When my Mother was put on oxygen, we had her appliances in the kitchen (of her stick home) removed and replaced with electric because the company told her not to get around any gas. OK, my question since we plan to have her join us on some trips is this MH – Do we need to have electric cooktop in kitchen? Do we need the furnace and water heater to be electric? We cook on a gas grill outside now but she stays away from the flames. We don’t want to blow up, so does anyone know the answer to the safety of propane with an oxygen user inside the MH before we purchase a MH with the wrong things?
Thanks,
Dianne
jomago said
07:45 PM Sep 4, 2006
IMHO When one is put on oxygen, in my case my father years ago and my wife after surgery this last June, nothing was mentioned about gas or propane. What I believe is important is no sourse of fire (cigarette, open flame,etc) that would/could cause a rapid escalation or flash from the presence of oxygen. The only actual oxygen my wife had was the portable tanks used when away from the air pump installed in the house.
When I think back the provider who delivered, set up the pump and tanks, and instructed on use never mentioned anything about any cautions. The gas hot water heater closet was only about 6 feet from the pumps location.
If using straight oxygen, I believe one should restrict any sourse of heat hot enough to be affected by the presence of pure oxygen. Would think this would include any of the many sourses/devices, such as toasters, coffee makers. all cooking appliances, and space heating devices, etc.
In the case of an air pump, as my wife and 2 nieghbors used, a long tube to was used for moving around.
You have indeed brought up a good question and again IMHO should be checked out with Dr./provider of eqipement. I'm going to call in the morning to find out why cautions about this area of concern were not mentioned and ask for information.
I'm waiting to hear what others who have experience in this area have to say.
blijil said
07:58 PM Sep 4, 2006
Use of pure oxygen around any open flame or any appliance producing high temperatures in the open flame range (750F and up) is a serious safety concern in any location. Note that an RV is not easily exited from some locations and RV's burn very fast. Pure oxygen accelerates burn rates of materials exposed to pure oxygen by up to 10 times. Extreme care should be taken by keeping away from ignition sources (feet not yards) when using or storing pure oxygen. Electric, propane, natural gas it makes no difference the source of the heat.
Stay safe,
Larry
Retired but in my former life worked for NASA to ensure crew safety. Flammability of materials in high concentrations of oxygen continues to be one of the biggest ongoing hazards in space flight.
DJ Wannabees said
11:16 AM Sep 5, 2006
This is just so amazing. I love the quality of the knowledge for the answers to my inquiry on this forum. A caretaker who knows first hand, a NASA safety expert!!, and a PM that actually had a career delivering oxygen. Wow, can I just go and be safe. It seems the answer is, don't let the tube be in direct contact with a flame. It seems not to matter if it is gas, propane or electric, just don't burn the tube. That is manageable. My Mother will be thrilled. She and my Father were full-timers before there were full-timers as we know them today. She talks about what a difference the internet would have been for them. There was no such thing when they were full-timers. They just headed out there in a 5th wheel and saw the USA. They had the time of their lives for three years, and we went nuts not ever knowing where they were, no cell phones either. They loved being stelth and our not bugging them! She has not been rving since we sold their MH in 1991. Their last 10 years were in a MH because my Dad got afraid of the 5th wheel. So, I digress, pardon my walk down memory lane. This makes me happy we can take her with us on some trips, she will LOVE it and back seat drive the whole way!
Thanks to jomogo and Larry on the forum and Dan on the private message,
Dianne
Judy said
07:06 AM Sep 10, 2006
My husband whom is on oxygen at nitetime only has found a way to take his constrater with us while full timing. The unit is stored under our bedroom in the bottom of our fiver. He did install another vent in the door to keep the heat down in the unit and also ran the tubing up through the floor of the fiver. It is turned on only before bed time and is the first thing off in the morning we have found this setup to be good without listening to the unit run in the fiver during the nite.....Southwest Judy & Bob & 2blackdogs
blijil said
03:10 PM Sep 10, 2006
I highly recomment installing a smoke detector in your basement if you are feeding pure O2 from the basement. Oxygen saturated materials are not only highly flammable but burn very, very fast. Understanding your needs I don't want to discourage your use of the RV but you need to be extremely aware of the safety issue. The vent was an excellent idea not only for heat but dilution of a potential leak. Hopefully the concentrator is not on the same side as your hot water heater.
