Too cold for LPG, what do you do?

Joined
May 30, 2019
Posts
800
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Location
Aberdeen, UK
Funster No
61,293
MH
Adria Twin Supreme
Exp
Since 2018
3 weeks into France trip and not a good start to the day.

At 3am woke to find the van cold and watched the temp drop. Error 517 on the Truma controller which is gas fault. Switched off and on, no help. Couldn’t understand as should have half a tank of LPG left. Shivered till the dog wanted out at 7.30 and found he’d been sick in the night on the door mat. Cleared that up and opened the door to take him out, forgot to unset the alarm, oops. Now everyone in the Aire was awake.

Now up I checked and I do have a half tank left, hob worked so switched Turma off and on again, and it worked this time. I can only think it was too cold last night for the LPG as it’s essentially butane.

I don’t want to carry a propane cylinder as I have refillable LPG. Anyone come across this issue and solved it? This is the first time it’s happened to me. I did wonder about a heated pad, like for a grey water tank, attached to the side of the Alugas bottle but not sure how safe that is. Not concerned about the power to the heated pad as I have loads with my lithium battery.
 
I told that they do add a degree of propane to to LPG in winter to stop that - particularly for all the gas cars
Are the gas rings working?
 
LPG is normally a good proportion propane. It's for car tanks, so it shouldn't be an issue.
 
We do if the location is dodgy. I've got a small hook above the door handle and I hang a "remove before flight" keyring on it to remind me. 😁
We are the same re putting alarm on as our Labrador would sleep through someone cutting the door off with a chainsaw.
Re the LPG never had any issues down to -10sh for nights at a time always worked fine.
 
Had a similar problem coming home from Spain earlier in the year. Initially I suspected the regulator was on the way out but once the temperature rose all was well. Going to try and use up all remaining gas on our next trip and refill with hopefully a better mix.
I do have a spare regulator on hand though.................
 
If you haven’t used it since last summer then you will have mainly butane as the manufacturers add more propane as the weather gets colder. It’s perfectly fine to fill a plastic bag with warm water and wrap it round the top of the cylinder near the tap & pipes. Close the locker door and let it warm up a bit and it should run fine. Think of Spanish or Moroccan bottles sitting out in the full sun all day. Even a towel soaked in hot water will help. Just remember not to fill it at the end of the summer.
 
3 weeks into France trip and not a good start to the day.

At 3am woke to find the van cold and watched the temp drop. Error 517 on the Truma controller which is gas fault. Switched off and on, no help. Couldn’t understand as should have half a tank of LPG left. Shivered till the dog wanted out at 7.30 and found he’d been sick in the night on the door mat. Cleared that up and opened the door to take him out, forgot to unset the alarm, oops. Now everyone in the Aire was awake.

Now up I checked and I do have a half tank left, hob worked so switched Turma off and on again, and it worked this time. I can only think it was too cold last night for the LPG as it’s essentially butane.

I don’t want to carry a propane cylinder as I have refillable LPG. Anyone come across this issue and solved it? This is the first time it’s happened to me. I did wonder about a heated pad, like for a grey water tank, attached to the side of the Alugas bottle but not sure how safe that is. Not concerned about the power to the heated pad as I have loads with my lithium battery.
Unlucky Andy. :( With an underslung bulk tank, or cylinders full of French/Spanish Autogas, I have never experienced malfunction due to low temperatures, and our Alde system is one hungry beast with the gas.
If it's not the regulator at fault, then maybe as suggested, it's down to a dodgy butane only supply.
Have you tried changing over the cylinders, to see if it happens again tonight?

You sleep with the alarm on.. !! is this normal?
We never sleep in the MH without the alarm set......and the deadlocks in place too. (y)

Cheers,

Jock. :)
 
I guess if the heating had been on and a lot of gas was being used, the high flow would have chilled the cylinder as the liquid vaporises. Which might have contributed?

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Not a lot of help but if you could slowly boil a kettle if you can get enough then pour the hot water over you bottle. or as you say you have plenty of battery and and inverter we carry a low power kettle. App not a lot of good in the middle of the night.
 
This is useful information on log gas mixtures. I always try and run down any European gas to a minimum before coming back home.

 
It’s perfectly fine to fill a plastic bag with warm water and wrap it round the top of the cylinder near the tap & pipes.
Just one problem with that ... How do you boil the water? 🤔😄

We have got water bottles so if we had issues we would be able to utilize one and to heat the water we have a canister gas stove.
 
3 weeks into France trip and not a good start to the day.

At 3am woke to find the van cold and watched the temp drop. Error 517 on the Truma controller which is gas fault. Switched off and on, no help. Couldn’t understand as should have half a tank of LPG left. Shivered till the dog wanted out at 7.30 and found he’d been sick in the night on the door mat. Cleared that up and opened the door to take him out, forgot to unset the alarm, oops. Now everyone in the Aire was awake.

Now up I checked and I do have a half tank left, hob worked so switched Turma off and on again, and it worked this time. I can only think it was too cold last night for the LPG as it’s essentially butane.

I don’t want to carry a propane cylinder as I have refillable LPG. Anyone come across this issue and solved it? This is the first time it’s happened to me. I did wonder about a heated pad, like for a grey water tank, attached to the side of the Alugas bottle but not sure how safe that is. Not concerned about the power to the heated pad as I have loads with my lithium battery.
Where did you last fill up?
UK & Portugal are 95-100% propane most other contries vary the mix with time of year. Spain up to 65% butane France up to 60% butane.

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3 weeks into France trip and not a good start to the day.

At 3am woke to find the van cold and watched the temp drop. Error 517 on the Truma controller which is gas fault. Switched off and on, no help. Couldn’t understand as should have half a tank of LPG left. Shivered till the dog wanted out at 7.30 and found he’d been sick in the night on the door mat. Cleared that up and opened the door to take him out, forgot to unset the alarm, oops. Now everyone in the Aire was awake.

Now up I checked and I do have a half tank left, hob worked so switched Turma off and on again, and it worked this time. I can only think it was too cold last night for the LPG as it’s essentially butane.

I don’t want to carry a propane cylinder as I have refillable LPG. Anyone come across this issue and solved it? This is the first time it’s happened to me. I did wonder about a heated pad, like for a grey water tank, attached to the side of the Alugas bottle but not sure how safe that is. Not concerned about the power to the heated pad as I have loads with my lithium battery.

Give the bottle a shake to stir it up!
 
Lived on a boat with a Butane system, in winter, for a short time when I was 18. Bottles hung over the stern. On a couple of occasions the first pee of the day was what got the kettle boiled.
 
Just one problem with that ... How do you boil the water?
You can usually get a tiny flow to boil a kettle even if you have to cuddle the bottle for a few minutes. But you can never get enough for the heating. So slowly boil the kettle to fill the bag so you can get some heating. But better still remember not to fill up in France at the end of summer. 😛 :giggle:
 
Just one problem with that ... How do you boil the water? 🤔😄
Being a keen tent camper (as well as a motorhomer) I carry my lightweight multi fuel camping stove, just in case.. mind you have not had to use it in the Moho..
 

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