Little Red Campfire low-flame

Speric

Speric

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Speric
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Anyone else with a Camco Little Red Campfire or similar? Mine used to work just fine. Tall big flames. Now I barely get a couple inches of flame out of the fire ring. I tightened everything but nothing's changed. Any ideas on what could be wrong? or need fixing? It's been a great little propane camp fire. Compact and portable and puts out great heat! At least it used to.
 
sounds like your regulator or hose needs to be replaced.
some brands of LP hoses have the inside liner that comes apart internally and blocks flow and of course a regulator can fail at anytime...try a new hose/regulator set up
 
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If its cold, propane doesn't like cold. I have a heating blanket on mine.
 
smritte said:
If its cold, propane doesn't like cold. I have a heating blanket on mine.
Click to expand...

I thought this might have been the problem but I had it in the sun today, and it wasn’t that cold. Still low flame.
 
grubworm said:
sounds like your regulator or hose needs to be replaced.
some brands of LP hoses have the inside liner that comes apart internally and blocks flow and of course a regulator can fail at anytime...try a new hose/regulator set up
Click to expand...

The regulator on there says 5PSIG. Do I need to stick with that. The Camco brand is really expensive ($75). I see some on Amazon/Lowe’s/Home Depot but they say 20PSIG on the regulator ($15). Can I use one of those?
 
I didn't like the ones out there so I made my own. It was a bit of a learning curve but now I'm happy with how it came out. My main issue was flow. The hoses I got were too restrictive and the regulator really pulled the flame down when it cooled off. I ditched the regulator and just run a ball valve. I also discovered my fitting to the bottle was not a high flow, that got replaced. My next issue was the bottle freezing so I added a heating blanket.

In the beginning I could get a five foot flame. Once the temp dropped and the bottle cooled off, I was lucky to get a two inch flame.
Here's what it is now at 50% at about 27 degrees.
These are all the things that can cause low flames. All of them are restrictions except the bottle temp. I would start with removing the regulator and using the bottle knob to regulate it. This will show you if the issue is your regulator.

Camp2 Fire small.jpg
 
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Speric said:
The regulator on there says 5PSIG. Do I need to stick with that. The Camco brand is really expensive ($75). I see some on Amazon/Lowe’s/Home Depot but they say 20PSIG on the regulator ($15). Can I use one of those?
Click to expand...
this one is $18 and adjustable 0-5psi

a few months ago we went camping with brother-in-law and he bought a new blackstone grill and it fired up nicely and after a few minutes, the flame died down to hardly anything. swapped bottles and no difference. turned out it was the regulator...barely used once and already failed. i had similar issue with my RV and found that the rubber LP hoses have a lining in them to protect the rubber from the LP and sometimes the lining will break loose and a small piece will block flow or it wont break completely free, but still be attached at one point and act as a flapper restricting flow. i carry spare hoses and regulators as well as different adapters since i recognize there is a degree of failure on these items...


 
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grubworm said:
Speric said:
The regulator on there says 5PSIG. Do I need to stick with that. The Camco brand is really expensive ($75). I see some on Amazon/Lowe’s/Home Depot but they say 20PSIG on the regulator ($15). Can I use one of those?
Click to expand...
this one is $18 and adjustable 0-5psi

a few months ago we went camping with brother-in-law and he bought a new blackstone grill and it fired up nicely and after a few minutes, the flame died down to hardly anything. swapped bottles and no difference. turned out it was the regulator...barely used once and already failed. i had similar issue with my RV and found that the rubber LP hoses have a lining in them to protect the rubber from the LP and sometimes the lining will break loose and a small piece will block flow or it wont break completely free, but still be attached at one point and act as a flapper restricting flow. i carry spare hoses and regulators as well as different adapters since i recognize there is a degree of failure on these items...


Click to expand...

The end is very different and the Amazon one doesn’t look like I can switch it out.
This what the connections look like on the fire pit. What would happen if I got a 0-20 psi regulator and hose?
 

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Speric said:
The end is very different and the Amazon one doesn’t look like I can switch it out.
This what the connections look like on the fire pit. What would happen if I got a 0-20 psi regulator and hose?
Click to expand...
if its adjustable, then its fine. the fire ring can handle the higher psi, but you will have a jet engine for a fire. we use that down here to do crawfish boils where we're boiling a 10-12 gal pot of water and seasoning. the 5 psi is to give a nice flame versus the jet engine.
fittings are weird. i usually go with a regulator with a hose that has the standard 3/8" fitting. i have a couple different grills that take different fittings, so i found the specific grill fitting that has the 3/8" fitting on the other end and i just screw that into the end of the hose. hard to say since i dont know the exact fitting you have for the fire ring, but even the Blackstone grill with its proprietary fitting still has it available with the 3/8" end so you can take their fitting and screw it into a standard 3/8" hose end.

1671917425741.png1671917438327.png1671917478981.png
 
grubworm said:
if its adjustable, then its fine. the fire ring can handle the higher psi, but you will have a jet engine for a fire. we use that down here to do crawfish boils where we're boiling a 10-12 gal pot of water and seasoning. the 5 psi is to give a nice flame versus the jet engine.

[/QUOTE}
I wouldn't mind the extra fire power sometimes. Seems like high altitude and/or cold situations I might want that.
Click to expand...
 
MIne did the same thing after many years of trouble free use. I removed the regulator, and blew backwards through it with air compressor. also blew out the hose and the burner. Its working fine again. There is a small spider that likes the methane and will build webs and nests in the fittings and hoses. I learned this lesson years ago living in an RV for many years . those little buggers would plug up the exhaust and the water heaters and furnaces wouldn't light.
 
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My Little Red Campfire did that. I fixed it with this part:
 
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