Suburban HWS

[Kappy]

Kappy, In your bottom photo the brass screw covers the Low Pressure test point. With everything connected but turned off, you should see around 2.6 to 2.7 kpa. You will need a manometer ( i think that's the right name), or a very low pressure gauge to check it. .If you don't then your regulator is kaputt and needs to be replaced. When you get it replaced make sure your service technician puts it above or at least level with the highest point in your high pressure line from your gas bottles.

Don't have access to a meter or technician.
I will affix the regulator above the gas bottle line.
Think the regulator is cactuss, when connected to the bottle and disconnected from the main line, when gas turned on very little pressure is felt then there's like a valve kicks in and stops any flow just vapor.

[supersparky]

Kappy, without being there and seeing what you have, I would assume that the regulator is kaput. If you can't get gas to the stove or anywhere else, it probably isn't the HWS causing the issue. The only other thing that I can see from your pics is the two way selector valve might have a build of gunk in it, which might impede gas flow.

[T1 Terry]

Hi Kappy, from the photo of the 2 stage regulator, it has been mounted facing down where it should have been facing up. Remove the regulators from each other and from the 3way brass fitting and stand them up so the inlet end (the end that is facing up in the photo) is facing down. Leave them like that in the hot sun during the day and over night, then refit them and try again. There is a brown liquid that settles out of poor quality LPG refill bottles and it blocks the ports etc stopping the regulator from working. as long as it hasn't set and gone hard like toffee, it will drain back out once it gets heated in the sun. Any excess can be dissolved with a pressure pack tin of carburettor cleaner .... petrol, thinners, white spirit etc doesn't seem to work, but the carby cleaner does, same goes for the jets, it will have them flowing freely with a few squirts.

T1 Terry

[Kappy]

Hi Kappy, from the photo of the 2 stage regulator, it has been mounted facing down where it should have been facing up.

T1 Terry

Terry are you saying the Regulator outlet needs to be pointing up rather than down?.

The old regulator was a cheap ebay special, so I have ordered a new one that appears serviceable.

[jon_d]

The outlet has to be level or higher than the inlet.

The regulator has to be higher than the bottles.

This allows any liquid (that has sloshed into the hose) to drain back into the bottle. If it doesn't, it will clog up the regulator.

[T1 Terry]

Hi Kappy, from the photo of the 2 stage regulator, it has been mounted facing down where it should have been facing up.

T1 Terry

Terry are you saying the Regulator outlet needs to be pointing up rather than down?.

The old regulator was a cheap ebay special, so I have ordered a new one that appears serviceable.

As Jon has said, the liquid LPG is one problem, but the condensed rubbish from the gas left after the gas goes through the pressure drop needs to drain back to the bottles. This means all the lines from the bottle outlet onwards need to designed to enable a liquid flow back to the bottle. Not easy with the bottles mounted on a caravan drawbar, but it can be successfully achieved with the bottles in a side bin with enough headroom above the bottles to allow for the regulators and pipework. It is never a good idea to have any of the pipe work drop down and then back up again, even after the regulator if the pipework is likely to be exposed to sub zero temperatures. Not really a drama if you are 100% confident the only gas in the bottle will be propane, but you need to be getting your bottles refilled from a well known source that doesn't also have an Autogas bowser ..... after watching a servo proprietor pick up the big decanting bottle with the forklift and cart it over to the Autogas bowser, fill it and then place it back ready for use, I no longer trust any bottle refiller that also has Autogas bowsers.
I know the argument about some back country servos having their Autogas tank filled with the same gas the big bulk farm and caravan tanks are filled with, but there is no guarantee that has happened every time the Autogas tank was filled. The two gasses do not boil off from the liquid at the same temperature, Propane boils off at -32*C, Butane boils off at around 0.5*C just depends on the pressure.
If you have ever seen the bottom of an LPG bottle ice up and the gas virtually stop flowing, good chance that last bit in the bottle is Butane and not Propane. This is the same reason why the pressure pack can Butane stoves stop working yet the shaken can says there is still liquid in there. Put the can in hot water for a few minutes and it will work again for a while till the can gets too cold, then repeat the process. The butane cigarette lighter is the same, tuck it under your arm for a few minutes and it will work again until the plastic body gets cold.

T1 Terry

[supersparky]

Duh, OT I know, but a lightbulb moment for me. I could never work out why my portable bbq would fail to launch or just have a pissy flame when it is near to freezing outside. But when I tested it all when I got home it was fine.
I have cut the top off several 9kg bottles in the past to make choofers etc and have been surprised how much junk and crud was in the bottom of a bottle.

[T1 Terry]

An Autogas converter in an LPG powered vehicle has drain holes that should be positioned at 6 and 12 o'clock to allow for that brown junk to be drained off when the vehicle is serviced. we had a lot of LPG vehicles come in for a tune and service complaining about a poor throttle response that seemed to be getting worse over time and occasional stalling when stopping quickly or backfires damaging the LPG equipment if the throttle was applied to rapidly. They all had two things in common, the liquid inlet valve filter was blocked and the converter was full of the brown rubbish, with up to 200mils of the stuff drained out. Had to be real careful it didn't get on the paint work, it would lift it off back to bare metal and if allowed to dry it set like hard toffee and had to be smashed off. I would have said it was lacquer but it dried too fast, so maybe more like Shellac. Nothing seemed to dissolve it apart from carburettor cleaner and that lifted the paint quicker than brake fluid.

[supersparky]

I always thought thought that brown gunk was a shellac type product. We used to use methanol to clean it up. That worked most times.

[jon_d]

we had a lot of LPG vehicles come in for a tune and service complaining about a poor throttle response that seemed to be getting worse over time and occasional stalling when stopping quickly

I had exactly that in the old HZ 253 SL Kingswood Station Wagon. I should never have sold it.....