I admire your evaluations on the various systems you have in your RV. I find them thorough and technically accurate. I appreciate the amount of time you take to research and produce these reports. On the LP tank level indicator, some people may wish to duplicate your method. I noticed that you did this analysis on a very windy day which is very good, however you may have made a statement that LP gas is heaver than air and without a wind, the gas can settle into lower areas and cause a dangerous situation. Please keep up the good work.
Thanks for another great video. I have been looking at installing these on the propane tanks and water tanks to integrate into my Cerbo GX. You may know by now, but the empty tare weight of any tank is stamped on the collar behind the TW. This would save draining the tank. Just weigh the tank, subtract the TW and use the math to figure out how much is in there. Have a great day!
Chad, the RV owners are lucky to have you! You definitely have a gift! Tara your awesome as well! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and educating us.
We have been using Mopeka sensors for several years on our travel trailer tanks, and now on our Class A and love them. We did notice changes in the reading on ultra cold days before and after the sun would warm up the tanks.
Chad, this is perfect detail! I like how you're analytical and thorough like my mind works also. Sold! I'm getting some of these in just a minute. These little magnets will make it much nicer to check on the propane, instead of going outside in the dark and battling black widow spiders to check our levels. Thank you so much!! :)
Chad, thank you for a very detailed and informative review - I've wanted something for my horizontal tank in my Class A since the only system I have now uses the float inside the tank for a measurement, and it lacks a little bit. Since these can be set for the size of the tank as well as the characteristics of it (hard mounted horizontal ASME in my case), they sound like the answer!
Hey Shipmate, I’ve been thinking about getting these things. Thank you for the research. You have sealed the deal for me. Thanks for all the work you do for the rest of us. You have no idea how many times you have saved my six and my money! Fair winds to both of you!
I have used the original sensors that they came out with for about 4 yrs and really enjoy knowing what my tank levels are. I have the wireless display (which was part of a package deal with 2 tank sensors) mounted inside the camper which is nice for anyone in the camper to be able to check the levels. I just in the last month found out from the Mopeka Tech Support that you can use the wireless display in conjunction with the phone app. I have changed the batteries in the sensors and the display 3-4 times in each unit. Thanks again for the great info!
On propane tank there are number on the collar the TW will be you tare weight of the bottle empty. That’s what you go off when you fill by weight. Also love you videos keep it up. Can’t wait until we can travel more
I have these same propane sensors. Glad to see your test results. It sure boosts my confidence in the accuracy of these sensors. Also, nice truck in the background!!
Thank you for the confirmation research. I have not tried the water tank sensor yet, but the propane sensors function very well. I appreciate the science lesson on how propane behaves too.
I also use those Mopeka sensors on the gasoline tank for my generator on Momentum! You have to set up a custom tank in the settings and measure the height of your fuel cell but it’s very accurate. It’s the only way I’ve found to know how much gas I have left for the generator without having to get out of the RV and go check the gauge.
This was very informative, I really appreciate your help with this video. I ran out of propane last fall and it was freezing in the camper the last night of our stay, needless to say, my wife was not very happy with me. This is a great solution!
Call me Safety Sid but all I could think about while you were doing this was propane is heavier than air, it's collecting under the RV, spark from water heater, fridge, transfer switch, etc. and no more Changing Lanes. Glad your testing didn't run afoul. One year I was moving and needed my propane tanks emptied and certified for shipping in a moving van. The propane shop opened the bleeder valve, carried the tank out of his shop, then placed it withing 2 ft. of the railroad tracks that run in and out of the refineries by San Pedro / L.A. Harbor behind his shop. That time I could only picture a train taking the curve and a spark from the wheels on the rails setting off a spectacular chain reaction. I left and told him I'd be back in a couple hours. :) Great videos. Stay safe! Best..
Loved seeing the footage of the Big Red Schoolhouse at the NRVTA as I sat outside looking at the Big Red Schoolhouse across the lake. Taking the fundamentals class this week.
