LP Gas Stops Flowing

[tbray]

We have an early 2020 Eagle HT that we bought last year, the last week in May, before Jayco had formally announced all the products for 2020. It was on the lot and my wife fell in love with it.

This weekend I tried to use the stove (its been fine previously) and the stove wouldn't light. There would be this little squeak for about a 1/2 second or less and occasionally there was enough gas to create a small flash. I checked the grill that was plugged in at the back and it also had no gas going to it.

I checked the tanks and the regulator showed there was full pressure. Disconnected both tanks and and tried the stove again, same behavior, but the regulator still showed full pressure.

I disconnected the regulator from the camper and regulator finally went read and some gas was released from the line.

I hooked line back up and the tanks and when I turned on the tank valves the pressure went to good. Still the stove didn't work.

I looked at the lines and there was nothing obviously wrong.

I fired up the gas water heater, expecting it to fault out, but it worked fine. While it was running I tested the stove and it also was working.

Later, I went to use the stove again and it didn't have pressure. This time I turned the fridge over to gas. The fridge worked fine and the stove worked again.

Any ideas on what could be the problem?

Thanks
Tom

 

[curver900]

someone had this happen about a month or so ago... try searching for it.. My advice would be to follow all the lines make sure you don't have a kink

 

[tbray]

I crawled under it and couldn't find anything that looked incorrect. All the way from the tongue to the rear connector. It all looks good.

 

[tbray]

lb gas stops flowing

Do you have any idea what he might have used for a name or the tags?
I did an initial search and got nothing.

 

[DocBrown-JAY]

The regulator failed. I had this happen in May. Same exact behavior as yours. I had to run out to an RV shop to buy a replacement. It's odd that it happened on such a new unit, but not unheard of. Mine was 7 years old. We discovered ours because the furnace was cycling every 30 seconds at 3:00 am. Enough gas was flowing for the furnace to detect it, not enough to light the burner.

 

[tbray]

I thought that was the case too except when I turn on the big users of propane it works fine. The fridge and water heater just work. It's just the stove and grill that seem to have the problem. If I turn on either fridge or water heater then everything works as it should.

 

[tbray]

Back out at the camper. Tried the stove and it would briefly light and then go out. I switched the fridge from electric to gas. It took it about a minute to light but it finally did. With the fridge running on gas I tried the stove and it lit up and worked.

This makes no sense to me.

Looking at the lines under the camper everything looks fine.

Is there a known failure where the regulator stops putting out gas until the line pressure drops? The camper has only been in service a little over a year.

Any other ideas?

 

[JFlightRisk]

Regulators and pigtails can fail at any time. You didn't mention if one or both tanks are on, and if both tank valves were opened VERY slowly.

 

[tbray]

Update:
Today I took the regulator off the camper and took it to an RV dealer nearby. I explained my problem and he had never heard of something like this.

They had a fixture to test the regulator. The verdict is that the regulator is fine except the the excessive flow valve was very sensitive. One of his mechanics also thought that there might be oil in the line. He wasn’t sure if the regulator wasn’t a problem but he thought the problem was elsewhere. He said that the stove always works, even when the other appliances don’t and if it doesn’t there is usually a blockage of some sort.

That wasn’t what I really wanted to hear. Over the years I have learned that if mechanics have never seen something the chances that they can fix it drop significantly. Plus this problem has an intermittent element to it so a busy mechanic will probably declare it fixed once it appears to work.

Since I had nothing to test with, I picked up one of those male connectors used to connect a grill to the camper. I put the regulator back on the camper and tested the stove. It worked.

Then I took the male connector and put it in the end of my grill hose. Hooked it up to the camper and standing away from the camper I opened the valve. Gas flowed just fine and there didn’t appear to be any evidence of oil. I shut off the grill hose valve and let it sit for a while, probably an hour or more.

I tried the stove again and couldn’t get it to light. I hooked up my test hose again and opened up the valve. A little gas came out and then stopped. I shut off the valve, waited a few seconds and opened it up again. This time a little gas came out, it almost stopped and then started producing a nice stream of gas. I closed the valve on the hose and went inside and tried the stove, it worked.

To make a story a bit shorter.I went to Camping World and got a new regulator and tank hoses but didn’t install them. Camping World was willing to take back the regulator if I didn’t open the package, the other place wasn’t sure I could do that.

When I got back I swapped which tank I was getting gas from and that didn’t change its behavior. Then I shut everything down, drained the remaining gas from the line using the grill hose. Closed grill hose valve, opened the tank, the regulator indicated good pressure. Then I opened the other tank’s valve.

For whatever reason everything is working now and seems to continue to do so.

In the past I never had both tanks turned on at the same time. The old regulator I had on my Airstream wouldn’t automatically swap from one side to the other and when I took one of the tanks off while the other was supplying the camper, there was an obvious leak.

I think I will keep the new regulator and maybe install it later. I just don’t trust the old one at this point.

 

[RichR]

Many times things like this happen because of the anti-leak check valve kicks in especially when the tank valve is opened to quickly. The usual cure for that is to shut off the tank, unhook the hose from the tank, let the pressure off the line by turning on a stove burner for a bit. Reconnect the hose then very slowly open the valve so there isn't a rush of gas from the tank. Give it a try.

 

[curver900]

In the past I never had both tanks turned on at the same time. The old regulator I had on my Airstream wouldn’t automatically swap from one side to the other and when I took one of the tanks off while the other was supplying the camper, there was an obvious leak.

I think I will keep the new regulator and maybe install it later. I just don’t trust the old one at this point.[/QUOTE]


mine does this too.. both tanks need to be on.. I don't know why... probably a feature...