Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2005 13:17:30 -0800
Reply-To: Doug F <vanagon@ASTOUND.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Doug F <vanagon@ASTOUND.NET>
Subject: Re: dometic 182b question
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
There is a product called header wrap that is a fiberglass tape about 3/4
inch wide that you can wrap around the headers on an engine. You can buy it
at most auto parts stores.
Once completed it keeps the engine compartment hundreds of degrees cooler on
V-8s etc. You can literally place your hand on a header pipe right out of
the head and its not able to burn you.
I have used this stuff on my gas heater exhaust pipe its easy to use you
simply wrap it on and tie it off with stainless wire at the ends.
It would work fine for the fridge vent as well.
Doug
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Sisler" <rogersisler2000@YAHOO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 8:54 AM
Subject: Re: dometic 182b question
> I finished insulating the exhaust vent on my dometic. It was much more
> difficult that I first believed it would be.The problem was odor from the
> insulating material.I finally solved this issue though.The heat exiting
the
> vehicle from the insulated vent was 70 degrees warmer than stock.This is
> heat that would other wise be dumped into the passenger compartment.Now it
> exits the vehicle.Bake potatos, not people ,I say. I used my "parts
> dometic " as gunnie pig.A gas grill propane tank/regulator did the
heating.
> I removed the factory insulation that is contained by the galvanized
> shield. Here, I first used a fire block fiberglass that is used between
> floors of a building. It is green and smelled to high heaven.Operating the
> frig overnite caused a smell that needed 4 days to go away.I found out
> that the #1 compaint in newly delivered moterhomes is smell from the
> frig.Dealers are supposed to operate the friges first to get the
fiberglass
> smell out.It needs to scorch proper , I think. Dont think this fire block
> would pass any test here-ever.Dont know what dometic used for the
origional
> material , but savewhat you got at all costs.Dometic cant even tell me
what
> they used.
>
> Well,after this beginning, I tried insulation from a dishwasher.
Insulation
> from a old oven .Insulation from a westy wall.Insulatiom from a house. R-
> 13, I believe.My flagship insulation that I thought would save the day was
> a product called inswool. This is a high temp insulation that is used in a
> forge or to insulate exhaust manifolds. $7/sq ft. Type in "inswool"in
yahoo
> to get the low down.They claim , no smell, but I still got it.I rubbed
the
> exterior of the refrig pipes with muritic acid after each insulation that
I
> tried, to get any residue off before the new test.Well, the inswool
smelled
> too, but not as bad, and this odor got better after a week.Still ,you
could
> not sleep in this space where the frig would eventually be. I cycledthe
> frig on and off several times/day ,if I had time, as this spead up the
> scoraching process.
>
> I finally gave up on fiberglass, though not entirely. Here is what finally
> worked.I kept the origional fiberglass that was origional material.Around
> the upper vent I wrapped crumpeled aluminum foil .This well crumpelled
foil
> was wrapped to a thickness of 1 inch around the vent the entire legnth ,to
> the aluminum collector at the exit of the vehicle.Around this, I used the
> inswool.My theory was that the tempature was now reduced enough to not
get
> any smell from the inswool.It worked.To contain the aluminum
foil/inswool,I
> used roofers copper flashing. This is like 4 thicknesses of foil and very
> tough. I secured everything with zip ties. The lower vent was wrapped with
> 1 inch thick inswool on top of the galvanized stove pipe,and wrapped with
> the copper foil/zip ties.
>
> The tempature is 70 degrees higher at the exit.The other fiberglass
> insulations gave me about 90 degrees higher exiting gas,but the smell was
> to much.Aluminum is not so good an insulater,butI found it necessary.I see
> several benifits from this insulation.First, the heat is reduced that
would
> have gone into the passenger compartment.Second, the heat load on the top
> and rear of the frig is reduced. The heat transfer to the amonia pipe is
> increased as the inlulation keeps it warmer in there.I also put an inch of
> fiberglass on the top of the frig to reduce heat load at the top of the
> frig.I removed the insulation on the wall of the westy to allow the rear
> heat to conduct out the metal wall of the van(3.5 sq ft).By lowering the
> tempature at the rear of the frig. the fans will not come on as often.
This
> will save the starting battery is vehicles not equipped with an auxillery
> battery.Dont want a dead battery in the morning in the middle of
> nowhere.Every little bit helps. No one procedure will hit a homerun in
> dometic improvment.Roger
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