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[Neural]

Anyone here that has experience with your general propane BBQ grills?

I'm trying to find out if there is some form of grommet/seal that is supposed to go between the tank and the regulator.  I was having issues a year ago with a tank having a leak at that area.  After replacing the regulator, I finally took the tank into Lowes, and the person said "oh, yeah, that's missing a seal".  Exchanged it for a new tank, and things were wonderful.

Then we moved.

Now I'm back to the same situation.  Same problem, but for the life of me I can't find information on this seal that is either missing, or doesn't even exist(?)

for reference: the problem point is at the tank/regulator coupling. 

Mostly looking for someone to be able to confirm that there is supposed to be some sort of seal, so I can take this full tank back to where I exchanged it and demand something that works.  If there *isn't* a seal, would love to know if there's something else I'm missing.  Would prefer to BBQ, and not *be* BBQed.

[Stonemon]

Some regulators have an O ring that completes the seal with the tank (see pic)  Others do not and the brass seals with the gasket of the tank. If your regulator has a place for an O ring and it is not present, that would explain the issue.
There is also supposed to be a gasket at the contact point where the regulator fitting meets the tank. If this one is missing, that would be the issue.
Check the tank for a black gasket around a round tube where the fittings meet.
Hope you get cooking soon!

[Jhon P]

If it is the tank, I would take it to Walmart and do a tank exchange.

[gemfeller]

Just went through the O-ring problem.  The rings get old, harden and break off.  If that's the problem it's an easy fix with a trip to the hardware store for a 25-cent (or so) replacement.

[lapidaryrough]

pressure  up the line, for the soap bubble test.

[Neural]

ah, so there *is* an O-ring in some cases.  I'll try and track that down then.  When we were at Lowe's yesterday trying to get info on it (yeah, that was a waste of time I should have seen beforehand), I noticed that none of the other charbroil brand grilles had an o-ring of any sort on the regulator side.  Additionally, we were at least able to get one person to open the manual for the display model of the one we have, and there is no O-ring listed in the parts as part of the regulator.
So if there is some sort of part like that in the linkage, it's going to be on the tank side.   
Will probably have to take the tank back to Albertson's and get them to exchange it, but the big thing for me is being able to tell them outright "no, there's a part missing, and I'm going to keep exchanging these until I get one that has it"

[Neural]

Well, no luck on getting it to seal.  AmeriGas and Blue Rhino are both closed already, and both Lowe's and Albertson's have proven over the past 2 days that their employment practices have no regard for requiring employees to actually do more than have a pulse.

I'm about ready to rip out all the interior of the grill and just use Charcoal.

[gemfeller]

I'm not terribly mechanical and may be wrong here, but check the gas line connector on your grill, the one that inserts into the gas bottle.  If there's an O-ring groove it will be on that part, not the gas bottle itself.  Look at the image above posted by Stonemon to see if it resembles the line connector on your grill.  Hope you get if fixed soon.

[hummingbirdstones]

Jon, do you have a welding supply in your area?  You could take it there and they'd be able to tell you what's wrong with it.

[Neural]

Not a bad idea.  I think maybe there is something else I'm not seeing here.  I've done the bubble test on it, and the regulator to grill pipes are solid.  Leak seems to be the tank/regulator section.
Have family in town this week, so will get back to solving this issue later.

[Neural]

Just an update.   I decided I would clean the entire grill the other day out of boredom.   checked the regulator side and the tank side to make sure there wasn't any debris or such, and gave it one more try.
I cannot explain, at all, why it is now working perfectly.
I'm tempted to detach the regulator and then put it back on, to see if I can force the issue, but since it's not currently leaking, I'm not sure I want to do that.