- Dec 4, 2013
- 59
- 10
Title says it all pretty much. I just got a Masterbuilt extra wide propane smoker, and today I thought I'd go ahead and "pre-season" it. I looked in the manual to see what all I needed to do and it mentioned doing a leak test anytime you connect a new tank. It's a little embarrassing, but I've done tons of grilling and a decent amount of smoking on my propane grill, and it never even occurred to me to do the soapy water test...
The first thing I noticed was that it had bubbles forming around the connection to the tank just around the hole in the middle of the "nut". I took it off to check for contaminants and tried reconnecting it a few times, and even tried snugging it down some with channel lock pliers (not hard enough to break anything, but tight enough I couldn't loosen it by hand). Still had bubbles forming. Then I put some soapy water where the hose connects to the burner, and noticed it seemed to be leaking there as well.
I live in Oklahoma, and we just had a snow storm yesterday and last night. I'm not sure what the temperature was when I was messing with the smoker but right now, at almost 6pm, it's 19 degrees according to weather.com. The water was freezing on the ground and tank pretty fast, so it was definitely really cold and still below freezing.
Should I just wait and see if the problem goes away when it warms up some, or is it an indication that the assembly is defective? The regulator does seem a little wobbly after I tighten it onto the tank. Are these things known to come with shoddy regulator/hoses ? Or... is it just not a good idea to try to use the thing when it gets this cold?
The first thing I noticed was that it had bubbles forming around the connection to the tank just around the hole in the middle of the "nut". I took it off to check for contaminants and tried reconnecting it a few times, and even tried snugging it down some with channel lock pliers (not hard enough to break anything, but tight enough I couldn't loosen it by hand). Still had bubbles forming. Then I put some soapy water where the hose connects to the burner, and noticed it seemed to be leaking there as well.
I live in Oklahoma, and we just had a snow storm yesterday and last night. I'm not sure what the temperature was when I was messing with the smoker but right now, at almost 6pm, it's 19 degrees according to weather.com. The water was freezing on the ground and tank pretty fast, so it was definitely really cold and still below freezing.
Should I just wait and see if the problem goes away when it warms up some, or is it an indication that the assembly is defective? The regulator does seem a little wobbly after I tighten it onto the tank. Are these things known to come with shoddy regulator/hoses ? Or... is it just not a good idea to try to use the thing when it gets this cold?