Portable Camping Stove Design Issue

[porterwake]

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.

[Gdetrailer]

Sjm9911 wrote:
Is the outside low or high pressure? What does the fitting look like, quick connect or screw on?

First post the OP stated..

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.

So, the OP has a popup trailer.

They are using a stove that the builder of said popup installed into that popup.

That stove is deigned to be usable inside or outside the same popup.

Manufacturer of said popup also plumbed in the gas lines, installed quick disconnects to allow the said purpose of being able to move and use that stove from the inside to outside.

At one point in time before or shortly after that popup left the manufacturers facility that stove had to have worked..

As far as I am able to determine, OP has not modified the stove or gas plumbing but now the said stove is not working inside or outside.

Common parts are stove, pigtail from stove to quick disconnect and inside and outside quick disconnects..

OPs furnace works ruling out tanks and high pressure regulator.

Quick disconnects can and do fail as they are pretty much a similar design as quick disconnects you use on shop air lines which tend to fail often.. Doug gave good advice on how to check the quick disconnects.

[Sjm9911]

Is the outside low or high pressure? What does the fitting look like, quick connect or screw on?

[wa8yxm]

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.

Not necessarly true
The RV has a primary regulator 11" of water is the pressure
And the stove often has a secondary regulator at a LOWER pressure.

To the original poster
First follow the lines to insure that both are low pressure ports (I suspect they are but check to be sure) also inspect the lines to the non-working port.

Then it is possible the external port has an issue.

[dougrainer]

porterwake wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
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

3. Inside or outside, the gas does not make it to the burner. When I light the gas at the knobs, it lights, but very weakly. There is no hiss from even the opening at the knobs.

I assume you have a spring loaded LP quick connect. It is probably the Center pin inside the quick connect is NOT seating squarely and pushing the inside pin inward to release the LP. You need to remove the FEED fitting(LP turned OFF at tank) and then have someone open the LP tank valve. If you feel and hear a good stream of LP the quick connect is your problem. Doug

PS, VERY common problem when trying to use the outside LP connection, very strange it also fails inside.

[DrewE]

porterwake wrote:

3. Inside or outside, the gas does not make it to the burner. When I light the gas at the knobs, it lights, but very weakly. There is no hiss from even the opening at the knobs.

Maybe the orifices are clogged, or maybe the stove's regulator is being very much overzealous (or otherwise having the gas supply constricted). If all the burners are behaving identically, I'd tend to suspect things common to all three.

[Tom_M1]

Since the furnace works it's possible you have a clogged or pinched gas line or the regulator in the stove is shot.

[sparkydave]

FYI, I had a problem with my popup when I tried to use the stove outside. Thanks to lousy design, the hose was connected to a pipe that came straight up from the floor, and it made a 180 degree bend. Routing the hose to the outside the hose would kink and cut off the gas. I had to add a 90 degree elbow fitting to keep the gas line from kinking.

[porterwake]

dougrainer wrote:
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

3. Inside or outside, the gas does not make it to the burner. When I light the gas at the knobs, it lights, but very weakly. There is no hiss from even the opening at the knobs.

[Tvov]

A lot of people, including me, give up on the portable stove that comes with the camper.

Think about a Weber, Coleman, or similar portable camping stove. You may be happier in the long run.

[rexlion]

Gdetrailer wrote:
...Quick disconnects can also fail to pass gas...

Unlike me, lately.

#2 too much wind?

Yep, that's my problem! 🙂

[dougrainer]

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

[Gdetrailer]

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..

[DrewE]

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.

[Tom_M1]

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.