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Date:         Tue, 19 Jun 2001 12:44:08 -0400
Reply-To:     Derek Drew <derekdrew@RCN.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Derek Drew <derekdrew@RCN.COM>
Subject:      How To Get Fridge Lit (& Delorme Mapping Software)
Comments: To: Andrew Fox <afox@usgs.gov>
In-Reply-To:  <OF6FAE96D7.CD08F0F7-ON85256A6F.0073520E@er.usgs.gov>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 05:05 PM 6/18/01 -0400, you wrote:

>Derek, >I know you are an expert on the dometic 182B and so here is a question for >you: >I operate the air plunger a few times, hold down the gas button and spark >the piezo and i see a poof of flame that just goes out. Then i am unable >to get any flame until i use the air plunger a few times again and then the >same thing happens: big burst of flame then nothing, it won't stay lit. >This winter i had it washed one or two times at a carwash and did'nt cover >the flue. THink that has something to do with it? I need the thing to >work asap and i dont have a >good place or time to take the fridge out.

My guess is that a huge percentage of vans have the exact problem that you describe. It might be made worse by going through a carwash without the flue cover on, or it may not. The real issue is that you have to find a way to supply a vigorous amount of oxygen to the area of the flame, and you have to keep that area supplied with oxygen for about 100 seconds or so until the flame itself can build up enough mass of hot air for the hot air to begin rushing up and out, thereby drawing in new, fresh air from the other pipe.

The most reliable method I know of to supply sufficient oxygen for the full 100 seconds is to put a pump of some kind of the refrigerator drain tube, which is located at the bottom left side of the fridge. The pump can either push or pull the air out. I had the impression that pulling air out worked slightly better once, but I don't have any validation for this. The simplest pump is your mouth, attached to a tube stuck on the drain pipe. In this case, I am fairly certain that pulling air into your mouth and then pushing it into the air is the best method, but it tends to lodge your mouth full of metal flakes, unburned propane, and other combustion byproducts and so I have grown to hate this method. It is, however, nearly 100% reliable. More recently I have been experimenting with 12 volt air pumps such as are sold at supply stores such as REI for inflating rafts and these can also draw the air out sufficiently quickly to keep the flame lit for that all important 100 seconds. What is interesting about the 12 volt air pump method is that you can sort of jazz the operating button on these pumps and each time you do you can see the green indicator light on the fridge glow brighter as the flame leaps up to its proper strength level but if you leave off the pump too long then the green light on the fridge will flicker, fade, and dye. In other words, with a 12 volt air pump you can see exactly how the flame responds to increased air flow, and this is a dramatic demonstration that most starting problems on the fridge are simply air supply problems. The pump on the fridge itself is a good idea, but it simply does not supply sufficient oxygen. The best solution would be to replace that little manually operated pump with a tiny 12 volt pump, which would pretty much solve all of our problems.

>Also did you ever get that DeLorme 3.0 mapping software. I'd still be >interested.

The DeLorme 3.0 topo mapping software for the group purchase has been acquired and it is now (as of last Friday) ready to go out.

Materials and other costs were more than I expected, and so the cost to go in on a group purchase is $18, which you can send by www.paypal.com to derekdrew@rcn.com or by snail mail to Derek Drew, 5467 31st Street NW, Washington DC 20015.

Copyright issues apply to this software, so the group purchase applies to a single set of original factory disks which we will have to share amongst ourselves. Plus, you should uninstall the software from your computer before forwarding it on to the next list member. The group purchase will also include any backup disks that may be allowed by the software license but I doubt the license is very liberal in this regard.

>Thanks, > >Andrew Fox >86 Westy

________________________________________________________ Derek Drew New York, NY & Washington, DC derekdrew@rcn.com 212-580-6486 Email me for viscous couplings '90 Syncro Westfalia... ...seen off-road at http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/Syncro_Madness_Area.htm Note: most valuable Vanagon sites on the planet (for owners) are: http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi-bin/wa.exe?S1=vanagon ftp://gerry.vanagon.com/pub/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Syncro http://www.vanagon.com http://www.syncro.org My refrigerator article: http://www.vanagon.com/info/articles/Refrigerator/Reefer_Madness.htm My article that shows how to deal with insurance companies: ftp://gerry.vanagon.com/pub/auto-insurance-madness.html To view Wolfgang's incredibly informative wheel article http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/fitbigtiresonvanagon.htm To view Tim Smith's incredibly useful gearing calculator http://users.rcn.com/derekdrew/syncrotireandgearratios.xls To view some 16" Trailing Arms that enable much larger tires see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/syncro-org/files/Wheels%2C%20Tires%20%26%20Gearing/Wheel%20%26%20Tire%20Photos/16_Inch_Trailing_Arm.jpg


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