Underslung /Refillable LPG tanks - dirty gas / jet problems

Mad dog

Mad dog

LIFE MEMBER
Joined
Dec 27, 2019
Posts
210
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Location
South West
Funster No
67,645
MH
Rapido Dreamer PVC
Exp
2019
Hi, I've been considering putting a Gas It underslung LPG tank kit on my Rapido Fiat Ducato conversion. I spoke to my local independent service place in Bude & he's warned me off them?
He says I will be plagued with jet problems on my
3 way fridge & on my hot water/heating boiler & that they'll need cleaning every 6 months because of the muck & especially oil that you get in pumped LPG.

A bit of a surprise to me as I haven't heard anyone having many problems with this before, I said can't you put a filter in place but he says it won't stop the oil coming through which will still clog the jets.

Any thoughts please?
 
Never heard of that problem and have had underslung gas tanks on the last three vans. I would like to know where the oil comes from in pumped LPG...... there isn’t any. I have done internal inspections of large LPG storage tanks and they are so clean that there is no rust or debris and you can still see the chalk marks from the welders....
 
DuxDeluxe said:
Never heard of that problem and have had underslung gas tanks on the last three vans. I would like to know where the oil comes from in pumped LPG...... there isn’t any. I have done internal inspections of large LPG storage tanks and they are so clean that there is no rust or debris and you can still see the chalk marks from the welders....
Click to expand...

I've had LPG converted gas cars before now & not had problems, hence me questioning his opinions...
 
I've had refillable for over 25 years, RV and 2 MHs with GasLow, never a suggestion of a problem. on the other side of the coin, although I've no experience myself, it' wasn't uncommon to hear of regulator problems with Calor installations
 
Had my van with underslung gas tank for 8 years and not had those problems. The fridge jet area should be cleaned regularly anyway (I get it done annually with Hab check) but would imagine its the same if using bottled gas
 
Thanks, he does sell cylinders. I've not used him for servicing yet as my van is nearly new.
 
Your local independent service place in Bude sounds like they are talking out of their backside.
On our second van with an underslung tank and never had a problem of any sort including using gas fill ups while abroad.

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This is what I was thinking, are the Gas It kits OK in people's opinions or are there better ones out there?
 
Mad dog said:
This is what I was thinking, are the Gas It kits OK in people's opinions or are there better ones out there?
Click to expand...

Fitted 4 lots of Gas-it systems, 3 on the vans we have had including our present MH and and one on a friends MH.

The Gas-it gear is good and easy to install, and perfectly safe as long as you take care and use your common sense plus you can get a 5% discount by using the Funster discount code when you order.
 
"Oil" is never present as such in LPG wherever it is sourced. There are so-called "low ends" (liquids with a higher boiling point than LPG) that collect at the bottom of any LPG container. The only time I've experienced them is when I've used the last drop of gas from a cylinder used with a blow-torch. Once the LPG is completely used up & the cylinder pressure drops the low ends boil off and the blow-lamp flame turns yellow & smells of burning rubber. (And is incapable of heating anything.) That scenario never occurs when used in a motorhome because the pressure at that point isn't sufficient that anything stays lit.

And I've never had a problem with any sort of tank on a motorhome.
 
tonyidle said:
"Oil" is never present as such in LPG wherever it is sourced. There are so-called "low ends" (liquids with a higher boiling point than LPG) that collect at the bottom of any LPG container. The only time I've experienced them is when I've used the last drop of gas from a cylinder used with a blow-torch. Once the LPG is completely used up & the cylinder pressure drops the low ends boil off and the blow-lamp flame turns yellow & smells of burning rubber. (And is incapable of heating anything.) That scenario never occurs when used in a motorhome because the pressure at that point isn't sufficient that anything stays lit.

And I've never had a problem with any sort of tank on a motorhome.
Click to expand...
I think the advice is to keep the regulator higher than the tank, or at least the bottom of the tank, so that any liquids drain back into the tank. The tank output on motorhomes is at the top, so that only vapourised gas should flow though it. For LPG-powered engines the tank output is near the bottom, so that liquid gas flows to the engine injectors. Obviously there is more potential for 'low end liquids' to cause problems in engines.

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Mad dog said:
Hi, I've been considering putting a Gas It underslung LPG tank kit on my Rapido Fiat Ducato conversion. I spoke to my local independent service place in Bude & he's warned me off them?
He says I will be plagued with jet problems on my
3 way fridge & on my hot water/heating boiler & that they'll need cleaning every 6 months because of the muck & especially oil that you get in pumped LPG.
Click to expand...

I think the general opinion is that he is WRONG
 
When researching tanks for ways of doing my twin underslung system some were designed for liquid takeoff and some for vapour takeoff. For habitation purposes you want the vapour take off, I can't see anyway that muck would get into your system. Maybe he was thinking of a liquid takeoff (used on some LPG engines) that way I suppose muck could get in along with the liquid.
 
Isn't there a filter you can fit just before the bottle valve? As a fail safe.
 
Compressed air/nitrogen systems usually have a filter for condensed water or oil, but I've never heard of anything like that on an LPG system.
 
autorouter said:
Compressed air/nitrogen systems usually have a filter for condensed water or oil, but I've never heard of anything like that on an LPG system.
Click to expand...
I meant like this.....

Screenshot_20200217-123413.png

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I have used both refillable bottles (3years) and underslung tank (5years). Refilled all over Europe, no problems with either.
 
I’ve run on refillable for the last 12 months and HAVE found oil in my filters. So it does exist. I wouldn’t now run without the filters. Been filling up in UK, Spain and Germany, so can’t say where its come from.
 

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Interesting. Has it caused any problems with your fridge, oven, hob, heating system?

I have a feeling there are some filters after the cylinder on my van already so if its piped up to where the cylinders are now, then it would be filtered anyway.
 
autorouter said:
I think the advice is to keep the regulator higher than the tank, or at least the bottom of the tank, so that any liquids drain back into the tank. The tank output on motorhomes is at the top, so that only vapourised gas should flow though it. For LPG-powered engines the tank output is near the bottom, so that liquid gas flows to the engine injectors. Obviously there is more potential for 'low end liquids' to cause problems in engines.
Click to expand...
Thanks Autorouter, very interesting. I had a Jeep Cherokee with LPG years ago with a donut tank & an underslung, I kept having problems with the gas, turned out that the underslung outlet was on the side not the bottom which was causing the problem.
 
My 48L tank was fitted by Gasit in 2013, never had a problem with it, this month I had a service and they said I should change the regulator and hoses as they were out of date. I trust their opinion so I had them changed

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Mad dog said:
Interesting. Has it caused any problems with your fridge, oven, hob, heating system?

I have a feeling there are some filters after the cylinder on my van already so if its piped up to where the cylinders are now, then it would be filtered anyway.
Click to expand...
Not had any problems as the filters seem to have caught it all; I’ve two filters, one between each cylinder and the regulator. Each filter had a similar amount of oil in it, about a teaspoonful.
 
Thanks everyone for your opinions, I think I'll look around for someone else to install it! Anyone know anyone in North Devon, Bideford, Barnstaple area they can recommend?
 
We've had Gaslow fitted for 7 years. Whilst getting the van checked at a Dometic service agent last year, I asked about this issue. He said that he'd never heard of any such problems.

Terry
 
Anyone used these folks? A Gas It fitter.

Mullacott Caravan & Motorhome Centre,

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