Help Me Decipher My Propane Valve

Yah,I'm probably not making it clear...
Here's how I see it...

My tanks are in the side compartment, truck bed is high, hard to reach to open

Red valve indicates either out or Low. Low means there's still some left in the tank up to a half gallon or more. I prefer the tank empty when filling recognizing it probably doesn't make any difference in the long run, less propane to fill etc..

On MY Tanks, the auto switching would require checking all the time to see if out.

I prefer to run out of one tank, knowing I can switch to a back up instead of running out of both tanks at 3am..

Hope that helps... I'm done with this topic.. thanks..

I'm from the PNW and move around, 17f has been the coldest so far , colder than AZ at times, but not all..

fpoole wrote:
.......


So for "ME", there is a Darn Good "Reason" to turn one off and know when one has been emptied. If I wasn't watching it, I'd have 2 empty tanks... sigh, at 3-am in the c-c-c-cold mornings in the PNW... and that wouldn't be pretty, heheh.

:h :)

How hard is it to check on your rig? I can check mine in less than 30 seconds when I happen to walk by. You are missing using a nice feature of the changeover valves.

billtex wrote:
Yes, you can leave both valves open. When the primary tanks is empty the indicator will turn red and the secondary tank will kick in at a lower pressure (sufficient to run appliances). This is your clue to switch the position of the lever to the full tank (indicator turns green again) and start looking for a place to fill the first tank.

......
There really is no reason to keep one valve closed... this defeats the purpose of "auto-change over".

Good luck, Bill

Yah, well, apparently I have different set up, Stock 990 rig, cause I couldn't see any Lower volume of flame, stove, than normal and one tank is empty, Red showing on dial.

I thought I'd try the leaving them both open and then start looking for the 'lower flame indicator', not seen. To me, it would be nice to have an "in cabin" indicator, but didn't see a lower flame so It's wide open until the 2nd tank empties.

I also checked with the Dealer and he didn't know of a "Lower" flame to indicate one tank was empty and it was working on the other one. The Valve was RED on the earlier tank, but no other indications.

So for "ME", there is a Darn Good "Reason" to turn one off and know when one has been emptied. If I wasn't watching it, I'd have 2 empty tanks... sigh, at 3-am in the c-c-c-cold mornings in the PNW... and that wouldn't be pretty, heheh.

Had snow last week in Oregon, dropped to 30F...

So, for me, back to turning OFF the 2nd tank and hope my timing gets better weather...

fun..

billtex wrote:
Hint; Wife will not be happy if your second (full) tank is closed and she has no heat or hot water.
There really is no reason to keep one valve closed...this defeats the purpose of "auto-change over".

My wife won't get out of bed in that case. :) I'm on furnace duty. On the other hand, wife won't be happy if all of the LP is gone because one of us left the furnace on when we took the TC back to the storage lot. ;) Worse case, closing one valve means I have one tank in reserve.

I found all those switch over valves leaking internally.
Meaning if you pull the empty cylinder for refilling, the propane from the other cylinder will leak out via disconnected fitting.
Since I like to do that and still have propane in the camper, I disconnected one of the short hoses and cap the fitting.
This way I can use camper with single cylinder and I know precisely when one is empty.

Yes, you can leave both valves open. When the primary tanks is empty the indicator will turn red and the secondary tank will kick in at a lower pressure (sufficient to run appliances). This is your clue to switch the position of the lever to the full tank (indicator turns green again) and start looking for a place to fill the first tank.

Hint; Wife will not be happy if your second (full) tank is closed and she has no heat or hot water.
There really is no reason to keep one valve closed...this defeats the purpose of "auto-change over".

Good luck, Bill

fpoole wrote:
Yah, what they said...

I leave one tank closed so when the other one runs out, RED indicator on the dial, I'll open up the other one and then turn the dial towards that one... Sometimes you have to reset the Refrigerator ON/OFF to get it to pick up the new tank...

I do this so I' KNOW when one tank needs to be refilled and I have the 2nd tank to run stuff...

I also, use a simple marker, red bungi cord to mark which tank is in use and flip it done to tell me it's the empty tank... I might not get to the propane place right away and I "Fergit" which one is empty... I know, just look at the pointer, but I like the KISS method...

Only negative is that when it runs out, you need, if you want heat, to go out and turn on/open the full tank and turn the valve to the full tank.

Typically??? hehehheh,
It's 0300hrs when it's c-c-c-cold outside...

You can do it your way in MS but when in MT in June and snow at night you will want to leave both tanks open, just in case one tank kicks in the middle of a cold night. Nice rig.

PDF Operating Manual for Cavagna Group 924N changeover valve

Click Here

This has me curious. Tomorrow after work I shall do the ole "tank switcheroo" to find out how difficult it is to remove one. It doesn't LOOK that bad, but looks can be deceiving.

towpro wrote:
and I think the left tank comes out first, so I always point at the left tank when they both are full. As soon as the left tank is empty, it switches to right tank and I go get left tank refilled. Than if its been sometime running on the RS tank, I will pull both tanks, put full tank one RS, put partially full one on LS and switch it back to left tank.

My AF 811 is the same - left tank has to come out first, so I always use it first. The little retainer strap that holds the tanks in, I took a sharpie and wrote on it - USE FIRST (on the left tank strap)!

I never run with both tanks on, I always run one, then the other.

I've never seen a tank switchover doo-hickey like the one on RangerTim's WC.