Just put these on my propane and two on my grey and fresh water tanks. Tied it into my Victron cerbo. Very cool on the touch 50 display. Also put a couple nuuvitags into the cerbo for relay control. Cerbo 2.8 firmware or greater supports both. Nuuvi and mopeka. Thanks
When you first laid out how you were conducting this test i thought, "Wow, he's dedicated. This is going to take a week of using that tank and disconnecting everything, conduct the test, the hook everything back up." Bleeding a whole tank to complete the test in a day is definitely the way to go!
Chad it was awesome running into you at Harrah’s sorry if we caught you off guard. We love all your videos. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us for just a minute.
Great video...love our Mopeka sensors. Only thing to add is that batteries in the sensors need to be replaced periodically. Longest I've gotten out of mine is a little over a year. One only went 6 months, but I suspect the charge level was low when I put it in.
You probably covered the phase change cooling in your other video , but this was a great demonstration. Boiling liquid propane to a gas to use it consumes energy. That shows up with the liquid in the tank getting colder. When the tank is full, the entire surface of the tank will be warmed up by the outside air. The liquid propane and the tank surface are very close in temperature. As your tank level drops, the liquid propane is touching only half of the tank surface. This smaller surface will get colder as only half is being warmed by the air. Condensation happens at the dew point on your weather channel. As you use almost all the liquid propane, the tank surface is really small. Not much surface to warm with the air. The takeaway is. If you are using your heater when it’s 10F out, you will be pulling more propane out, boiling it faster, dropping the liquid level and temperature faster. At the coldest time of the night, your propane will start dropping towards -44F , even if it’s 10F outside. You can’t use all the propane in your tank to run the heater. It will stop boiling enough gas to run the heater. The heat will go out. After some time(hour?), the tank will warm up and the heater will work, but for less time. Frustrating as heck for people that tried the heat in the fall and decided to go winter camping. They would need to have large tanks, full, and set the tank selector to take out of multiple tanks at the same time to reduce the amount of boiling in each tank to half or less
Thank you for doing all the hard work and verifying that it is accurate. We appreciate you👏🏼 It looks like you filmed this while at Elkhart Campground @Chad.
Hi chad, your guys RU-vid videos are always so enjoyable to watch regardless of the topic, I knew nothing about rving before I started watching your videos but now I think I’m be fine as long as I have your videos on hand lol, I also find myself drumming your intro everytime it comes on
I have been a Mopieka customer for many years - firstly just for my BBQ tank. Haha! - So funny Chad - I drew the exact same "X" on the bottom of my tank last week after sanding off some of the excess paint. I have the older sensors now, but have two of the new "pro" circular ones on order. This was an awesome review - I got a LOT out of it - Thanks so much!! - Cheers!
This is cool !!!!! .....Thank you Chad !!!! I just ordered two sets ...I took my tanks in more than I needed to while snowbirding in Florida last winter ...TWO THUMBS UP !!!!
Great job!! I just bought the pro’s and haven’t even used them yet. I feel much better about my purchase due to the fact that all other products are definitely not accurate!! Thanks!!
I added a pressure/level gauge on a 20lb/5 gal tanks but then had problems with my gas appliances operating properly. A little on line research found others that experienced the same. They said the pressure/level gauge can restrict flow and cause appliance to not operate. I removed it and system worked fine. People should be aware that if you have a operating problem it could be caused by the gauge.
So the question of the day: How long to the batteries in the sensor last? My other question is will they work well on a horizontal tank like my motorhome has? All in all it looks like a neat system. Keep the good stuff coming guys.
I’ve used the previous generation Mopeka sensors for the past two years. I change the batteries in the Spring when I dewinterize the fifth wheel. They last for our entire season which is early-May to mid-October.
I'm surprised how accurate it was! Also, these wont wear out as fast as those needle guages do. Most of those needle gauges get messed up easily just from pressures lol. I also used to do the whole pressure hose with the gauge on it, but those develop leaks all the time... So this is a win for me!