When my Mother was put on oxygen, we had her appliances in the kitchen (of her stick home) removed and replaced with electric because the company told her not to get around any gas. OK, my question since we plan to have her join us on some trips is this MH – Do we need to have electric cooktop in kitchen? Do we need the furnace and water heater to be electric? We cook on a gas grill outside now but she stays away from the flames. We don’t want to blow up,
so does anyone know the answer to the safety of propane with an oxygen user inside the MH before we purchase a MH with the wrong things?
Thanks,
Dianne
IMHO When one is put on oxygen, in my case my father years ago and my wife after surgery this last June, nothing was mentioned about gas or propane. What I believe is important is no sourse of fire (cigarette, open flame,etc) that would/could cause a rapid escalation or flash from the presence of oxygen. The only actual oxygen my wife had was the portable tanks used when away from the air pump installed in the house.
When I think back the provider who delivered, set up the pump and tanks, and instructed on use never mentioned anything about any cautions. The gas hot water heater closet was only about 6 feet from the pumps location.
If using straight oxygen, I believe one should restrict any sourse of heat hot enough to be affected by the presence of pure oxygen. Would think this would include any of the many sourses/devices, such as toasters, coffee makers. all cooking appliances, and space heating devices, etc.
In the case of an air pump, as my wife and 2 nieghbors used, a long tube to was used for moving around.
You have indeed brought up a good question and again IMHO should be checked out with Dr./provider of eqipement. I'm going to call in the morning to find out why cautions about this area of concern were not mentioned and ask for information.
I'm waiting to hear what others who have experience in this area have to say.
Use of pure oxygen around any open flame or any appliance producing high temperatures in the open flame range (750F and up) is a serious safety concern in any location. Note that an RV is not easily exited from some locations and RV's burn very fast. Pure oxygen accelerates burn rates of materials exposed to pure oxygen by up to 10 times. Extreme care should be taken by keeping away from ignition sources (feet not yards) when using or storing pure oxygen. Electric, propane, natural gas it makes no difference the source of the heat.
Stay safe,
Larry
Retired but in my former life worked for NASA to ensure crew safety. Flammability of materials in high concentrations of oxygen continues to be one of the biggest ongoing hazards in space flight.
This is just so amazing. I love the quality of the knowledge for the answers to my inquiry on this forum. A caretaker who knows first hand, a NASA safety expert!!, and a PM that actually had a career delivering oxygen. Wow, can I just go and be safe. It seems the answer is, don't let the tube be in direct contact with a flame. It seems not to matter if it is gas, propane or electric, just don't burn the tube. That is manageable. My Mother will be thrilled. She and my Father were full-timers before there were full-timers as we know them today. She talks about what a difference the internet would have been for them. There was no such thing when they were full-timers. They just headed out there in a 5th wheel and saw the USA. They had the time of their lives for three years, and we went nuts not ever knowing where they were, no cell phones either. They loved being stelth and our not bugging them!
She has not been rving since we sold their MH in 1991. Their last 10 years were in a MH because my Dad got afraid of the 5th wheel. So, I digress, pardon my walk down memory lane. This makes me happy we can take her with us on some trips, she will LOVE it and back seat drive the whole way! 
Thanks to jomogo and Larry on the forum and Dan on the private message,
Dianne
I highly recomment installing a smoke detector in your basement if you are feeding pure O2 from the basement. Oxygen saturated materials are not only highly flammable but burn very, very fast. Understanding your needs I don't want to discourage your use of the RV but you need to be extremely aware of the safety issue. The vent was an excellent idea not only for heat but dilution of a potential leak. Hopefully the concentrator is not on the same side as your hot water heater.
Be safe and have fun.
Larry