Propane problem

[jerichorick]

Originally Posted by JohnW2837

We use propane for cooktop, on demand hot water and heater. Everything was working fine until 2 days ago nothing gas worked. I thought it might be a bad gauge since the inside gauge said half full and the gauge on the tank said 3/4 full. Took it to refill and it only took 4 gallons for my 13 gallon tank. Turned the cooktop on and it burned for ~20 seconds and stopped.
I had a new regulator put on last year and everything worked fine until 2 days ago.
Any ideas what i could try before taking it in?

One quick suggestion is to remove the regulator and see if it has oil in it. Propane has a small amount of oil that can build up in the tank over the years if refilled often or the propane dealer gave you contaminated fuel. I have had this problem.
If oil is in the regulator you can replace the regulator and drain the oil out of the old one. Keep it as a spare. If the new regulator fills with oil, swap them and clean. Do this process till the problems clears. You can get your tank cleaned but it is expensive to do.
"New" regulators are known to fail also. It could be as simple as that.
Another thought is, where the regulator screws into the tank, make certain it is tight. The safety valve in the tank needs to be fully compressed to release the full flow of LP.

[boydcable]

The tank should have a safety to keep it from being overfilled. Ours failed and they over it. Then our system
started doing the failure stuff. We had regulator replaced. Old regulator had some liquid come out
if the in port. Seems there is a very small port that
let’s gases through but not liquids. Same problem
happened with new regulator after a few minutes.
I unhook it and turned on the valve and bled it down
to 80% which is considered full. Problem solved.
I just have to remember to close the valve and remind
the propane guy to fill only to 80% by the gauge. They
we’re just waiting for the internal safety to shut it off instead of paying attention to what they were doing.