Transcript:

If you were to ask most RV techs what the number one red flag would be for them when buying a used rv, I can almost guarantee most of them would say a propane leak. Which I can say because I'm a certified tech and I just recently bought this 1998 Fleetwood Flair.

When I was in the RV buying process, a propane leak test was one of the first things that I did on every potential rig that I looked at.

You test for a propane leak at the stove. That's why I'm here.

Tracking down a propane leak is just a RV tech nightmare. Almost every teacher I had when I went to RV tech school had a horror story about trying to track down a propane leak. It can be really difficult, really time consuming. And in these older rigs where rust can be a bigger issue, sometimes they're impossible to track down. So today I'm gonna show you how to do this relatively quick and easy test that could save you so much heartache from buying a rig that you then find out is unusable because it's leaking propane everywhere.

The test you're gonna perform today is actually called a time pressure drop test in the biz, and to perform it, you're going to need one of these, a manometer.

And yes, if every time you say it, you kind of wanna do it in the Muppet tone of like, manometer, do, do, do do. You're not alone. I'll be doing it with you in spirit.

It comes in a blue box like this. And inside is a dial, a hose, a funnel, and usually a brass attachment. Today, you can put that brass attachment aside. We're not gonna need it.

This Manometer is gonna allow you to do two things. One, perform a time, pressure drop test, and two, really look like you know what you're doing if you roll up to potentially buy a used rig off of Facebook marketplace, craigslist, from a friend of a friend of a friend. Imagine you roll up and this buyer thinks they're gonna pull one over on you. First you pull out a fancy tool they've never seen. Already, they're impressed. Then you call it a manometer and say you're gonna perform a time pressure drop test, and they're like, oh, this woman knows her stuff.

Then you perform the test flawlessly and confidently say that this rig either has a leak or it doesn't, and then the seller is blown away. They're like, I'm not gonna be able to pull a fast one on this woman. She knows what she's doing. I'm all about exuding confidence. That's that's the rule today.

This test I'm gonna show you today is really simple and easy to do, but I would recommend doing it on a rig that you either already own or on a friend's rig in a chill, no pressure environment before you go do it in front of somebody that you don't know that you're trying to buy something from. It's an easy test to do, but it does have its nuances and you just wanna look like you know what you're doing when you show up.

I believe in you. You got this.

To perform this test, the first thing you're going to do is go outside and turn the propane off. Then you're gonna come back inside, ask for permission, and then mildly take apart the stove.

You're gonna take the burner racks off the top, lift up the top, and you should have exposed the burners. You're then going to identify which burner is the easiest to access and very carefully remove it. It usually just involves unscrewing one screw, and then carefully pulling the burner off.

Then you're going to take the cute funnel attachment that came with your manometer and very carefully wiggle it onto the nubbin that was left behind when you took off the burner. This is going to be a tight connection, but if you give it slow circular movements, it should just wiggle itself on.

Then you're gonna pull out your manometer. Do, do, do, do do. Find a place that you can prop it up and then attach the hose to the funnel attachment. Now that you're all hooked up, you are going to turn the burner that you have attached the manometer to, to high. Make sure that you don't go too light just to high. This is going to allow propane to go through the burner into your manometer.

Now it's time to actually perform your time pressure drop test.

You're going to go outside and turn the propane all the way on. Wait a couple seconds and then turn it off.

Now go back into the rig.

We're gonna be measuring propane pressure today in inches of water column. That's just a way of measuring pressure. It's similar to PSI or pounds per square inch, which is something I think more people have heard of. Inches of water column is just like psi, but in smaller amounts. It's just because the pressure inside an RV is so small that if we were to measure it in pounds per square inch, everything would have to be a very small decimal number. So we just use a different unit of measuring so that the numbers we're talking about aren't tiny decimals. So to measure in inches of water column, you are going to be looking at the outside circle of numbers on your manometer. The inside numbers are ounces per square inch, and we're gonna be ignoring those today.

When you come back into the rig, the pressure should read somewhere between 11 inches and 14. 11 is the goal. 11 is perfection. 11 is what we aspire to. But anything between 11 and 14 is considered acceptable. If you are lower than 11 or higher than 14, you need to look at the propane regulator and see if it just needs to be adjusted or if it's gone bad.

If the pressure is not between 11 and 14, you cannot pass go. You cannot collect $200. You cannot continue on with the test.

You need to solve the fact that the pressure isn't correct to begin with before we can even do the rest of the test. But as you can see in this rig, we are spot on 11.

Which is amazing, so we can continue on to step two.

For this actual test, we are going to take the propane pressure and drop it from 11 inches of water column down to eight inches of water column, and then we're gonna hold for three minutes and see if that pressure stays the same. That's the basic gist.

