propane pressure regulator

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Patandlinda

Also purchased one from Amazon not a expensive one , same reasoning . Now if someone could walk me through what and how I am to test . We have the 8551 refrigerator. Thanks , Pat

Pat: I'm back from vacation and willing to help guide you. I saw your PM. Let's keep the conversation here for now as it might also help others (and others may help us). I grabbed one of your pictures from my Refrigerator Test thread and pointed out your test port. This should be downstream from the refrigerator shut off valve so that you do not have any propane pressure on the line while hooking up the fitting. Speaking of the fitting the manometer I borrowed came with a fitting with a threaded end that fit the test port perfectly and the other end was barbed that accepted the tubing from the manometer. Your manometer should have come with one. Like this:
www.amazon.com/Yellow-Jacket-78071-Manometer-Fitting/dp/B0039X2LMA

You want to hook the manometer up with tube to the high or + side on the unit and the low or - side open to atmosphere. Then turn the fridge on to get the pressure reading. Beforehand I would add up the BTU's of your appliances and turn on ~50% of that number and take a pressure reading. The fridge should not drop below 11" water column or inH2O with the other loads. To increase propane pressure you need to unthread the black cap on the regulator and us a screwdriver in the slot to turn the adjuster. Clockwise increased my pressure. My pressure landed at about 12" w.c. with no other loads to keep the fridge above 11" w.c. with 50% of propane loads running.


Cheat sheet:
Suburban SW6D(E) water heater: 12,000 BTUH input

Atwood DV20 (2 burner stove): 7200 BTUH large burner; 5200 BTUH small burner

Atwood DV30 (3 burner stove): 7200 BTUH large burner; (2) 5200 BTUH small burners

Suburban 8012 furnace: 12,000 BTUH input

So in rough numbers ~50% load in the average trailer without modified systems (i.e. replacement stove) would be running the furnace and the large stove top burner.

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

Pat: I'm back from vacation and willing to help guide you. I saw your PM. Let's keep the conversation here for now as it might also help others (and others may help us). I grabbed one of your pictures from my Refrigerator Test thread and pointed out your test port. This should be downstream from the refrigerator shut off valve so that you do not have any propane pressure on the line while hooking up the fitting. Speaking of the fitting the manometer I borrowed came with a fitting with a threaded end that fit the test port perfectly and the other end was barbed that accepted the tubing from the manometer. Your manometer should have come with one. Like this:
www.amazon.com/Yellow-Jacket-78071-Manometer-Fitting/dp/B0039X2LMA

You want to hook the manometer up with tube to the high or + side on the unit and the low or - side open to atmosphere. Then turn the fridge on to get the pressure reading. Beforehand I would add up the BTU's of your appliances and turn on ~50% of that number and take a pressure reading. The fridge should not drop below 11" water column or inH2O with the other loads. To increase propane pressure you need to unthread the black cap on the regulator and us a screwdriver in the slot to turn the adjuster. Clockwise increased my pressure. My pressure landed at about 12" w.c. with no other loads to keep the fridge above 11" w.c. with 50% of propane loads running.

Just saw this . Thanks Dave going to print your instructions out . Will give this a try in next couple of days . Pat

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Patandlinda

Just saw this . Thanks Dave going to print your instructions out . Will give this a try in next couple of days . Pat

Make sure you see my edited post. I did some math for you to determine 50% propane load.

[rubicon327]

Upon further thought if you are in a warm climate you would be better off running the hot water heater and a stove top burner to achieve 50% load. The furnace and a stove burner will overheat the trailer pretty quickly. Trust me I know.

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

Upon further thought if you are in a warm climate you would be better off running the hot water heater and a stove top burner to achieve 50% load. The furnace and a stove burner will overheat the trailer pretty quickly. Trust me I know.

Hi Dave I just printed your instructions . A few questions . Do I have gas on when I unscrew the test port ? We have a 3 burner top with oven . Hot water heater is just gas no electrical . Pat

[Iowa Dave]

I’m not sure that without running the AC I could get the furnace to come on right now even if I pegged the lever. She’s been pretty warm in the land of corn and soy beans the last few days.
Iowa Dave

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Patandlinda

Hi Dave I just printed your instructions . A few questions . Do I have gas on when I unscrew the test port ? We have a 3 burner top with oven . Hot water heater is just gas no electrical . Pat

You can. Just confirm the test port is downstream of the fridge gas shutoff valve. It should be piped this way from the factory but I don’t have a picture showing me the whole propane side of your fridge to be able to confirm

[padlin]

don't you use the fridge as part of your 50%?

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by padlin

don't you use the fridge as part of your 50%?

I don't think it matters much; since the refrigerator's burner only puts out a few hundred BTU/hour, it is small compared to the other loads and to the system's operating range.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by padlin

don't you use the fridge as part of your 50%?

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

I don't think it matters much; since the refrigerator's burner only puts out a few hundred BTU/hour, it is small compared to the other loads and to the system's operating range.

My RM2510 fridge has an input of 1080 BTUH at 11” w.c. Negligible in the calculation of 50% load.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Patandlinda

We have a 3 burner top with oven.

