Winter camping this year? You need to know this about your propane!
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We've had an interesting history with winter camping. In fact, winter was the first season we camped in when we moved into our RV full-time. We sold our house just before New Years and then spent the next 2 months sitting in Massachusetts, organizing our lives, getting repairs done, and mustering up the courage to hit the road. We battled freezing temperatures and snowstorms.
What those first couple of months did for us, though, was prepare us for camping in cold weather conditions, and this has allowed us to visit popular destinations in the off- and shoulder-seasons. When we visited Williams, AZ and it snowed, we didn't even bat an eye. In fact, seeing snow on the Grand Canyon's South Rim was quite spectacular. We even make it a point to travel back to New England at the end of every year, so we can spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with family in MA. This has meant lows below freezing, and even occasional snow and ice storms. When we had our first Christmas in the RV, Santa gave us the gift of a frozen fresh tank. Needless to say, certain preparations need to be made to camp in winter weather, and even with those preparations, things can go awry pretty quickly.
You'd think that all our experience winter camping would make us experts on keeping our rig heated, but the truth is, we learn as we go. We have tank and line heaters that already came on our trailer. We have our propane furnace and two electric space heaters. We even found ways to build makeshift skirting to help insulate underneath the RV. When we're stationary in MA through the holidays, our local propane dealer lets us borrow an extra propane tank, so we're not running to fill propane every second. This has been a big help, because when the weather gets cold, we've been known to guzzle propane at rapid speeds.
As we make our way into the winter weather months this year, a lot of our preparations seem routine by this point. But, we had an issue that made us realize that we still had a lot to learn. A few months ago, our propane furnace died and we spent weeks trying to narrow down what part(s) were causing it to fail. In doing so, we researched everything we could about propane heat, and a few things we discovered were completely shocking. If you're planning on winter camping, we have tips for you that will not only better heat your RV, but will also possibly save you a lot of money on propane.
First things first: It's important to understand how an RV propane system works. A full propane tank is full of liquid propane under pressure. But, propane boils at -43.6°F. It only stays liquid because it's under pressure. The top part of the tank is propane gas that has boiled off, at a pressure determined by the temperature. When you open the tank, that gas flows out. The regulator reduces the pressure to a constant value of about 0.4 psi, which is what your RV needs. Inside the tank, more liquid propane boils to replace what flows out.
When propane boils, the gas carries heat away, and the liquid left behind gets colder. In warm weather, that's fine because the ambient heat warms the tank back up. When it's cold out, though, this cannot happen. The tank can get much colder than the outside, and with no ambient heat, the propane can't boil fast enough to maintain the flow. This can hinder the functionality of your appliances.
We were really slow in realizing just how this might impact our winter camping. Here we thought we were guzzling tons of propane to heat our rig, but in reality, our real issue might have been that the propane was unable to make its way to our furnace, water heater, and stove. If we showered, lots of times our water heater wouldn't reach our desired temperature. We thought this was because the outside air was so cold, it was impacting the water heater's functioning. We were missing a crucial step. The cold weather was impacting the water heater, not directly, but by way of the propane. As for our heat, our furnace attempts to pull as much propane as needed to reach the temperature we've set on our thermostat. However, if the pressure is too low, the furnace shuts off because it stops being able to draw fuel.
Our situation gets even more complicated. Like many RVers, we have two propane tanks hooked up at a time, and we can designate which one to use first, or we can use a regulator with a changeover, which allows propane draw from one tank, and when that one gets low, switch to the other. Now say the furnace detects "no propane" in the current tank because the pressure has dropped too low in the cold. It will then begin drawing from the second tank. While this is happening, the pressure slowly builds back up in the first tank, thus increasing the temperature. The next time our furnace needs to pull from a new tank, it might detect that there is in fact propane remaining in the first tank.
Because of this, we noticed that in cold temperatures, we were better off setting our changeover to allow draw from either tank. This solved many of our problems in the winter nights, but it's not the whole story.
When dealing with our dead furnace, we went through a list of all the parts that could possibly be causing us problems. Beyond the furnace, we looked at our propane setup, and there was one little device that can be make-or-break for propane successfully making its way into our rig: The GasStop.
We did ultimately learn that our GasStops were not the culprit of our furnace issues, but that didn't stop us from learning some interesting facts about how these "RV must-haves" operate. They are indeed must-haves because they are a safety measure for RVers. GasStops shut off the propane flow if they detect a leak. We screw one onto each propane tank between the cylinder and regulator, and each GasStop has a pressure gauge. In normal temperatures, we can use the gauge to give us an idea of how much propane is in our tanks, but in winter, this is another story.
