Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 10:50:30 -0700
Reply-To: Gerald Masar <azsun99@earthlink.net>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Gerald Masar <azsun99@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: The fridge fired up! YES!!! (and I tell you how... ;-)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
According to the Dometic Service Manual for the RM 182B (Westy fridge), the
cooling fan mounted on the condenser fins at the back is 0.6 watt and turns
on at 140F and off at 124F. It can operate anytime the ambient temp back
there gets too high. They can get pretty noisy, as mine is, and keep you
awake at night.
Keep the area under the fridge clean, especially if you have a dog, as dog
hair accumulates under there. Keep the curtains away from the grille running
behind the stove/sink area. All this is so air can circulate freely from
bottom to top over the fins.
When camping, I used to string up a survival blanket ( the kind with one
shiny side and grommets at the corners) to shade the side of the van outside
the fridge area.
Jerry
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jutta & Christian Knust" <knust-net@gmx.net>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2001 9:35 PM
Subject: The fridge fired up! YES!!! (and I tell you how... ;-)
> Well, the previous owner of our 87 Westy just about never fired the fridge
> up but used electricity only. As obviously lots of other people before me
I
> got a sore thumb trying to light the gas-burner of the fridge; I read all
the
> archive, pre-cooled the fridge with electricity overnight, blew oxygen
with a
> straw up the tube in front of the fridge and and and. Didnīt buy me more
than
> a short blow-up and nothing more.
> Well, now incidentally I got myself a small compressor for inflating the
> tires of our cars (one of these 15$-things running of the car battery) and
I
> said to myself - know what, might as well try to blow that compressed
stuff up
> the small tube. Guess what - I did everything strictly by the book -
switching
> the switches and turning the turn-knob and letting some gas come out of
the
> cooker-unit first to get any residual air out of the pipes and then - I
did
> not pump with the manual pump but instead blew five seconds worth of air
with
> the compressor up the pipe, switched the compressor off, pushed the
gas-flow
> button and immediately hit the spark-button once. And then the damned
thing
> lit! Right away! I removed the compressor from the pipe after I had the
> gas-flow-button released finally (and then closed the pipe again, of
course), had
> the fridge run for an hour, then shut it off for half a day and did
exactly
> the same thing again. It worked again. Right away. Now you can bet I will
never
> move my Westy without that nice little compressor again. Might as well get
> one of these "Compressor" stickers off the Mercedes 600 SLK to put it on
the
> fridge door ;-)))
>
> Now thereīs one question left. I know thereīs a small ventilator mounted
on
> the back of the fridge. When does this thing switch on? At all times? At a
> certain temperature in the back of the fridge? Only with the engine
running?
> Can one hear it running? Right now I have no idea whether it works or not
but
> knowing when it should and whether I should be able to hear it would make
it
> easier to find out, whether it works....
>
> Have a great weekend, folks
> Chris
> Troy/Michigan
>
> --
> GMX - Die Kommunikationsplattform im Internet.
> http://www.gmx.net
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