Gas - 16 litre conundrum (1 Viewer)

[maz]

I have a built in 20lt L P G tank, it will only fill to 18lt to full.
It has a 4 indicator light indicating the amount of gas left. Whilst on holiday the week before Easter in Christchurch. Dorset, it was indicating half full, 2 lights on, after 3 Days it was on red, nearly empty. No way had I used that emount of gas in 3 days. I could not understand this " gas loss", As soon as I got home I went and filled up, but only got 14.5 lts. Now I realise my light indicators are only indicators and not accurate gauges.
Before I left for the holiday the indicator was registrating over 2 lights, ie, the third light coming on accasionally.

I put this discrepancy down to the freezing weather and the L P G not " gassing up " am I correct do you think?

Ppjay

With respect, 14.5 litres vs 18 is still 80% of your expectation. As is jb0371's 16 litres vs 20.

In my case, 16 litres vs 40 is just 40% of expectation. Or allowing for considerable inaccuracy in the gauge as detailed in an earlier post, 16 litres vs 30 is still only 53% of expectation. Bit of a difference, huh?

 

[Minxy]

Another version of the gas level gauge:

Link Removed

 

[hilldweller]

This gauge looks interesting Hilldweller, have you been using one? I like the idea of not having to weigh the bottles and do the sums.

No. I get by with the normal pressure gauge.

"Weigh the bottles and do the sums". Now that is doing it the hard way. Accurate I guess.

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[hilldweller]

www.motorcaravaning.co.uk...

I am at a loss as to WHY or what they base the following statement on :

It must be a pretty crude "pinger" that is calibrated for the reflections in a plain metal tank. Can't cope with any different of multiple reflections.

 

[hilldweller]

Another version of the gas level gauge:

Link Removed

"This impressive piece of equipment automatically turns on only when the gas is on and running low."

This says to me that it's a crude temperature sensor that trips in when the bottom of the tank gets cold.

I may be wrong.

 

[WAG2CRU]

After my problem with the filler, it then took another three fills before the system would accept the amount of gas it should, hopefully your system will normalise also.

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[maz]

Thank you Bat - at last someone who doesn't just think I'm incapable of understanding a gas gauge! :wooo:

 

[JeanLuc]

Hi Maz, I realise you have worked out a process of elimination to identify the problem, but have you spoken to Gaslow to ask if they have any advice on the issue? I have found them helpful on the few occasions when I have felt the need for technical advice on the system.

Our bottles are the older pattern without gauges so I now have a manual changeover gauge, but that stays green for a long time then drops through yellow to red very quickly, so it's still a game of "LPG roulette".

p.s. we were at Cornish Farm on Thursday afternoon having some work done and left Friday morning - I must have been a bit unobservant as I didn't see you.

 

[maz]

Hi Maz, I realise you have worked out a process of elimination to identify the problem, but have you spoken to Gaslow to ask if they have any advice on the issue? I have found them helpful on the few occasions when I have felt the need for technical advice on the system.

Our bottles are the older pattern without gauges so I now have a manual changeover gauge, but that stays green for a long time then drops through yellow to red very quickly, so it's still a game of "LPG roulette".

p.s. we were at Cornish Farm on Thursday afternoon having some work done and left Friday morning - I must have been a bit unobservant as I didn't see you.

Hi Philip. I spoke to Gaslow when the filler started leaking and they were very helpful. I intend ringing them tomorrow to ask about this latest development of early cut-off.

The point about the bottle-attached Gaslow gauges is that I have lived with them for two years fulltime in two vans. They can occasionally 'stick' which is why I always flick them with a fingernail but other than that I can use them to fairly accurately estimate what my fill will be (despite Gromett's scepticism ). On one occasion filling up at the FloGas depot in Staveley I said to the attendant that it should take 'about £9 worth'. It took £9.09 and the attendant was suitably impressed!

I find it reassuring that Bat21 posted that his Gaslow system took a while to revert to normal fill levels after his gas leak. At least I know that someone else has had the same problem. I'm hoping that mine will sort itself out too.

I arrived at Cornish Farm about 10.15 on the Friday morning. Maybe you had already left by then?

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[JeanLuc]

Good luck with it Maz - hope it is a 'settle-down' problem. We must have gone through the gates at Cornish Farm within minutes of each other.

 

[maz]

Good luck with it Maz - hope it is a 'settle-down' problem. We must have gone through the gates at Cornish Farm within minutes of each other.

Thank you Philip.

Good job we didn't meet at the narrow section.

 

[maz]

Update

Spoke to Gaslow again this morning and again they were very helpful.

It seems as tho' there could be an issue with the cut-off. They said that the only way to be sure how much gas is in each bottle is to take them out and weigh them. However the left hand bottle 'rings' rather than 'thuds' when tapped so this could be the culprit. They gave me the number of a mobile engineer who is going to check things out for me next week and change the bottle if necessary.

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[Peter & Elaine]

Can you let us know what happens as a friend of mine a tugger has just this weekend had a simeler problem with a pair of small bottles again it may be only one actually filled
Thanks peter

 

[maz]

Can you let us know what happens as a friend of mine a tugger has just this weekend had a simeler problem with a pair of small bottles again it may be only one actually filled
Thanks peter

Will do. Out of interest, had your tugger friend had any problems with the filler hose as well?

