This past weekend our travel trailer ran out of propane. But it wasn’t a surprise.
On Friday May 27th I retrieved our trailer from storage. I had filled both of the 30 lb. tanks prior to taking it to the storage site. So both tanks were full. After I hitched the trailer to the F-250, I engaged the battery disconnect switch, opened the valves on both tanks, and turned on the fridge. I wanted to start “cooling” the fridge for a couple says, since the ambient temperature was in the triple digits Fahrenheit.
We left Palm Springs on June 1st and returned from our trip on June 24th. We were in no hurry to unload, clean, and do a couple maintenance items. So the trailer sat in our driving for just over a week.
On Saturday, July 2 everything was finished except cleaning our Weber Baby Q grill and refilling the propane tanks before taking it back to storage. After cleaning the grill’s interior and grate, I connected the propane hose to heat up the grate and do a final brushing. About 10 minutes later I noticed the flame had gone out. We were out of propane.
BTUs are Your Friend
BTU (British Thermal Unit) is a unit of heat. It is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. That definition really isn’t of much practical use.
However, gas appliances have a BTU rating. Fuels such as gasoline, kerosene, propane have a specification for how many BTUs are contained in a given volume or weight of fuel. Now, this is very useful!
Our Fridge’s BTU Specification
We have a Dometic 8 cubic foot refrigerator that is rated at 1,500 BTUs per hour. This is an “average” stated by the manufacturer. I have no idea of how they calculate this, but we are probably not “average” users because we. . .
- don’t have kids constantly opening the door
- we only put cold food in it — we don’t place warm food in it to cool off
- we load it with enough open space to allow the interior air to circulate
- I do all the recommended maintenance
So, using this BTU rating, all we need to do is figure how many BTUs are in our propane tanks and then do a little math.
We have two 30 lb. propane tanks that hold 7 gallons of propane each. One gallon of propane contains 91,502 BTUs.
14 gallons X 91,502 btu = 1,281,028 total btu
Since we run our fridge 24 hours a day when camping, dividing the Total BTUs by the Fridge’s rated 1,500 BTUs per hour will tell us about how long the fridge will operate until we run out of propane (assuming no other gas appliances are operated).
1,281,028 btu ÷ 1,500 btu/hour = 854 hours of run time
854 hours ÷ 24 hours in a day = 35.58 days of run time
While on our trip we used the propane stove every morning to make a pot of coffee. We also used our Baby Q grill to cook some of our meals. We didn’t use the water heater because during the day the water got hot enough to take a shower as is.
We ran out of propane on the 36th day. Also keep in mind that for a week after we got home, we didn’t open the fridge door and still had quite a bit of food in it. Our propane stove and grill use was minimal during the 23 days we camped. So the calculation methodology is verified.
Other Thoughts
We do a lot of one month trips. One month is our longest trip because the post office will only hold mail for 30 days and Joyce wants to come home after a month, even if we plan on another long trip after a week at home.
Typically our propane lasts for a month without needing to refill. The exception is when camping in cold weather in winter. On these trips I closely monitor our use with the regulator. Basically I check the propane regulator daily. If one tank becomes empty, it automatically switches to the second tank and a red indicator will show the first tank is empty.
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This works for us. My experience over the years, and I used to sell a lot of propane in the service stations I worked at for nearly 30 years, is gauges are very inaccurate.
I suppose one could bring a scale and weight the tank to determine how much propane is left, as I discussed in this post a few years ago.
Another option for those who run out of propane during the middle of a trip is to get a larger tank(s). We already have to 30# tanks that weigh 55 lb. each when full. Years ago I used 40# lb. tanks on our 2006 Fleetwood Niagara, which weighed 72 lb. each. Since I’ll be 72 in a few months, I don’t want to deal with larger and bulkier tanks that weigh over 70 pounds.
I suppose one could also bring extra spare tanks too. I don’t like the idea of a spare tank bouncing around in a tow vehicle or camper.
Update (30 Jan 2024): I no longer have to manually check the dual propane regulator window ever since we installed our Mopeka Propane Sensors . . .
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