Gas Regulator Failure

[HenryB1]

After just 6 months our new Bailey caravan has suffered the dreaded gas regulator failure. We had not used the van for about 3 weeks and then visited the New Forest on the wettest weekend recently. I set up the van and turned on the gas at the Calor Light bottle. A huge noise of gas escape took place together with the appropriate smell. As it rained non stop for 2 of the 3 days we were there I could not investigate. Fortunately we had booked an electric hook up. Upon return home I found that gas was escaping at high speed from the small yellow cap on the left of the bulkhead regulator. I phoned my dealer and they arranged for me to bring the van in last week, earliest date I could do. The regulator has been replaced but Truma have refused to pick up the tab. Wrong gas! My dealer showed me a letter he had just received from Truma when returning another failed regulator. They had opened regulator and took picture showing yellow oil deposit in regulator, and therefore refused to replace regulator. They also sent my dealer an A4 sheet showing all of the reasons why it was not their problem. My dealer contacted Bailey and they agreed to replace the regulator at their expense but have said that they will not do this again. I was told by my dealer not to use the gas pig tail again or the bottle of Calor Light. The pig tail showed signs of oil at the regulator end as did the casing of the regulator around the yellow escape valve. As my dealer said they had never had a problem with BP Light I have bought new pig tail for BP and a container of BP gas. It will be interesting to see whether I have any further problems.
This does however pose the question of where the fault lies. Something is clearly not fit for its purpose. Is it the regulator? Is it the pigtail? Is it the gas? Or is it the poor caravanner that that has paid good money for a gas system that will not work?

 

[TheTravellingRooster]

Hi HenryB. This problem was discussed in some small measure in the awards 2010 Edition of Practical Caravan in the Doug'll fix it section p94. By all accounts this has been an issue for several months;it goes on to say that there was a bulletin issued in 2006 by Calor. The line of thinking is that it is an issue with the LPG gas.There is no mention however; of Calor Light nor of the BP product either. It sounds like it could be a refining issue linked to the LPG. There is to be a feature in a future issue of PC Magazine.

 

[Damian]

Quote "By all accounts this has been an issue for several months"

Substiute Years for Months, in fact since 2004.
The problem is the gas, as an oil by product it contains,,,,,surprise,,,OIL.

On older vans with cylinder mounted regulators which were single stage units, the oil passed through and eventually either got burnt off at the burners of the appliances, or lay in the pipework until it blocked the pipe, and did severe damage to gas valves etc.

The Truma (GOK to be precise) regulator is a two stage unit, and the oil in the gas blocks it.

A way around the blocking issue, but not the contamination issue, is to have a Clesse regulator fitted in place of the GOK unit.
This is a single stage unit and behaves the same wa as the cylinder mounted units previously

 

[Guest]

My belief is this, and Calor light bottles becoming a problem, it seems to me, adds more weight to it.
From time to time the bottles need testing and this includes pressure testing, this is done hydraulically using 'oil' possibly, but I do know it contains a yellow dye so if it comes through a porous bottle it stains the outside.
Once done it should obviously be drained but as far as I'm aware also washed out, however washing leaves a residue to dispose of, so I don't think this is done and what's stuck to the inside is left there.
So the bottles are refilled with liquid gas and as far as I'm aware the oil is unable to mix with the liquid gas, this then drains to the bottom, where it should stay, however, while this seems to be true for the larger bottles, it is obviously not in the smaller ones?. To my mind this is because it's far easier to shake the bottle or otherwise give it rougher treatment, ie, transporting on their side perhaps
My theroy is, that the disturbed oil get into the out take pipe or valve itself inside the bottle and lodges there, until that is the valve is opened and the gas pressure blasts it into the pigtail and on to the regulator.
(Butane does not seem to suffer?, but the bottle will be tested exactly the same, butane gas pressure though is only around 25psi max, as opposed to propane which can reach 300psi on a hot day).
Calor light bottle did not to my knowledge initially suffer at all, but now a couple of years on, their coming up for testing? and low and behold their now causing the problem.

Well I've said most of this since the regulator problem first surfaced, but on a historic note, it's been happening a darn sight longer than 2004, only then, it passed through the simpler regulator to cause mayhem further down the line!

 

[waffler]

I have found this interesting because I thought the oil was coming out of the rubber pipe. Just had a blocked pigtail. Thought it was the regulator but not. The pigtail was long and i assumed the oil had settled in a low loop. I also thought that the oil should drain back into the bottle. Gaslow offer a pipe and regulator guaranteed for five years.

 

[Damian]

It does not matter what pipe or regulator is used, if the oil is going to damage it, it will.

Part of the original thinking was that the gas was leeching plasticiser from the pigtail, but the amount of plasticiser is nowhere near the quantities of oil that have been found in blocked units.

There have been cases of systems made entirly of stainless steel suffering the same oil contamination.

 

[Guest]

Waffler, I have often advised to fit an overly long pig tail and form it into a deep loop to act as a trap for anything heavy leaving the bottle, from what you say this seems to work?!
I would add and before connecting, cracking the bottles valve open a couple of times for a second at a time, so to blast anything clear will not go amiss
As for the oil coming from the hose itself, this thought was from the finding of the original report, understandable so if this was the only place they could find it present?. However, it's highly unlikely any gas bottles supplied for testing would contain anything but LPG, don't you think?!
Hose manufactures were somewhat hung out to dry on that one but as Damian says and the report concluded, the quantities involved did not match? Further, and given the hose was at fault, then rather obviously, losing so much would leave the hose looking like a shrivelled prune!!