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LP GAs Pressure - Is it a potential problem

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charlesmyers2017
charlesmyers2017 Member Posts: 3
in Gas Heating
I have a Teledyne LAARS JVT-100c 70,000BTU hot water heat on Propane at an altitude of 7.300 ft. in Colorado. Although 25 years old it has worked well but has several irritating issues that have been addressed by 2 well qualified boiler techs. (1) intermittently it will "blue fire" only 3 of the 4 burners with the 4th a "yellow flame". We turn the gas control valve to pilot and back immediately to burn and it clears up with all 4 "blue flame". (2) Intermittently the gas control valve will "buzz" with a high pitched sound. Again, turning the flame off clears it out. (3) Intermittently, the relay will activate with a loud "Click". These events may occur once or twice a day or not for 4 or 5 days.
The techs have changed the gas control valve, relay and the transformer so almost all the control components are less than a year old. Plus, the system has been disassembled and inspected, cleaned and reassembled at least 2x. I'm a rancher and mechanically inclined and watched their work. These were experienced guys. No problem there. I am left with the conclusion that the gas pressure must be fluctuating and not staying constant. We are on two 1,000 gallon LP tanks. How about some ideas?

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  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,283
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    Any observable relationship to outside air temperature (I assume the tanks are outside!). You might have a condensation or freeze up issue somewhere in the piping...
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • charlesmyers2017
    charlesmyers2017 Member Posts: 3
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    No, they are intermittent regardless of the OAT (-15 to +40F)
  • lchmb
    lchmb Member Posts: 2,997
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    Has anyone checked flow and lockup on your first and second stage regulators? Are the vents on both regulators clear? Are they showing any signs of freezing? Has anyone added any methanol to the tanks?
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,520
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    any other appliances connected and has the pipe sizing been checked??
  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,569
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    lchmb said:

    Has anyone checked flow and lockup on your first and second stage regulators? Are the vents on both regulators clear? Are they showing any signs of freezing? Has anyone added any methanol to the tanks?

    That was my first thought.
    Have you checked the pressure?
    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein
  • charlesmyers2017
    charlesmyers2017 Member Posts: 3
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    All the piping was professionally installed by my Propane Company who has a team hat does this for everyone in our rural area. He concurred with the pressure check will be the next step. We 'll also check for any freezing on the regulator vents. Curious how often you find regulators that go bad and have to be replaced?
  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,569
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    They do go bad especially in harsh climates.
    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein
  • lchmb
    lchmb Member Posts: 2,997
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    Regulators are fairly tough, I've seen some that are 40 years old. With that said, if the line's are not properly sized it can cause the regulator to work harder than it has to and lock up to be to high. This will cause them to freeze up. Anotherother issue is the vents being plugged.

    One other point of interest is the "pigtail" which feeds the first stage regulator. I prefer to use a "hogtail" as I find the regulator works better in extreme cold and we have less freeze ups from them..

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