how do you know gas is near empty (1 Viewer)

[scotjimland]

Heavy Ends
An oily contaminate that can collect in the bottom of gas cylinders.



http://www.calormarineshop.co.uk/lpg_glossary.htm

 

[barryd]

Cor! we like a good old banter dont we. Its all getting a bit heated!. I still dont know what your all on about but strangly I am attracted to this post.

 

[sinbad1]

Don't feed the trolls

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[pappajohn]

Cor! we like a good old banter dont we. Its all getting a bit heated!. I still dont know what your all on about but strangly I am attracted to this post.

is it? hadnt really noticed....

 

[vwalan]

oil be alright in a minute . oil see he later..its a gas. cant we talk about a frames ?still cant see why we cant get a 13kg bottle exchanged for 3 quid like in maroc.

 

[45eEver]

Talk about empty barrels . . .

A common complaint among LPG vehicle owners is the appearance of heavy end residuals or 'heavy ends' in their converters.
This is a dark, smelly, waxy substance that can plug up propane converters

The converter is the valve the liquid propane into gas.

If your LPG conversion stops working, the residue may have gummed it up.

http://cars.rasoenterprises.com/Propane-Residuals.htm

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[vwalan]

45er, its a fun site , smile , we understand gastronomical laughs . lifes a gas.

 

[alf]

GAs Problems

Hi.
I thought it had been proved that the oily residue collecting in regulators was caused by the rubber regulator hoses leeching!
this is why they date stamp all rubber gas pipes and they should be changed every 5 years
most gas locker gas smells can be located to the leaking rubber regulator hoses I have one in my garage as an emergency spare
I changed it 2 years ago and it still smells of gas.

At a guess the 25% is seen as 25% of the contents
ie 80% full a 1/4 of 80 is 25% it does not mean that 25% will go into 20%
it is a play on figures the chap who quoted percentages was an MP.
enough said yer honour

Regards
Alf

 

[45eEver]

On the contrary Alf.

4 gallons of liquid propane can expand by a 1/4 (25%) before it fills the 1 gallon space at the top of the cylinder.

Long before that 4 gallons of propane has expanded enough to fill the cylinder the pressure regulating valve will blow off releasing propane gas

Any more problems Alf?

This is fun.
Takes me back to when I was instructing students about propane and cylinders.
Happy days.

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[alf]

Knowledge.

45eEVER

its just a play on figures 25% of 80% tank content is 20% of the tank capacity
its the way they are presented are you saying that Calor and all tank manufacturers and the Health nd Saftey people are all wrong.

I see the problem now you taught students WOW an EXPERT.

Where is the ignore button.

Alf

 

[45eEver]

cant see why we cant get a 13kg bottle exchanged for 3 quid like in maroc.

Unless things have changed since I worked out in North Africa Alan, you are buying pentane rather than butane.

Apart from all the other considertations, pentane is cheap in North Africa, and pentane cylinders are cheaper.

Next time you are out there, turn the the cylinder upside down, and watch what comes out.
If you try that on a cold morning, you can catch the pentane in a cup and watch it boil off.

Wow, this is a fun site.
Anybody want to know anything else about bottled gas?.

 

[vwalan]

so if i ask for butane i get pentane.who cares it works n its cheap if i ask for propane its slightly dearer. all gets used with a 28 mbr, reg . i tip it into other bottles n get some more.camping gas etc its all the same to me . burns the same as the gas in india or where ever we go. fill bottles every where, always come home with full ones . burns ok here. never change jets or regs. have an lpg hand pump its good for getting the last bit out of bottles. its interesting that the prices vary so much but then once you know buy in the cheap places. tried tanks but in spain n maroc with out the pump its too much hassle so went back to bottles. i use gas lights in the truck as well light n heat together. but its still the question of how do you stop the bottle running out when you are using the oven for a special meal or something ? we all get caught out.

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[45eEver]

If you swap the near empty cylinder for a full one before you cook that special meal Alan, you are unlikely to run out.

Then just swap back again afterwards.

Pentane, butane, propane, ethane and methane are all very similar petro-chems.
Just different boiling points.

Pentane is fine in hotter climates like North Africa and India.

Natural gas is a mixture of ethane and methane.
Liquified natural gas, as I'm sure you know, needs very thick cylinders.

 

[45eEver]

Thanks for your advice Sinbad.

If you don't mind, I think I'll carry on feeding the trolls anyway.

They amuse me.
And they seem to get the serious stuff read.

Cheers 45.

 

[N Luyetund]

Jeeze...I must be bored.... read some of this thread and went back to see the original request...

Rough guide to ascertaining the the measure of fullness or emptiness of a propane gas bottle:

• warm a heat retention pad to max hand hot

• bring into contact with gas cylinder

• exploit dermis sensitivity by feeling tank/cylinder/bottle

• endothermic section indicates presence of liquefied gas

....OR YOU COULD JUST



slap a hot flannel on the side of the cylinder....where there's liquid present it will remain cold... the portion with vapour in will warm slightly .....

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[barryd]

Im still here! and I dont know why. However while I have all you experts together and clearly some of you know a lot about gas. What uses most gas at what rate in the MH? For example

Gas Fire
Water Heater
Fridge
Cooker Ring
Oven

We leave our fridge on Gas a lot but if its a cool evening we switch it off and put it back on again in the morning when it starts to get warmer. Is this a waste of time? Michelle will boil a kettle for washing up. Should she just stick the boiler on for 30min (it gets really hot)?

I dont know if all motorhomes are the same but ours runs much better on gas. The water heats up faster, the fridge is better and the fire is much better than using a fan heater on hookup.

