Propane tank valve will not come on

[Lennyzx11]

Hi all, Cat & I have moved on down the road to Harbor Beach Michigan. I stopped in town in prep for November camping and refilled the LP tank. The guy did turn it back on but I did notice the fridge not working the last hour. You guessed it, the valve is not coming back on. I've tapped on it repeatedly, off and on slowly and quickly, etc and still nothing. The sequence of events for the last two hours have been go out turn it off or on or beat on it then run back inside, attempt to light the front burner of the cookstoove with a long lighter. it comes on about 5 sec and then slowly fades away. We have hook ups and electric with the heat pumps but this is still a pain. Any comments and suggestions are appreciated. It's not that cold here about 55 mid day and now at 7:30 pm it's still about 50. I believe the safety valve inside the tank is froze but don't know. I did google this and searched forums but don't see anything. My old Damon Challenger would act like this but shutting the tank off, and sloowwwly turning the valve back on would usually fix it. thanks for the help.

[Lennyzx11]

Hi all, Cat & I have moved on down the road to Harbor Beach Michigan. I stopped in town in prep for November camping and refilled the LP tank. The guy did turn it back on but I did notice the fridge not working the last hour. You guessed it, the valve is not coming back on. I've tapped on it repeatedly, off and on slowly and quickly, etc and still nothing. The sequence of events for the last two hours have been go out turn it off or on or beat on it then run back inside, attempt to light the front burner of the cookstoove with a long lighter. it comes on about 5 sec and then slowly fades away. We have hook ups and electric with the heat pumps but this is still a pain. Any comments and suggestions are appreciated. It's not that cold here about 55 mid day and now at 7:30 pm it's still about 50. I believe the safety valve inside the tank is froze but don't know. I did google this and searched forums but don't see anything. My old Damon Challenger would act like this but shutting the tank off, and sloowwwly turning the valve back on would usually fix it. thanks for the help.

[Drifter]

Tanks have a outside bleeder valve next to where they are filled.
When we were in Arizona last year we had the tank filled and the guy put the LP in until it run out of this bleeder, then closed it. He told me that this was the old way of filling the tank to assure proper pressure. He didn't trust the auto pressure shutoff, said the it could over pressure tank and cause problems. Don't know if this helps but you could brake the bleeder loose to see if there is to much pressure.....on second thought take it in.

[roy goble]

Do you have a extend-a-stay? Last spring my propane tank wouldn't turn on, I was told that the check valve in the extend-a-stay was probably stuck. Solution, attach my portable tank and than remove, problem solved. Good luck.

[The Utzes]

On my first freezing night in Maine, I woke to the sound of the furnace trying to start unsuccessfully. It turned out the propane line was frozen. Luckily, the hot water shower was right next to the propane tank door so some hot water solved the problem. I guess a recent refill had introduced a little water into the tank or line. Just something to watch for and check.

[Eaglesview]

The pressure in the tank has nothing to do with how much propane is in the tank. The pressure is dependent upon the vapor pressure of the propane with is dictated by the product temperature.

The shut off valve likely has an excess flow stop which is essentially a ball which gets picked up by excess flow velocity through the valve, a safety feature in the event of a line break. It should reset by completely closing the valve which pushes the ball back and then slowly opening. If that does not work the problem is likely somewhere downstream of the valve.

[Lennyzx11]

Got it working ! After taking the tee apart on the tank valve that supplies the BBQ grill line also, I found that the part of the tee had a check valve that seemed to not be opening. I removed the whole tee, (it resembles the Extend a stay kit) and reinstalled the line from the high side regulator to the tank valve and opened the tank valve slowly, hearing a momentary rush of propane. I'll reinstall the tee tomorrow and see if it was only caught with high pressure in side it between the tank valve check valve and the output check valve of the tee, but i kinda doubt it because i also connected the grill up and opened it's burners also which should have alleviated that pressure. The route for mine goes, Tank valve, input to tee (blow through both ways easily) Tee off in the middle to BBQ grill ( which has a schrader type depression valve in it to ensure hose connection) and then the output side of the tee (stamped D106 and Type 1) no flow through either way but pushing on valve within on output side allows flow from in to out. From that output is a hose going to hi side regulator then low side (two stage regulator).
I want to figure out now the proper stuff I need to reconnect my hose for the grill and a connection to connect a 2nd tank for extended stays and swapping out the tank. Thanks for all the help and I'll repost after putting it back together tomorrow to reverify it's broke.