I need to rotate the regulator like this, correct? BTW, I did this (and learned that the input end has left hand threads). I don't want anyone else taking credit for my screw ups!
I think someone mentioned this before and I thought they were talking about the 4-port T.
