Foto-n-T
Well-known member
A month or so ago I filled one of my 30 pounders and re-installed it in the propane bay. When I screwed in the pigtail that leads to the regulator and opened the valve on the tank I had a significant leak (I know, any leak is significant). Since it was dark and I was tired I gave up after a few tries and just left it disconnected. The next day I went out in the daylight and it hooked up no problem. I chocked this up to my own fatigue and inability to master the simple task of screwing on a coupler correctly.
Two days ago I again filled and changed tanks. This time in broad daylight when I went to connect that same pigtail I had the problem re-appear. Since I'm in one spot for the winter I don't tie the tanks down and the regulator was hanging down a little farther than it should so I lifted the regulator up. When I did this I got an immediate leak from the pigtail coupler. I'm assuming that there is an O-ring in the coupler ring itself that seals the hose, it appears that the O-ring may have failed and will only seal when the hose is a perfect 90 degrees running through it. I'll be on the hunt today at Sutherlands or worst case an RV store to replace both of them but I'm curious if anybody has had this particular failure occur to them. Normally I replace these things when they get hard and brittle but these ones are only about two years old and are in very good shape other than one of them can't hold propane anymore.
I would suggest that when anyone re-installs their propane tanks that they "jiggle" the hoses once the propane is turned back on to verify that they don't have a failure of this sort. Since the working pressure of a full propane tank is 250 psi, any leak should become readily apparent. If I hadn't moved that regulator and jiggled the pigtail this could have lead to a VERY serious problem.
Two days ago I again filled and changed tanks. This time in broad daylight when I went to connect that same pigtail I had the problem re-appear. Since I'm in one spot for the winter I don't tie the tanks down and the regulator was hanging down a little farther than it should so I lifted the regulator up. When I did this I got an immediate leak from the pigtail coupler. I'm assuming that there is an O-ring in the coupler ring itself that seals the hose, it appears that the O-ring may have failed and will only seal when the hose is a perfect 90 degrees running through it. I'll be on the hunt today at Sutherlands or worst case an RV store to replace both of them but I'm curious if anybody has had this particular failure occur to them. Normally I replace these things when they get hard and brittle but these ones are only about two years old and are in very good shape other than one of them can't hold propane anymore.
I would suggest that when anyone re-installs their propane tanks that they "jiggle" the hoses once the propane is turned back on to verify that they don't have a failure of this sort. Since the working pressure of a full propane tank is 250 psi, any leak should become readily apparent. If I hadn't moved that regulator and jiggled the pigtail this could have lead to a VERY serious problem.