Date:         Wed, 28 Mar 2001 20:46:24 -0500
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: "stop fill" propane tank fill valve problem
In-Reply-To:  <5.0.2.1.2.20010328192439.00af76b0@#pop1.attglobal.net@192.
              168.0.1>
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At 07:35 PM 3/28/2001, David Beierl wrote:
>At 07:19 PM 3/28/2001, Andrew Fox wrote:
>
>>Some of our westy's have a "stop fill"

Ok, to clear up some possible confusion:  The Marshall Brass Autostop valve
is a 1 3/4" Acme fill valve which operates by sensing the change from gas
to liquid from the bleeder, and closing off the fill operation in response
to the change.  Like all Acme  fill valves, it does not allow propane to
flow back out through the valve at all.

This valve was discontinued by the mfr. years ago in favor of simpler and
cheaper manual valves.

However, mfrs of ASME-spec (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) tanks
some years ago started putting float-operated shutoffs inside the tanks to
prevent overfilling -- this may be the real reason the Autostop valve died,
I don't know.  Similar float-operated shutoffs are now mandated in DOT/BBQ
tanks -- sometime in 2002 it will become illegal to fill a BBQ tank that
does not have the internal shutoff.  However the shutoff valve in ASME
tanks appears to be manufacturing practice and not a legal requirement,
based on my somewhat perfunctory searching of the web.  The manufacturer of
Westy tanks is Manchester Tank -- they say on their web page that they use
"stop-fill" internal valves in their ASME tanks, though they don't refer
specifically to the unusually small tank used by the Westy.

david



David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"