How quickly does your propane run for? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Little Dipper · RV-Dreams Community Member

How quickly does your propane run for?

Ckerr · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm not 100% sure on the size of 8kg bottles, but that sure doesn't sound right to me. We go 4-6 months without refilling ours and we live in it most of the time....

Bill Adams · RV-Dreams Family Member

8KG (1 KG = about 2.2 pounds) is a little less than the 20# propane bottles used with a gas grill. We have one of these which we only use for our gas cook-top and nothing else. It last us about a year and a half. A furnace in an RV could eat up one of these bottles pretty quickly, however, depending upon the size of the furnace and the duration of use.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

We can go through a gallon a day running our furnace which is about 2 KG so it can go quickly. We carry over 60 KG.

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

This is a good question, but the answers are just so variable.

As Bill J. said, you can go through quite a bit of a tank in a single day running heat.

Our generator runs on LP and a 4+ kilo tank will only last about 12 hours. We don’t do that very often. Then again, I’ve gone a month and never made a dent in the 4+ kilo (approx.) tanks when all we were running was the refrigerator. It just really depends. But please be advised, most of the furnaces can really use a lot of fuel.

As a general rule, the finance uses a lot, next the gas water heater, then ovens, stoves and lastly the fridge. That is our experience over the years.

None of our answers will help a lot till you get some time with your rig and have some usage experience remembering that if have good power and your water heater, refrigerator and possibly a reverse cycle air-conditioner (heat-pump) are all on shore power you could go for a very long time. It just depends.

Safe travels

Bill

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

The smaller propane cylinders (outdoor cooker size) are routinely called a 20 lb cylinder, or roughly 5 gallons. However, in filling a propane cylinder, one never fills them much beyond 80 to 85 percent full, so your "5 gallon" cylinder would only be a bit over 4 gallons of actual fuel.

Last winter, I was uncertain as to whether our washer was properly drained so I kept the coach at about 62 degrees so as to not let it freeze up. (We weren't living in it full-time yet.) Our cylinders are 40 lb cylinders, holding about 9.5 gallons and I was refilling one about every 3 or 4 days with keeping the coach at 62 degrees. Our coach (fifth wheel) is 38 feet long.

In answer to your question, I would suspect that it was normal to run out in a short period of time. I guess it kind of depends on how big a space you were talking about heating to "dry things out" and to how long your furnace ran over that period of time.

Terry

Luvglass · RV-Dreams Family Member

Your cylinders are smaller than most, but from your description of usage I suspect there may be a leak. I'd have it checked.
Good luck,

flyone · RV-Dreams Family Member

8kg is 17.63 lb, in your post you say you filled up two of these. I agree with Luvglass something sounds not right. Unless you have a huge RV and are under estimating the useage you proably have a leak or the tanks did not get filled as you suspect. You need to get the system checked out. Top to bottom, prior to lighting any appliances.

Flyone

NorCal Dan · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hot water tank, stove/oven, refrigerator, and furnace are the propane users on most RV's. If you weren't using any of these appliances then I agree you need to have a leak check done on your propane tanks and connections.