Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:46:15 -0700
Reply-To: neil <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: neil <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: One More 'Fridge Thread
In-Reply-To: <86476e250707181725p334b32das20ba535d106b9b14@mail.gmail.com>
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There are a few things one can do other than what has been written of
in this thread.
New thermal paste between cooling fins and tube.
Flipping (burping) the fridge for 24 hours. + lightly bang on pipes
with *rubber* mallet to help chemicals move around.
And some more I can't recall......
The internal fan mod makes a lot of sense as does pre cooling and
packing with small ice packs and food that's already cold. I do those
things before heading out and it really helps. I have yet to install
an internal fan, though I've used the cheap a@@ little one which seems
to help a little.
Of course this is all in the archives........
Age does play a role as does how these things are maintained.
My spare (unknown if working) refer in basement has rust on coolant
tubes. PO (2 before me) had let the van interior get totally wet. Even
the grill at bottom of fridge is pretty rusty...... sad really.
I mean who knows; those tubes could last a long time. Of course me not
getting at them with some emery to save them is sad too!
Neil.
On 7/18/07, Loren Busch <starwagen@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm not sure that the Dometic 'fridge in our Westies are that bad, when and
> if they are working right.
> Over the last month there has been a lot of discussion about changing over
> to compressor based refrigerators in out Westies. That's what I did and
> don't regret it.
> BUT, hidden in all the discussion have been a number of voices of Westy
> owners that are getting satisfactory, in some cases, good performance out of
> their Dometics when running on propane. When I first acquired my '90 Westy
> in Jan 2002 the Dometic was working great. No complaints at all. My
> recollection is that that Summer, camped in hot weather for a week, it still
> kept temps down in the low 40's inside the 'fridge. Others have reported
> consistent 40 to 50 degree differentials between the outside and the inside.
> running on propane. In my case, about three years ago now, the fan quit,
> burned out. Even after pulling the 'fridge, replacing the fan, and doing
> the 'routine' cleaning on the firebox, performance deteriorated to the point
> that although easy to light ('90-'91's w/better ignition system) it refused
> to cool on propane. BUT, after reading posts by several other owners, I'm
> convinced that IF we knew EXACTLY what to do, we could restore these units
> to their original performance. I've come to the conclusion that there is
> some combination of internal adjustments and/or components that have to be
> exactly right for the Dometic to work right on propane. What those critical
> items/tollerances/adjustments are I have no idea. But too many people get
> long term good service out of their Dometics to condemn them completely.
> BTW, it's not only Westy drivers that complain about the propane performance
> on the Dometic three way refrigerators. While camped last week and showing
> a friend my Norcold install he was immediately interested. He camps in a
> Chalet type towed camper and has a three way Dometic and has the same
> complaint we have. After several years of use the propane isn't cooling
> like it used to, best he can get is about 30 to 40 degrees difference from
> outside.
>
--
Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia.
http://web.mac.com/tubaneil
