Propane Valve Question

Hello everyone. Need some help understanding the Propane valve operation. This is a picture of the valve in my new 3914.

Yes, I'm a newbie! My dealer briefly mentioned that this valve allows me to select which propane tank I draw from, or to mix the tanks and draw from both simultaneously. He suggested I use one tank at a time and when it runs out I can select the other tank to continue. (He "said" he filled both tanks, and he may have, but we drove 1000 miles home over the course of two days and must have unknowingly used about a full tank of propane between the furnace and fridge.)

So today my fridge quit and I determined (with one of those little annoying "throw hot water on it and it will change colors" propane tank guages) that one of my tanks is indeed empty. But there are no markings on this valve (above photo). Before I simply turn the black knob, I'd like to understand a little more about it. There is a small green "button" on the right side and a little red "button" on the left side. The red seems depressed and the green is not.

Do I simply turn the knob to the opposite extreme of where it is now and all is fine? Can I disconnect the empty cylinder and refill it while the system is operating on the other tank or should I turn it off, etc.?

Don't intend to sound so "stupid" but I'm accustomed to using my barbeque grill at home and when it runs dry I just disconnect the tank and refill it. Never used a switching valve like this before.

I did check the Heartland owner's manual first (before bothering you folks) and, as others have commented before, it is seriously lacking in detailed explanations like this. No mention of this valve or its use at all! Appreciate any comments and instructions you can offer.

As a side note, we just turned on the fridge to cool down in preparation for a trip in a couple of days. When the fridge was cold we put food in it. Next day discovered the fridge was off and food was warm. Not the most convenient time to discover this issue.

On any one i have ever had the green means there is propane and the red means empty. always works better to use one at a time rather than both run out. Hard to believe you could have used a full propane that quickly. the fridge runs on just a pilot.

MystrMagic, While I have not seen that type of valve before, the procedure for switchover is pretty straight forward though.

Normal operation, both tanks open. When tank "A" runs out, turn valve to tank "B", close the OPD valve on tank "A" and remove for refilling. When replacing the tank, open the OPD valve slowly and you should be back in business. When tank "B" runs out, reverse the procedure.

Biggest thing to learn is how often to check for an empty tank. Different usages call for frequent checking. The furnace uses up a tank pretty quickly if it's cold out and running a lot. The fridge is very minimal. We hardly ever run the hot water heater on LP.

Has anyone added gauges to their propane tanks? Would this be a good idea? Thanks.

Like this one:
http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/glow-in-the-dark-propane-gas-meter/34166

Yes, I have. They work just fine for my use. The model I use has a "leak down" testing feature.

Thanks truknutt.

Thanks everyone for your input. Turns out my "unique" valve is pretty simple. Just turned it 180 degrees and the fridge works fine on the second tank. Removed the empty propane bottle, filled it, reinstalled it and everything seems fine.

Guess it was "much ado about nothing".

I have also looked at those "expensive" guages and I'm not sure it is worth around $50.00 to get two of them. I spent $2.50 at Bed Bath and Beyond for that little "throw hot water on it and it works" type of magnetic strips. It seems to work. After the tank ran empty I threw hot water on it and verified the emptiness. Guess that's all I needed to do to know there was no serious problem.

MystrMagic
If you run off one tank. When it runs out, take the empty tank out and have it filled. Continue using them this way and you are never out of Propane.

Also, why are you running your Refer on propane? Use electric on the Refer and Hot Water Heater. We electric heaters rather than the furnace and propane.

We do use propane for the cook stove, but we do have an electric grill if needed.

Unless your stayiing a month or more most campgrounds you don't have to pay for electric. It is built into the fee, use it. Your paying for it and at quite a high rate.

If you take a months fee it would work out to about $15-20 per day maybe even less. Add between .14-.19 cents per kwh for electric. That could be about $2-3 dollers per day. At many parks you will pay about $26-35 per day.

Thats what I do.

BC