Another Newby question

[Kev&Gin]

When my RV's have two propane tanks I always turn both of them on and let the automatic switching unit 'change tanks' when one runs empty. That way you are not getting an excess amount of air into the lines, the heater continues to work throughout the night and if you are dry camping the refrigerator keeps working. You can look at the propane switching unit and see which direction the lever is pointing (current tank being used) and color of display window. Green means the tank where the lever is pointed is being used, red means that tank is empty and the other tank has been switched to.

gestern1, I agree. I was told the same thing. And when the indicator goes all red switch it to the other position then pull the empty tank and get it filled but it automatically begins drawing from the second tank when the first goes to empty. It has taken the guess work out of determining which tank is empty.

[Cate&Rob]

I really hope this works automatically as you guys describe . . . a great feature.
But, I have invoked the "ask Janice" feature provided by Grand Design .
http://www.mygrandrv.com/for...Tank-Switching

Rob

[Mark&Lisa]

I appreciate all the help with the Furnace question. BTW, I found that the Furnace will operate in Zone 2, per the owners manual.

Regarding the so called automatic Two Stage Regulator. The owners manual describes a procedure whereby you manually select which tank that you want to use. The lever will point to the supply cylinder and the other will be the Reserve. You open both valves and the indicator turns to green. When the cylinder is empty the indicator turns to red. Now turn the lever to the Reserve tank and the green signal should return. You can remove the empty tank and fill it without interrupting the flow from the reserve bottle. After filling, connect the hose and open the valve. Repeat the cycle when the 2nd tank becomes empty.

It doesn't say anything about this operation being automatic and I believe it requires a manual turn of the lever when the tank is empty.

On the other hand, what do I know? I couldn't even get my furnace to work :-)

[Paul & Deb]

Every RV I've had for the past 10 years that had this type of regulator always started drawing from the "reserve" tank automatically. I suspect this one is no different.

The lever at the top is, as Mark (or Lisa) points out, to show which tank you have designated as the "duty" (or active) tank and which is the reserve. The green (or red) indicator will tell you the status of the duty tank. So, when the duty tank runs empty the indicator turns red, switching the lever to the reserve tank selects it as the new duty tank and the indicator will turn green.

[surfintom]

Every RV I've had for the past 10 years that had this type of regulator always started drawing from the "reserve" tank automatically. I suspect this one is no different.

The lever at the top is, as Mark (or Lisa) points out, to show which tank you have designated as the "duty" (or active) tank and which is the reserve. The green (or red) indicator will tell you the status of the duty tank. So, when the duty tank runs empty the indicator turns red, switching the lever to the reserve tank selects it as the new duty tank and the indicator will turn green.

That's apparently how that switch valve works in mine I found out this morning when the furnace stopped working. I thought we were using the driver side tank as that's where the switch was. I think one morning for some reason I decided the tank must be empty so I switched to the curbside and grabbed the empty to refill (yesterday). Good thing because the curbside only lasted a couple days. It had obviously been the supply tank quite awhile before I actually switched the switch. If you want the system to be manual, leave the other tank closed.

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[surfintom]

That's apparently how that switch valve works in mine I found out this morning when the furnace stopped working. I thought we were using the driver side tank as that's where the switch was. I think one morning for some reason I decided the tank must be empty so I switched to the curbside and grabbed the empty to refill (yesterday). Good thing because the curbside only lasted a couple days. It had obviously been the supply tank quite awhile before I actually switched the switch. If you want the system to be manual, leave the other tank closed.

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So the question I have - how reliable is the automatic valve? How empty does the supply tank actually get before the automatic "invisible" switch happens?

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[boyscout]

Nobody ever told me about the auto switching capability !
At delivery, I was told that this was a manual switching valve.
Learned something today . . . thanks gestern1 . Rob

I know this is a very old post, but since the thread has been brought back to life by someone else I'll toss in this gem.

We took delivery from the same dealer you did, more than two years later. The "technician" told us that the valve / selector was used to manually select one tank or the other by turning the selector to the appropriate side, and that if the selector was set in the middle then the system would draw from both tanks!

I told him to set it to the middle - we had purchased level indicators for the tanks so we'd monitor them to avoid running out of gas. We left Canada and the dealer far behind before finding that the valve / selector wasn't working properly when set to the middle - we were running out of gas when one tank still had lots in it

I went on the internet and found a valve / selector that looked very similar and promised to automatically switch from an empty tank to the other one. What a great idea.

I bought one after asking some questions at General RV and on preparing to install it found that it was identical to the one I already had. Mine worked fine once I started using it the way it was supposed to be used! I took the new one back to General RV and cursed the dealer, not for the first (or the last) time.