Pat: If you have the Atwood RV1735BBPU stove/oven combo then your stove burners are 9,000 BTUH for the large front burner and 6,500 BTUH for the two small rear burners. I cannot find anything online that indicates what the BTU input is for the oven burner. I think we are splitting hairs now anyway. If I were you I would just run the hot water heater and the two rear burners of the stove on high which totals 25,000 BTUH as an approximation of 50% load.

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

Pat: If you have the Atwood RV1735BBPU stove/oven combo then your stove burners are 9,000 BTUH for the large front burner and 6,500 BTUH for the two small rear burners. I cannot find anything online that indicates what the BTU input is for the oven burner. I think we are splitting hairs now anyway. If I were you I would just run the hot water heater and the two rear burners of the stove on high which totals 25,000 BTUH as an approximation of 50% load.

Thankyou Dave for getting all these figures for me . Still can't get to yet but will Pat

[Ron in BC]

Well, knock me over with a feather!

I'm no stranger to refrigeration, I've taken night school courses so I could design and build my own marine engine driven holding plate system, made my own deep freeze unit to go with a Nova Kool compressor and generally done mods to my existing Dometic that seemed to make it work quite well. However, the last couple of trips my wife did comment that she didn't think the fridge was working as well as normal.

In the past a comment like that would get me checking that the orifice wasn't clogged etc. And if it was cleaning usually brought the fridge temperature back to normal.

But there's been so much talk about regulators I broke down and bought an inexpensive gage under the theory of "don't presume anything". When I hooked it up and saw "7.24" my first thought was that I got a lemon of a gage and it'd be going back. I gave the regulator adjustment a quarter turn, then 90*. Very little change. Then a whole turn, still not much change then more whole turns for a total of 5 and the adjustment bottomed out. At that point I was just over 11". With two burners running it dropped to just under 11". I borrowed an old gage to cross check the readings and it looks like that new gage is reading correctly.

So it looks like a new regulator will be required. I don't want to use one that's bottomed out.

Ron

[rbryan4]

It's the culprit in lots of issues Ron. I know it was the cause for inadequate cooling in our fridge. Just pick up a Marshall Excelsior MEGR-253 and problem solved.

https://www.rvautoparts.com/MEGR-253...kaAlixEALw_wcB

If you want to go higher btu capacity, you can get the green "H" model like mine, but comments earlier in this thread suggest that may be overkill.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

You can. Just confirm the test port is downstream of the fridge gas shutoff valve. It should be piped this way from the factory but I don’t have a picture showing me the whole propane side of your fridge to be able to confirm

Pat: Looking at what Ron just posted you may have the same fridge. It appears the test port is upstream of the refrigerator gas valve with no other means to isolate. This means your propane must be OFF and ideally depressurized when hooking up to the test port.

[rubicon327]

Nice work Ron. I love that some of us with older fridges that were underperforming have finally found what seems to be one of the major causes of the issue. This is going to help out many people down the road.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

It appears the test port is upstream of the refrigerator gas valve

Mine was installed in an annoying way. First, the test plug was in so tight that I actually had to put a piece of pipe on the wrench to make a longer handle to break it free. Didn't like doing that at all. If I'd put too much force on it I'd have ended up with a much bigger problem to fix. Secondly the test plug was installed pointing behind the black tube. At first I didn't think the I could put the hose barb in the then get the hose on and undoing the fittings to rotate it could have created another problem.

There was no way that I could put the hose barb in and then attach the hose. So I put the hose on the hose barb, put the barb in the hole and twirled the hose. Then I could use a wrench to tighten it.

[QUOTE=rubicon327;261331]some of us with older fridges that were underperforming have finally found what seems to be one of the major causes of the issue. /QUOTE]

I do wonder what my original regulator pressure was. I'm sorry that I didn't test it a long time ago.

Ron

[cpaharley2008]

Is this low pressure something that can happen with new units or just units with some age on them that may start to leak? If your pressure is low, had it always been low or are there inherent leaks?

[Upfisk]

On our 1996 Casita we had a 3 week trip to Portland, OR in April into May. Initially, the refer worked fine as did all propane appliances. It was very cool days and nights. Near the end of our trip, if the furnace was on the burners on the stove wavered, the refer did not work very well and daily warmed up more than the day before. The RV repair place we took the trailer to for fixing the refer, did not test the propane regulator, nor did they have a gauge. But they agreed that the new wavering to nearly out flames on the stove top while the furnace was running was a definite signal that the regulator was bad. For $35 that was an easy fix. We are guessing that older regulators, based on this experience, should be looked at with suspicion. The refer had many problems; dirt, loose sensor, loose spring on the eyebrow board, etc. For another $250 that was also fixed. Then we sold the Casita and are anxiously waiting for Oct 3 for our pickup and orientation of the Escape 19.

[padlin]

Jim, don't think we've determined if the regulators are accurately adjusted at the factory. My replacement unit was at 12 inh2o instead of the called for 11, I never checked the original. You'd have to check yours when new to know for sure, but why bother unless your having a problem.

History tells us that you'll not have the trailer long enough for a hose to age enough to crack. And if Ron's 2014 is an indication of how long it can take for a regulator to go bad, you don't have to worry about that either.