In cold weather, when the propane pressure drops too far, the GasStops read this as either no tank being attached, or that there is a leak. Either way, they shut off flow until we manually prime it again. This led to us needing to go outside in the freezing cold many, many nights to prime the propane in order to get our furnace running again. While this is annoying, at least it means our GasStops are technically doing their job, and we can trust that they would cut propane flow if there actually was a leak. But then we read something downright puzzling about these devices. GasStop's own website says the gauges may malfunction below 32°F. Not the most productive level of functioning, considering we'd ideally like to use our heat when temperatures drop that low.
Now we understood so much more. Basically, in the wintertime, our propane system was working against us. The propane itself would drop pressure, the GasStops would cut whatever propane was coming through, and then our furnace would shut off at the first signs of not getting enough fuel to run. It's a recipe for failure.
In retrospect, there were many times when I thought, "This tank feels too heavy to be empty," but I couldn't prove it. People sell other types of gas gauges, but we never put any on our cylinders. We just assumed we would know by our GasStop gauge or simply that our propane-powered appliances would stop working, but it's clearly more complicated than that. Now that we had this information about GasStops, I began testing it. Sure enough, several times I saw the GasStop gauge read empty in the morning after a cold night, only to re-prime it when it got warmer and find there was plenty left. This made us wonder, how many times were we bringing our propane tanks to be refilled when they weren't even empty?!
This brings us to our first big tip: Don't trust your GasStop gauges in cold weather. First, if you're able to use a changeover so your system will alternate its draw from two tanks, set it that way. Then, if your furnace shuts off, try priming the tank the system drew from first, to see if enough pressure has built back up to get some more flow.
This was a start, but we realized that we still had one big obstacle to contend with. Sometimes the temperatures will stay cold for hours and hours, days upon days. In these cases, the ambient heat will not help pressure rebuild in the tanks. We wondered if there was some product that could help keep the tanks heated. We couldn't just insulate the tanks. This wouldn't allow them to absorb ambient heat because they'd be insulated from the outside temperatures, too. Folks who are stationary for a long time can use a larger tank. You may notice seasonals who have giant tanks outside their RVs and think it's so they don't need to refill their propane as often, but that's only part of the story. The other part is that larger tanks won't change temperature as much, and therefore won't lose pressure the same way small ones do.
The longest we stay stationary in the winter is 6-8 weeks, which isn't enough time to make purchasing a larger tank worthwhile. I continued digging for ideas and solutions, and finally, I found one. Our propane tanks just needed a warm blankie!
That's right. Someone along the way noticed this winter propane heat conundrum and came up with a solution: Heated blankets that wrap around the cylinders. This way, there's no need to wait for ambient heat; the blankets provide the heat needed to keep the gas warm and flowing.
Since we began using the blankets, our tanks have been at keeping right around 85°F even when the outside temperatures have dropped to the low 30s. This means the blankets should be powerful enough to keep the propane flowing even if temperatures drop below zero! The GasStop gauges have also read a nearly constant pressure until the tank is almost completely empty. Best of all, we've been able to get more propane out of our tanks, allowing more time between refills.
The blankets attach with Velcro and straps. Our propane cylinders are a little too large to get the fabric all the way around, but the straps do fit. The product description says the straps should fit around a 40lb tank, but our 20-pounders were a stretch. That said, even if the straps don't entirely fit, as long as you can cover most of the tank with the blanket and keep it relatively secure, it should work fine. We cannot keep our propane cover on while using the blankets, so we just keep it off and store it in our truck.
The blankets are powered by electricity, but their energy use is very small. When running, each blanket uses just 1amp of electricity, and they do not run continuously. The blankets have a thermostat, and when temperature is reached, they shut off until it's necessary for them to turn back on again. Attached to the wires is a controller, where you can operate the thermostat. There is a temperature probe that runs through the blanket. We tuck it between the blanket and the cylinder, and this allows the thermostat to read the temperature of the tank. The thermostat defaults to 85°F, and since we wanted to give these blankets a fair shake and we were plugged into electric hookups, we left it at this temperature. However, you can set it lower if you wish, just to get enough heat to keep your propane pressure up.
The cord that comes on the blankets is pretty short, so I use extension cords to reach my outlets. This will depend on where you're plugging it in. Because we've had pedestals at our campsites, I've been running the cord over to the outlet there.
Even though the blankets only use 1amp of power each, we do shut them off if we leave to go somewhere, just for extra precaution.
Their shortcomings are really miniscule compared to how much frustration they are saving us. We haven't had to worry about constantly priming our tanks, and better yet, we have been sleeping through the night without waking up shivering. We no longer have the hassle of constantly needing to get our propane filled, which over the course of winter, should save us some good money. Temperatures haven't dropped super low yet, but we can't wait to see how this new solution works as we round into December. If you're planning on taking your RV out in the cold weather, we hope this knowledge will help you run your propane heat hassle-free.