Propane Pressure Guage

[mat1]

Does anyone use one of these ?



eBay number 180721959643 £12.50 + postage

Are they any good ?

I currently have an unused 6kg Calorlite fitted, so if any good, i would at least know the benchmark for full.

Mat

 

[RogerL]

I use a Gaslow gauge which is the same but uncalibrated - no point in calibration as the pressure varies a lot with ambient temperature - but it is very useful as a system leak detector - EVERY time I shut the cylinder valve, eg when moving sites, I check the gauge after 10+ minutes and if it hasn't dropped the system is sound, in practice it'll only show a slight drop after 8 hours towing if the system is sound.
It doesn't remove the need for a proper annual gas safety check but it gives early notice of a problem.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Mat,

Just add a bit of information to Rogers good reply,

The device you are looking at is basically a pressure gauge that will show the bottle pressure when the valve is opened. as roger says it can be used as simple but broadly effective check for gas leaks - but it is not as accurate as a gas fitters gas soundness test equipment.

The device will only really tell you when the bottle is about to reach empty, because as long as there is any liquefied gas which will try to boil off to maintain the vapour pressure in the bottle the pressure will be fairly constant, but as roger says it will vary a bit dependant on the temperature of the bottle.

Only when there is no liquid left to boil or the temperature drops too low, will the pressure drop significantly, however for Propane low temperatures in the UK are not really an issue.

The other part of the devices description mentions "excess flow and self resetting" This suggests if too much gas is flowing possibly due to an a pipe being disconnects or breaking, the device will shut off the flow. Unless you make a mistake when fitting or this is unlikely to be of any practical use to you.

 

[mat1]

Thank you to all who replied.

It is clear that it will not do what i expected, so i shall save my pennies.
Reverting to the tried and tested "shake and see" mark 1 device.

Mat

 

[RogerL]

Annually, I take my gas cylinder out and weight it on digital bathroom scales - works well enough for us but perhaps our gas consumption is very consistent.