Chasing down gas leak?

[FootSoldier]

We spent a week camping in our 23SS Roo earlier this month and I noticed a faint smell of gas a couple times while sitting under the awning. Gas fridge is on that side, but I could never find any smell I thought was coming from it. The Hot water heater is on the other side and I became convinced the smell was coming from there.

After we got home, I spent parts of two days spraying every fitting related to the fridge or water heater and all those under trailer with soapy water two or three times. Never found any bubbles.

Finally, I decided that the water heater gas valve had to be the culprit, so I ordered a replacement and installed it yesterday. Doing my checks today, I found that when the gas is turned on at the bottles, the faint gas smell comes back near the WH.

Fittings are tight, soapy water doesn't show any leaks, it is a very faint smell, but it's there. Turn the gas bottles off, smell is gone.

Any other ideas where I should be looking?

[FootSoldier]

JimBollman wrote:
A friend had a gas leak in his B and bought this leak detector.

Said it took him no time to find the leak and it was so small that soapy water ran off before it could bubble. He only new it had a leak because he forgot to turn off at the tank when he put it away for the Winter.

I have the same one on order from amazon now. I'll be leaving in the trailer as part of the regular gear.

[JimBollman]

A friend had a gas leak in his B and bought this leak detector.

Said it took him no time to find the leak and it was so small that soapy water ran off before it could bubble. He only new it had a leak because he forgot to turn off at the tank when he put it away for the Winter.

[mr_andyj]

Could be another appliance like the furnace valve, could be be regulator...
Could be anything anywhere.
The sniffer is the best helper you can get

[FootSoldier]

I ordered up a gas sniffer tool to help see if I can locate it. I'll give the hoses a tug in that process.

[ksg5000]

Consider taking your rig into Commercial Propane dealer. The one time I had a leak that I couldn't locate I went to Suburban Propane (commercial outfit) had them fill the tank and ask them to locate the leak - they had the tools to find/fix the leak very quickly. No charge to fix the leak.

[dougrainer]

Turn both tanks ON. Soak the 2 Pigtail crimp connections and then twist and turn the rubber where the crimps are that go from the tanks to the regulator. See if you get bubbles. Doug

[Weldon]

I had a similar problem, along with the slight smell i noticed when a burner was on the flame was not as high as normal. I dis connected the hose at the botle then reconnected. No more problem, don't know what was wrong but the problem was gone.

[profdant139]

I had the same problem -- a hard to find very small leak. I bought one of those sensor wands. It worked. Good luck!!