 

[Peter & Elaine]

No just a short fill about 12 litres less then he expected he only runs 1 bottle at a time 1 was defiantly empty the second had run heating all weekend some he was expecting at least a 18 litres
Both his gauges are bust so he can not use them as a guide what he normally does is run one bottle off give a few days and fill up again he has 2 6 kilo bottles the most he has ever put in is 20 kilos
Never had a problem with any leaks just once where filler pipe jump off and frightened him to death
He has them for 2 years and he recons he can normally judge it to within a couple of litres

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[maz]

Weird, huh? I wonder what's going on ......... :Confused:

 

[Peter & Elaine]

I thought MAYBY his over fill float was stuck in the full position
Therefore only filling one bottle
so he said over a pint as we do that he is away this weekend at coast and he going to give bottles a good rattle then try again on way home

 

[maz]

I thought MAYBY his over fill float was stuck in the full position
Therefore only filling one bottle
so he said over a pint as we do that he is away this weekend at coast and he going to give bottles a good rattle then try again on way home

Hmmm. Could be I guess. My bottles should have had a good rattling on the way back from Eddie's.

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[Peter & Elaine]

Maybe time to change your signature to
Tires balls and gas

 

[maz]

Tires balls and gas

Sounds like a Funster rally!

 

[Peter & Elaine]

Elaine's comment
girl power

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[maz]

Probably shouldn't have done this but those of you who know me will understand the temptation to see what would happen.

Stopped off at a filling station to get diesel ........... and they had an LPG pump. So thought I'd have a play with it and see what would happen with my supposedly full bottles. Pumped in another 18 litres! So 18 + the earlier 16 + whatever was still in the bottles from the beginning is much more like the expected 40 litre fill. Fingers crossed that my system has now 'normalised' itself after its trauma.

Of course, I now don't know what stopped the system from filling properly the first time. But if it was a sticking cut-off valve that subsequently unstuck itself on the way back from Eddie's, it would have been pretty embarrassing getting a mobile engineer out to see to it for nothing. :Blush:

Think I'll just have to keep an eye on system refills for a while ........

 

[Spenders]

Just goes to show Maz that it doesn't hurt to have your bottles rattled...

 

[Peter & Elaine]

Probably shouldn't have done this but those of you who know me will understand the temptation to see what would happen.

Stopped off at a filling station to get diesel ........... and they had an LPG pump. So thought I'd have a play with it and see what would happen with my supposedly full bottles. Pumped in another 18 litres! So 18 + the earlier 16 + whatever was still in the bottles from the beginning is much more like the expected 40 litre fill. Fingers crossed that my system has now 'normalised' itself after its trauma.

Of course, I now don't know what stopped the system from filling properly the first time. But if it was a sticking cut-off valve that subsequently unstuck itself on the way back from Eddie's, it would have been pretty embarrassing getting a mobile engineer out to see to it for nothing. :Blush:
Think I'll just have to keep an eye on system refills for a while ........

Bloody hell Elaine's correct
Girl power

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[Carol]

Just love reading Maz's posts and people (men) think she is a bloke, now no one less of a bloke I have yet to meet, better do no blonde jokes with Maz because she is blond as well.

 

[maz]

Just love reading Maz's posts and people (men) think she is a bloke, now no one less of a bloke I have yet to meet, better do no blonde jokes with Maz because she is blond as well.

Ah yes, I'm a blonde female that can talk dirty - gas, tyres, grey water, you name it!

 

[JeanLuc]

Ah yes, I'm a blonde female that can talk dirty - gas, tyres, grey water, [HI]you name it![/HI]

Bit of a risky offer there I would have thought Maz :sorry2:

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[maz]

Update to Gaslow filling conundrum

A couple of times now since the original incomplete refill and subsequent topping up, I've been surprised by the amounts taken by the cylinders when I've filled up. Erratic would just about sum it up.

Then on Saturday I started smelling the odd whiff of gas again. :Angry: The day before I had switched to the second cylinder as the first had been in the red for several days, so suspected that this had something to do with it. Got out the soap solution and sure enough the hose running from the second bottle to the regulator was leaking - apparently from the collar where the flexible hose meets the pipe behind the nut. Also noticed that the gauge (which had been at the top of the green section) was now in the red - although that cylinder was supposedly full. :Confused: Switched back to the first cylinder to stop the leak - hoping there was still enough gas in there to last the weekend.

So on Monday morning I rang Gaslow - and explained that I seemed to have the system from hell installed in my van - just one problem after another. :Sad: Anyway, that lunchtime I got a phone call back from their warranty engineer who was on his way down to sort out the gremlin-infected system once and for all. He found that the nut on the end of the hose had been over-tightened, causing the rubber washer inside it to be damaged and leak. He also fished both bottles out of the locker - and the one that was supposedly full weighed much the same as the one that had been showing empty for days!

It turned out that both, yes both, of the cylinders had defective float mechanisms inside them - what are the odds against that happening, I wonder?! So that explained why I had been getting erratic refills all this time.

So I now have an entirely new Gaslow system - new cylinders, new hoses, new gauges, everything. A big thank you to Gaslow for replacing everything under their guarantee without quibble, and to their warranty engineer David for responding so quickly and driving miles to get the new cylinders filled with LPG. :thumb:

 

[vwalan]

easy to explain ....poor quality gear . have a friend that as had is bottles changed twice because of float faults and sticking none return valves in the bottles .
i must say gaslow have not argued and even offered to send a new bottle out to spain for him . but for the outlay i say its a load of rubbish poor quality fittings and bottles . .

 

[Gromett]

:thumb::thumb::thumb: For Gaslow Service. Well done.

Glad you are sorted now Maz.

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