do you have to have 2 propane bottles?
by admin on Monday, April 19th, 2010 | 3 Comments
we just bought a 1974 travel trailer, and wanted to know if you have to have 2 propane bottles hooked to use the stove? or can we cap the other line off? if so, where do we get a cap? it has the regulator and 2 lines.thanks for your answers!
i have no lever.
Some would say you only need 1 but if you long term camp with no hook ups, and use your water heater, space heater, stove and refrigerator you will burn through two tanks in couple of days. One thing though, you need to make sure your tanks are up to date for refilling, older tanks need to be replaced.
You probably have a switchover set of tanks. This is what I had on my 78. One tank is in use to run the stove and heater. When it runs out of gas, you flip the lever over to the other tank. The first chance you get you fill the empty tank. This way you will never run out of gas.
Both tanks are not turned on at the same time. With the crossover valve you can disconnect the empty tank and not have a leak from the full tank.
The “changeover” regulator is one of the most misunderstood devices in the propane industry. I have seen people with 25 years experience shake their head when I’ve explained how those actually work…
When you have two full cylinders and the lever set to the left you are drawing out of the left tank until the pressure in there drops below 12psi. At that point you begin to draw out of BOTH cylinders and the flag pops up.Usually this only happens when the cylinder is empty. You then flip the lever to the other side and exchange the left cylinder for a full one. Now the flag drops down and you are pulling out of the right cylinder until it drops below 12psi. At which point you will be drawing out of BOTH cylinders again.
If temperatures are moderate and gas loads are relatively light, they work fine. But if you use one of these regulators in very cold temperatures or with large btu appliances you may find both cylinders draw down almost evenly. That is normal operation.
If you want to only connect one cylinder you need to set the lever to that side of the regulator…and yes the other line will need to be capped. I would go to a propane distributor and explain what you are doing. They should be willing to provide you with one. If you go to a plumbing wholesaler or something, they might not sell it to you without a fitters licence. What you need to ask for is a “P.O.L. female cap” if it is a brass male thread on your hose. If it is a large black handwheel with internal threads you will need to put an empty cylinder on there and connect it. They don’t make a gas-tight cap for that type of fitting (QCC1).
EDIT: If you have no lever, then that means you just have 2 cylinders twinned together. I would suggest that if you want to use just one cylinder, that you remove the other hose and put a plug into the tee. It should be a 1/4″ male pipe thread. You can buy a 1/4″ plug at any hardware store. Just make sure you use a pipe sealant and leak check all of the connections when you are done with a 50/50 solution of dishsoap and water.