What do you Gasies think?

 

[45eEver]

Your question is a bit of a 'How long is a piece of string' question.

It depends how high you have them turned up.

Gas fire, and ring can be quite greedy.

Fridge is usually quite miserly.

 

[45eEver]

Truma water heater max 1.5Kw/hr.
Once it is up to temp, it uses very little gas.

Instantaneous gas water heaters can be over 6Kwhr.

Small Truma heater up high nearly 2kwnr.
Large Truma heater up high nearly 4kw/hr.

Typical fridge uses about 300grms of gas in 24 hours

Your oven could be up to 1Kw/hr
Your rings up to 1.5kw/hr

If I remember correctly, but don't quote me, 1kw for an hour is roughly about 150grm gas.
Perhaps someone will enjoy being kind enough to correct me?
Thanks in advance.

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[barryd]

Truma water heater max 1.5Kw/hr.
Once it is up to temp, it uses very little gas.

Instaneous gas water heaters can be over 6Kwhr.

Small Truma heater up high nearly 2kwnr.
Large Truma heater up high nearly 4kw/hr.

Typical fridge uses about 300grms of gas in 24 hours

Your oven could be up to 1Kw/hr
Your rings up to 1.5kw/hr

If I remember correctly, but don't quote me, 1kw for an hour is roughly about 150grm gas.
Perhaps someone will enjoy correcting me?

Thanks for the replies. So in answer to my questions we may as well just leave the fridge on but the water heater uses quite a bit. Just use that for having a shower then and boil the kettle for washing up. Our fire doesnt seem to make much difference if we turn it up or down. So is one litre of propane 1KG in weight then? We used 7.8 litres I think on our last trip which was 4 days worth. Im just interested to calculate where it all went and on what.

cheers
Barry

 

[Peter JohnsCross MH]

Sorry I havn't a c;lue what I am talking aboutbut I am sure my lot know all about it:thumb:

We have just started to stock the entire Gaslow range, do these things solve the problem?

Peter


Link Removed Gaslow 2004 Range - 500 auto Change Over Head
Auto change over upgrade head only for use with 30mb EN Caravan Regulator.
Will work for Butane or Propane cylinders.
Requires Euro Pigtail hoses (Sold Separately).

Link RemovedGaslow 2004 Range - 500 Twin Butane Regulator Gauge.
Features:
Unique Gaslow gauge for use with 30mb Caravan Regulator.
Gives warning of leaks and low gas.
Fits between hose and regulator.
Twin inlet and single outlet.
Requires Euro Pigtail hoses (Sold Separately)

 

[45eEver]

A litre of propane weighs about 1/2Kg Barry.

Gas rings aren't efficient, a lot of the heat goes into the air.

Truma water heaters are much more efficient, they use most of the gas heating the water.
They don't use much gas once they've got the water hot either.
They take about 35 mins to heat the water for a shower.
If you don't want to shower within 35 mins of getting up, I daresay turning off before you go to bed and turning it on when you get up will save a bit of fuel.

Similarly, turning it off when you go out and on when you come in will save a bit more fuel.

In cooler weather, the waste heat from your Truma will warm the inside of your van a little, so it's not entirely wasted.

Truma water heaters are more fuel efficient when the thermostat is turned down.

Yes, no point in turning the fridge off.

What sort of fire have you Barry?
I haven't met one where you can't adjust a flame.
I'd have expected a KonTiki to have a thermostat on it's heater.

Regards, 45

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[barryd]

Hi thanks again for this useful info. The fire I think is a Carver something or other and it does have a control knob/thermostat on it. I just meant that it doesnt seem to make a huge difference if its turned low or high. A little bit but not that much. So in theory then rather than just turning the hot water on occasionally we could just leave it on as once the temp is up then it uses little power. Michelle wont do this though as shes anal about the gas and I am anal about the battery power. It gives us a laugh though. I suppose one good thing about fitting the gaslow is that we will probably be more liberal with it as its now half the price of before on normal tanks and we should in theory not run out. In fact I might ditch the 6KG bottle spare as we probably wont ever need it

 

[45eEver]

Barry, I suggest you do what you feel comfortable doing.

I use a fisherman's spring balance to check the weight of fuel in my bottle.
If you fancy keeping an eye on how much fuel you use, you need one that will measure the weight of your Gaslow when it's full.

If you weigh before and after, you will see how much you've used.
And how much you've got left.

There's always plenty of spring balances on Ebay, and they are as cheap as chips.
spring balance, Sporting Goods, Tickets Travel, Business, Office Industrial items at low prices on eBay.co.uk

Sounds like your Carver thermostat isn't working too well.
I had a similar problem with one.

I adjusted the height of the flame using the other knob,
A bit fiddly, but it meant I didn't need to change the bottles so often..

 

[barryd]

Thanks for that. I dont think I need to weigh the bottle as when I fill it up it tells me exactly how many litres I have used. I.e 7.7 litres for 4 days camping without hookup. Hopefully off to Europe very soon so I am hoping we wont need the fire! Off for a proper summer this year!!!!!!

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[45eEver]

Have you got a full range of adapters to cover where you will be going in Europe Barry?

Different countries can use different adapters.

Link Removed

I think that I didn't make my point about using scales clearly Barry.
Weight is a more accurate way to measure the propane in a cylinder because volume changes with temperature.
Weight doesn't change with temperature.
What I had in mind however, was that you could check your use daily if you wished rather than just between refills.
The scales will also tell you fairly accurately when your tank is nearly empty, which I seem to remember is where we started.