chrisallys Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Dont panic, i am a gas safe engineer, had an interesting fault whilst away, suddenly wife could smell a slight wiff of gas at the controll height, stripped fridge out did all usual tests and found zero. it was then ok for a day or so but then you get paranoid and test it all the time and sure enough it came back, i had it out 4 times in a week but then had to change the bottle (empty) and problem has not come back. has anybody had this where when the gas bottle is nearing empty you get a wiff ? somebody on our freecamp site did say that they had come accross this before but we hadnt in 6 years of travelling in the same van. thanks in advance . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Check the actual valve (or whatever it is) behind the control knob - we had this on one of our vans and the tester equipment couldn't pick up the fault but my nose could, ended up getting it changed under warranty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 In my experiance gas smells are very common when bottle is getting empty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Collings Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Could it be that the pressure drop as the gas is exhausted leads to incomplete combustion of the stenching agent . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Two more possibilities 1) The packing gland on the gas bottle stop cock is leaky, can be overcome by FULLY opening gas cock as this seals off the exit. (Personal experience of this) 2) The gas smell was from an external source, not you! Take care C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auditor Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 colin - 2011-04-06 9:24 PM In my experiance gas smells are very common when bottle is getting empty. I quite agree with Colin. We have found the same with every motorhome that we have owned, even with our current Gaslow system. Note:- I regularly test for leaks, and haven't experienced any, as yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Didn't I read on here not so long back something about the stench agent they use in gas cylinders?(..it may've been in he thread about Dometic fridges on Autogas?)....maybe that agent "settles" and is more concentrated in the last bit of gas?...maybe...? (..probably loads of science type stuff invloved,so I'll keep out of it now... (lol) (lol) ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_C Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 pepe63 - 2011-04-07 9:25 AM Didn't I read on here not so long back something about the stench agent they use in gas cylinders?(..it may've been in he thread about Dometic fridges on Autogas?)....maybe that agent "settles" and is more concentrated in the last bit of gas?...maybe...? (..probably loads of science type stuff invloved,so I'll keep out of it now... (lol) (lol) ) That's pretty much what happens, you sometimes get an oily contaminant in gas bottles (called 'heavy ends'), the stenching agent can become concentrated in this, resulting in a much stronger smell when the bottle is just about empty. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flicka Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 The "Stench Agent" in LPG's is Ethyl Mercaptan (is a organosulfur compound) - C2H5SH) & we are extremely sensitive to it's odour. From Wikipedia :- "Ethanethiol (Ethyl mercaptan) has a strongly disagreeable odor that humans can detect in minute concentrations. The threshold for human detection is as low as one part in 2.8 billion parts of air. Its odour resembles that of leeks or onions. Ethanethiol is intentionally added to butane and propane (see: LPG) to impart an easily noticed smell to these odourless fuels, that otherwise pose the threat of fire, explosion and/or asphyxiation. According to the 2000 edition of the Guinness Book Of World Records, ethanethiol is the "smelliest substance" in existence. Other more specialised chemicals were probably not examined, however. Most volatile thiols are comparably offensive. Thiols can be oxidized to sulfoxides, which have only a faint smell, using bleach or related oxidants." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisallys Posted April 8, 2011 Author Share Posted April 8, 2011 well as usual a lot of replies and all helpful thanks again to all for your comments Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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