*Dangerous in the hands of your humble moderator, I should caveat!
Like all good stories, this one starts with "So there I was...".
So there I was packing away my Little Red Campfire (LRC) after using it last night (for only the second time). To understand what happened next, the reader needs to understand that I used an adapter to get propane from a small green bottle instead of using a full-size, 20lb propane tank. The LRC has a connection for a standard propane tank, not a small green bottle. The adapter setup worked well--no problem having a "campfire" last night.
This morning I went to put everything away and while trying to unscrew the adapter from the bottle I inadvertently unscrewed the LRC's line from the adapter leaving the adapter still attached to the propane bottle. As you can guess by the title of this post that didn't go well--the adapter has no safety, so gas vented furiously from the bottle.
A white cloud immediately mushroomed around me--super dangerous situation. I wasn't going to try and unscrew the adapter at that point. I was in an "immediate action" situation. I ran away from the camper (bottle in hand) and thrust the venting end into the (soft) ground making sure there was nothing like a rock that would spark. It took less than a minute for the gas to stop venting. Of course there was no breeze so the gas smell hung in the air for a good couple of minutes.
Thankfully where I'm parked there is good spacing between me and the neighbors. (Certainly not the case in most of the RV parks I've frequented.) I got lucky in that regard.
So that's my tale this morning. I hope by telling it that it saves someone else from making the same mistake.
Howard
Like all good stories, this one starts with "So there I was...".
So there I was packing away my Little Red Campfire (LRC) after using it last night (for only the second time). To understand what happened next, the reader needs to understand that I used an adapter to get propane from a small green bottle instead of using a full-size, 20lb propane tank. The LRC has a connection for a standard propane tank, not a small green bottle. The adapter setup worked well--no problem having a "campfire" last night.
This morning I went to put everything away and while trying to unscrew the adapter from the bottle I inadvertently unscrewed the LRC's line from the adapter leaving the adapter still attached to the propane bottle. As you can guess by the title of this post that didn't go well--the adapter has no safety, so gas vented furiously from the bottle.
A white cloud immediately mushroomed around me--super dangerous situation. I wasn't going to try and unscrew the adapter at that point. I was in an "immediate action" situation. I ran away from the camper (bottle in hand) and thrust the venting end into the (soft) ground making sure there was nothing like a rock that would spark. It took less than a minute for the gas to stop venting. Of course there was no breeze so the gas smell hung in the air for a good couple of minutes.
Thankfully where I'm parked there is good spacing between me and the neighbors. (Certainly not the case in most of the RV parks I've frequented.) I got lucky in that regard.
So that's my tale this morning. I hope by telling it that it saves someone else from making the same mistake.
Howard
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