The reason why we drop it from 11 to eight is to make sure that back pressure inside of the rig doesn't hide a leak that exists. So we bring it down to eight to take off that back pressure. You're gonna see some of what I mean when you go to run the test.

So to get the pressure down from 11 to eight, we're going to use a different burner than the one that we attach the manometer to. I like to do this in little baby steps. At first, you're gonna be fighting that back pressure, so just open it up a little bit and then close it off.

You're gonna see the needle is going to come down a little bit and then it's going to pop back up. Once you close the burner. This is okay. This is what you want. This is showing that there's back pressure in the system, which is good. It's just a little annoying when you're going to try to run this test, so just creep on it very slowly. Let a little off close it, let it creep back up. It's okay if it takes a minute. Your goal is to get that needle down to eight. You're going to find that you're fighting the back pressure, fighting the back pressure, and then all of a sudden it's going to fall down very quickly and you're gonna slam it close and hope that it stops at eight. You get better at this with some practice. That's why I recommend doing this test once or twice, either on your current rig or on a friend's rig before you go do it on somebody else's.

It's okay if it's not smack on eight, but eight's the goal. You really want it to be close to eight. If you see today, I got that bad boy smack on on eight. That does not happen every day. Today was a good day, folks. Round of applause. Give yourself a little dance. Then you're going to take a picture of the meter. I know you're like, Emily, I got it smack on on eight. I'm gonna remember that. You know, memories fade. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Take a picture, it will last longer.

Take take the damn picture, okay? And then set a timer for three minutes. For those three minutes you can chat up the owner, ask them about their day. Tell them that they have a cute dog. Everybody likes being complimented. Get on their good side. They might be a little perturbed that you've taken apart their stove. Schmooze them a little. You're trying to get a good deal.

Once those three minutes have passed, take another picture of the manometer then compare your two pictures. You want that needle to not have budged at all, not even the tiniest bit. Even the smallest movement means that there is a leak somewhere in this rig. Today, ladies and gentlemen, the needle did not move at all because this rig does not have a propane leak. If that needle did not budge at all, then congratulations. Step right up. You have not only performed a time pressure drop test correctly, you have also found the diamond in the rough, and that is a RV that does not have a propane leak in it.

Give yourself a little dance party if nobody is watching.

You've done so good. I'm so proud of you.

If the needle moved at all, that means you did not pass. Your RV that you're looking at does have a propane leak, but if you're looking at buying this rig, you don't have to completely strike it off the list immediately. You can do 30 more seconds of problem solving. You can decide how far down the rabbit hole you wanna go, but here is the super easy level of problem solving that you can do yourself. The first would be to use a soap and water mixture and just put it around the connection between the hose and the funnel, and the funnel and the nubbin this whole assembly, and with the propane on, make sure that we aren't creating bubbles.

If you do see bubbles, that means that you didn't get a good seal between your manometer and the stove, and the leak in part is actually with your meter. So that means you just need to get that funnel in on tighter, get the hose on the funnel better and run the test again.

If you don't see any extra bubbles being created, then it's probably not your meter and it's probably something in the rig. You get to decide how far down the rabbit hole you wanna go of trying to solve that. If this is a rig you already own, this is something you wanna get solved. Pronto the first thing you're going to do is [00:11:00] go to all of your easiest to get to appliances and just check the gas connection on all of them.

I'm talking about the fridge. If you have an absorption style fridge, the water heater, and the furnace, you're going to use two wrenches when you do this, not just one. And make sure that you're tightening them down. Go through, give everything a quick little snug, and then run the test again. If you still do not pass a time pressure drop test, then it's most likely time to call a tech.

Which, by the way, hi. Hello. I'm a certified tech. If you're in the Las Vegas area, I'd love to help you out. Bing, Bing. Binging. Binging, bing.

It's up to you to decide what level of a project you're willing to deal with. I knew, especially because I was looking at rigs that were 20 to 30 years old that rust was going to play a factor, and that if a rig did have a leak, there was a potential that it was unfixable. If there's rust involved, then all of that connecting and disconnecting that you have to do in order to track the leak down may not be possible if all of your connections are rusted shut. So at least for me personally, if a rig has a propane leak, I'm not buying it.

If you would like to learn some maintenance things that you can do in your rig to help prevent having to call a tech like me, then check out in the description I have a link to my ultimate guide to RV maintenance. It's totally free. I walk you through with step-by-step guides, how to maintain everything from your AC to your water tanks to your fridge.

It's totally free. That's my gift to you. I'm actually trying to tell you how to not have to call me. What tech does that?

If you could perform a time pressure drop test, you can do any of the maintenance items. If this time pressure drop test seemed too in depth for you, do not worry. Everything in that guide is so much easier than this, and this really is easy, guys.

You can do this. You got this.