Nice video. Nice sensor! The pro version has the big advantage, that it can "talk" directly to the Victron GX and you can integrate the readings! Though the gx needs the newest firmware...
Appreciate the detailed review..great you back up your recommendations with solid evidence..especially since I purchased this system a while back from your recommendation 😃
Great informative video that required a lot of work/time. Thank you. I’ve been looking at these sensors and this helps me decide to go ahead. If temperature is really a significant issue, the sensors could include a temperature compensation feature. From my experience in working with industrial ultrasonic level sensors, it can easily be done. (Industrial sensors are typically temperature compensated because the sensor itself is temperature sensitive).
Another excellent educational video! Thank you both for your time and effort to creat this. I have learned so much from you and continue to be impressed by Chads ability to explain relatively complex topics in concise and easy to understand terms. I suspect Chad wanted to take a long hot shower after dealing with that stinky stuff for 6 hours!
Another great video sir. I've used the fuel gauge that you screw on and as you said it's not 100% right but it does help. I'm going to look into the one you just tested. Thank you very informative
Thanks for donating the LPG to the show. It may be missed, you are wearing a jacket, it must be cool outside. I appreciate the info provided, I am taking notes. Again Thanks...Rich n Pat
We have Mopeka gauges, and when we first got them, they worked well. It didn't take long, though, for them to stop communicating. Replacing batteries helps sometimes, but even with fresh batteries in both sensors and the remote display, it often reads wrong or refuses to provide a reading. So we're back to loosening the hold-down, and getting a rough feel for the weight. The *idea* is great; apparently the execution is not good.
Love you EX Military guys. Your information is very real world and intuitive. And you served the Great Country to help make it what it is.👍 Safe Travels
Oh no shit.. I have a thermal cam. Im definitely doing that boiling water trick from now on. I'm on my second 20lb tank in about a month. I'll be living in this camper for the winter and New York gets cold. I can't risk running out of propane when I'm at work or something where I can't run to the store and grab another one and then my pipes freeze and things break and my dogs are inside cold and what not. The level of my propane is very mandatory to know. I've been looking at these little magnet sensor things for weeks wondering if they are accurate. But either way that hot water heater thermal cam trick is awesome. Glad I found this vid!!
That’s very cool. Learn something new every day. I’m gonna need to get a set of these for my RV tanks. All we have is the gauge on the tanks and I guess it can become tedious to go out and guesstimate how long till we to get them filled.
Chad: you are the dude, Man. What a nice scientific comparison for us simple folk. 🙂 I had the original Mopeka sensors years ago, and I wasn't impressed (mainly with battery life). The new round version seem to be a lot better as I read about them. As I know Mopeka has their app, I have also "heard" that the Lippert tank sensors are actually Mopeka sensors, and since our 2023 320MKS has One-Control, I'm wondering if this is an added benefit to buying the Lippert sensors. Can you comment?
I'm curious to know what the TW (Tare Weight) is that should be stamped on the collar of the 30lb tank. I have a 20 lb tank (TW=16.6lb) and a 40lb tank (TW=31.1lb). While watching this video, I used my bathroom scale to weight both of my tanks (full) and calculated that they have 4.57gal and 9.31 gal respectively. Great video! Thank you.
The tare weight is the empty weight of the tank stamped on the collar by law.. The 20, 30, 40lb tank names refer to roughly how much propane they should hold. Thus your 20lb tank would weigh about 36.6lbs and your 40lb would be 70.1lbs when full. This is why you see many places place the tanks on some sort of scale.
Thanks for doing this test. It adds to my confidence in my Mopeka sensor. This wasn't shown in the video but I had to add some gel (supplied with the Mopeka) underneath the sensors when attaching to the propane tank to get it to register on the app. I didn't notice the gel when I first unpacked the sensor, so I thought that my unit didn't work. I watched a youtube video that demonstrated the gel, put it on mine and poof, a perfect reading. I have a 20lb tank.
