Oven Propane Leak

[WJQ]

This question is for a 2018 Cougar Travel Trailer.

Background: If the trailer is closed up and the propane tanks are open, then people with a sensitive nose can detect a propane leak. I got a bottle of leak detection solution (fancy soap solution but convenient applicator) and went around to every connection inside and outside of the trailer. I tested the furnace connection and the range connection. Then outside, I tested the water heater and the refrigerator connection. I tested all of the 1/2 inch gas piping and the gas to copper tubing connections. No bubbles!

I called our local fire department to ask if they could test for a leak and they obliged. Eventually, they narrowed it down to a leak INSIDE of the oven. Their detector measured 5 ppm. This is a Dometic Wedgewood Vision range/oven combination. After the fire department left, I used the soap leak detection fluid inside the oven and on the oven control connection under the range cover on the top. No bubbles!

Has anyone seen this before? Any ideas as to where the leak might be from?

[sourdough]

I have a very sensitive nose as well. I've smelled gas leaks at our meter outside our home and in the RV. All checked, all OK. Here is a little excerpt:

"If you have a gas stove, there are about five to 15 parts per million of natural gas in the air inside your home. More than 30 parts per million crosses into dangerous levels of natural gas and indicates a faulty stove."

What I suspect I, and you, smell is the part that is not considered dangerous. If it was your detector should go off. In the case of my meter at my home, as I stood there smelling the fumes, the gas guy told me it was OK/normal.

[WJQ]

Well Danny, I have read lots of your reviews and respect them. This one I was a little more sceptical about. I would like to fix my leak if I could figure our how. But, if I can live with a small leak, I guess that might be OK.

So, I dug a little deeper. I found leak detector on Amazon that claimed it worked from 0% to 20% of the LEL - Lower Explosion Limit.

Now, what is the LEL for propane. Thanks to Google, I found it is 2.1% in air according to Matheson Gas. https://www.mathesongas.com/pdfs/pro...ve-Limits-.pdf

So, what is 2.1% of propane in PPM so I can relate to the 5 ppm that the fire department told me. It is 21,000 ppm -- way above the level detected by the fire department. Here is the website -- https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/...nt_to_PPM.html

So, it looks like your opinion is valid and I don't need to worry about a very minor leak. I just need to have flowers in the trailer so my wife has something better to sniff!

[JRTJH]

Here's another hypothesis:

There really isn't a "leak" but an accumulation of mercaptan, the oily substance that is added to "colorless/odorless propane and natural gas" to provide an "organic alarm" (nose) to any accumulation of gas. We smell it, know it's a leak kind of situation....

Now, mercaptan, being an oil based substance that doesn't fully burn or evaporate, will accumulate in the oven and can leave a residue that we "smell and interpret as a leak" (even though it's not really a leak)...

If you've ever walked up on a propane filling station just before it's used to fill a tank, even though there's "no leak" there's a smell of propane (actually mercaptan oil that has accumulated on the surfaces around the area where leaks or use occur....

So, when your oven is in use, the oily mercaptan accumulates on the flat surface just above the burner tube. Unlike pots or pans that are exposed to the flame and then washed, in the oven, the mercaptan accumulates and causes a "smell of propane" that's more intense below the floor of the oven (in the broiler area) than above the floor of the oven.

Just another theory, and I'm not suggesting that you ignore the smell, but rather that it may actually be normal and expected, even with zero chance of an active propane leak in any of the fittings or components under the oven floor..... YMMV.

[WJQ]

Any idea why I get logged off as I write a response. This has happened twice. Is there a blog master I can contact?

[ctbruce]

Originally Posted by WJQ

Any idea why I get logged off as I write a response. This has happened twice. Is there a blog master I can contact?

Did you the stay logged on box?