Glen,
I am licensed for propane service and new installation-forklift business. In
the future, you can do just what you did, being careful to not destroy the
gasket. When reassembling, use a grease, including what is handy such as
vaseline, even just motor oil, cooking oil such as corn or vegetable oil,
and coat all the mating surfaces on all sides, including if you broke the
gasket. Never use any silicone sealant or other sealant such as gasket
sealers. Just oil or grease.
Here is what happens: The lubricant allows the gasket, even a torn gasket,
broken gasket, or separated gasket, paper and cardboard or oil board gasket
to do two things; absorb the lube making it more resiliant and flexible, and
to move upon compression to mate and fill the three surfaces. The three
surfaces are: Base, Gasket, and Cover. The other thing you did exactly right
was to pay attention to the order of torque so as to not tighten any one
part ahead of the other. The preferred method is a cross or X pattern of
gradual tightening. It is also important to oil the screws, the threaded
hole, and the cover surface the head of the screw will contact. This
prevents thread damage and friction that can and often prevents even
tightening.
As clean as propane is, it still contains distillates. The distillates
accumulate over time at the regulated points and leave a very gooey sticky
black mess buildup that will cause a multitude of problems. Your simple
cleanup, and the solvent of alcohol you used was perfect, safe, and dried
leaving little or no residue. No harsher solvent can be used on any of the
non-metal componets. It is ok to use soap and water, fantastic, simple
green, purple power, or anything like that. It is just a gooey distillate
you want to clean away from the rubber and metal parts.
You must never leak-check with a flame. Propane is heavy. It collects. It
pools and loves a static area such as the entire underside or a cabinet of
an RV. Propane is therefore inherently dangerous as a flammable. Unlike
natural gas, the PPM (parts per million) are extremely high. If you smell
propane it is extremely hazardous and flammable exceedingly greater than if
you smell natural gas. Always use a soapy solution such as AJAX liquid
detergent and water mix to check for leaks. The solution is excellent to
reveal the smallest of leaks.
If you happen upon a flame, let's say at the cover. First be calm, turn off
the propane bottle, just blow out the flame (it will blow out with a good
strong breath) and turn off the appliance since the lines are under high
pressure that takes a long time to empty.
Do what you did. Use good common sense and thinking. You did good! You also
saved a lot of money and work since the valve is expensive and seldom can be
replaced without destroying the water heater in the process.
-Eddie- Houston TX
> Here's what I did:
> I removed the big red temp knob and the four screws holding the pot
> metal cover plate that surrounds it. That exposed a conical spring pressing
> on a valve disc about the size of a quarter. It came out easily revealing a
> neoprene(?) valve seal on the back side showing evidence of debris that I
> could actually feel with my index finger. I simply used rubbing alcohol to
> clean it and then slipped it back into place.
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