Excellent video!! I have one and love it. I bought one for my neighbor and installed it last week. You are a geek. Why do I watch? Me too. :) Take care.
Thank you for this other great review! Just installed the set (and the spacers). Love that i can monitor without opening the cage. I love how you get all the best gadgets haha
Sure...spend more of my money. Thanks for the information and testing. I have been wanting something like this for several years and this looks like the answer.
I love hanging out watching your "geek out" videos. 46 years as a software test engineer I totally appreciate the level of detail of your experiments! I wouldn't change a thing. 👍👍
Once again a great video! I just found my propane sensors on all three of mine today. Of course the battery's are dead but it's still going to be a lot easier to know how much I've got instead of what happen last night when it got down to 6 degs here in Colorado! (We really need to get to Florida or something! BTW.. EM3 Chapman here. USS Barbour County LST1195 Sandog Decommed USS Antietam CG54 Long Beach 90-94 2 tours to the desert. Shield and Storm,
15:54 Fahrenheit, not Farenheight. ;) Ray from the RU-vid channel, "Love Your RV," has had problems with the frost and condensation "wetting out" his Mopeka standard sensors. He ended up using some DIY conformal coating on the circuit boards to protect them. Maybe the pro sensors are already conformal coated...
Cool test, appreciate the info. Very interesting. Could you have estimated pretty close without having to drain it, based on maybe the first couple of reductions? Did the weight go down proportionately in weight based on the %?
Thank you Chad for the info.. I've been looking at the tank monitors for some time now, but was not sure if they worked. but you answered a few questions I had, so thanks..
I very simple check tanks and switch over device and have never run out in over 25 years. I very simply refill the empty one pretty quick. I run with both tanks open 100% of the time.
I have the older non pro sensors and have been using them for about four years. I agree it is really nice to be able to easily check your propane level, the issue I have with them is mine stop updating some times and the only thing I found that fixes that is to forget and relearn the sensors which isn’t hard but is annoying. Also, one of my sensors goes through batteries every couple of days and changing batteries in the sensors is also annoying. The bottom line for me is they are a lot more maintenance than I would like. Maybe the pro sensors are more stable.
Now you got me buying one more thing I'm gonna get in trouble for🤣. Actually these are awesome. I have 30lb tanks and also a JACK-IT bike rack on the tongue of my TT. I love the bike rack but because the tanks are tall I have to remove the top of the rack to pull the tank off the tongue. Thanks for the review!
We got ours last year for our 100lb tank and it was real accurate and helpful. Only thing we noticed is when we took to get filled it fell off sometimes so make sure to check before loading back in truck.
Great video. Thanks! There seemed to be a slight problem with the audio, especially in the section @05:47 (How to Measure LP Levels). It sounds similar to when you slow down a RU-vid video, you get that gurgly, gravely sound.
@@ChangingLanes I tried it again but on my laptop this time (instead of the TV). The issue is still there but it's a minor issue. I'm a musician and audio person so I notice these things, LOL. Anyway, onward and upward. :)
Very nicely done. I will assume since you made no mention of them falling off the magnets are good. You spent some time doing this test. I do recognize that.
Hate to say so, but those are (according to the DOT) are CYLINDERS. Tanks are the permanently mounted ASME tanks mounted on motorhome frames. I started out with the standard Mopeka sensors, They quickly failed due to moisture intrusion. They replaced the sensors with the Pro sensors and I sealed the vents and mounted them using the plastic retainer cages they sell for aluminum cylinders. This way the sensors stay in place. Going on a year with the Pro sensors and recently changed the batteries after one died, but working OK. My cylinders are extremely difficult to remove and I run a built in generator on them also, so I need to know how much they have in them.
Great to see a review on these and I love all the science behind it. Great job!! I have the older ones and had to apply couplant to the sensor. Does this one require that also?