- May 29, 2013
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- Chausson best of Flash 10
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- Several years now
We have a single calor cylinder set up in our Motorhome.
Late last year as the date on the pig-tail hose from the cylinder to the regulator was past it's recommended age I trotted off to our local Calor stockist.
"A new hose same as this please", said I, having taken the old hose with me. "No bother Sir, here is a shiny new one, £9 if you please".
So, fitted said hose, dead easy, but didn't test it as it was just a hose, what could possibly go wrong. Last week, before first outing of the year purged the gas through, tested cooker rings, fridge and boiler all working on gas. Yep, fine.
Off to the festival, set up MH, opened gas valve and put the fridge onto gas. What's this, error light on fridge ? Never done that before ! Let's just try the rings, won't light, no gas coming through.
First thought, the regulator is playing up, so give it a couple of taps. No difference. Turn off gas bottle, took hose off regulator and cracked the bottle valve, no gas. Brand new bottle, gauge says still full. Pull bottle out and shake it, gas sloshing around. Took pig-tail hose off completely, cracked bottle valve, gas rushes out !
Tried to blow down the hose, no chance, turned it round, blew the other way, no chance. Put it back on bottle, cracked valve, a short "phist" then nothing. Had a look into the bottle end of the pig-tail. What's this, a ball bearing thing ?
So I did a bit of research. Turns out that Calor now only sell "pig-tails for change over valve set ups" (I phoned them this morning to confirm this). So these hoses have a cheapo, simple non return valve built in. The old hose did not. This is what I had unknowingly fitted.
Anyway, back to the festival, I "cured" the problem, by putting my thumb over the open end of the pig-tail while cracking the bottle valve, this must have reset the non-return valve in the hose. Piped it all back up and the fridge worked, weekend saved. Mind, I am convinced that the gas flow was restricted by the nrv being iffy.
Having worked on gas for years I did work on clever auto-changeover two bottle systems and while they were 250Bar they certainly needed non-return valves. Single bottle systems never had them, no need at all.
So the moral of this story is, if you suddenly find you are not getting gas through and there is some in your bottle, don't assume that the regulator is duff, it could be that the pig-tail hose has decided to cease working !
Late last year as the date on the pig-tail hose from the cylinder to the regulator was past it's recommended age I trotted off to our local Calor stockist.
"A new hose same as this please", said I, having taken the old hose with me. "No bother Sir, here is a shiny new one, £9 if you please".
So, fitted said hose, dead easy, but didn't test it as it was just a hose, what could possibly go wrong. Last week, before first outing of the year purged the gas through, tested cooker rings, fridge and boiler all working on gas. Yep, fine.
Off to the festival, set up MH, opened gas valve and put the fridge onto gas. What's this, error light on fridge ? Never done that before ! Let's just try the rings, won't light, no gas coming through.
First thought, the regulator is playing up, so give it a couple of taps. No difference. Turn off gas bottle, took hose off regulator and cracked the bottle valve, no gas. Brand new bottle, gauge says still full. Pull bottle out and shake it, gas sloshing around. Took pig-tail hose off completely, cracked bottle valve, gas rushes out !
Tried to blow down the hose, no chance, turned it round, blew the other way, no chance. Put it back on bottle, cracked valve, a short "phist" then nothing. Had a look into the bottle end of the pig-tail. What's this, a ball bearing thing ?
So I did a bit of research. Turns out that Calor now only sell "pig-tails for change over valve set ups" (I phoned them this morning to confirm this). So these hoses have a cheapo, simple non return valve built in. The old hose did not. This is what I had unknowingly fitted.
Anyway, back to the festival, I "cured" the problem, by putting my thumb over the open end of the pig-tail while cracking the bottle valve, this must have reset the non-return valve in the hose. Piped it all back up and the fridge worked, weekend saved. Mind, I am convinced that the gas flow was restricted by the nrv being iffy.
Having worked on gas for years I did work on clever auto-changeover two bottle systems and while they were 250Bar they certainly needed non-return valves. Single bottle systems never had them, no need at all.
So the moral of this story is, if you suddenly find you are not getting gas through and there is some in your bottle, don't assume that the regulator is duff, it could be that the pig-tail hose has decided to cease working !