Question:
My propane barbecue was working fine and producing lots of heat until today when it barely stays lit and isn’t producing enough heat. What’s wrong?
Answer:
Every day we receive a few phone calls from worried grillers who, all of a sudden, have a propane-fired barbecue that is producing only a tiny bit of heat. Most assume that there is something wrong with their barbecue.
In fact, they have turned their propane tank on too quickly. The modern propane tank has a valve in it that, when it thinks there’s a leak in the tank, will cut the flow of propane back to about 10%.
Unfortunately, these tanks can be a tad fussy and, on occasion will ‘think’ there’s a leak when they are turned on too fast. So, if you’re barbecue seems feeble and wheezy don’t panic, it’s easy to fix:
- turn off your barbecue
- turn off your tank
- unhook your regulator from your propane bottle
- make sure that your barbecue knobs are turned to the ‘off’ position
- re-attach your regulator to your propane bottle
- turn on your tank a quarter of a turn
- let the hose fill up with propane
- turn the tank on the rest of the way
- ignite your barbecue as you normally would ~ good as new.