Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 20:12:47 -0700
Reply-To: Keith Ovregaard <kovregaard@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Keith Ovregaard <kovregaard@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Rear External Fridge Fan
In-Reply-To: <cca.2ec8a2d3.355b8296@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
I would not recommend drilling a hole in the floor. Who needs more water and
dust in the van? It's not going to help the rust situation either. My fridge
has been out several times to do some mods, cleaning, resealing, testing and
experimenting in an attempt to get the LP mode work right. I've done most of
what Roger Sisler has suggested on his website <
http://www.flickr.com/photos/werksforwagens/sets/72157594499353583> In
addition, I even cut the back off of the city water inlet and installed a
muffin fan to vent hot air from behind the fridge. It did get some warm air
out of that area, but did little to bring the temps down. I found that some
water had gotten inside after washing the van, so I took the fan out and
sealed it back up.
Replacing the old fan with the GoWesty fan will help. I put a similar fan on
mine. Also wired an internal fan on the evaporator for even temps inside.
So, the fridge is on the bench again for more tweaking and here is what's
happening. I turned the unit upside down over night to mix up the
amonia/hydrogen and tapped with mallet. Heated with a heat gun. Dipped the
jet in acid and checked pressure with a home brew manometer. 11 inches on
the mark. Resealed the burn chamber with high-temp silicone. After an
initial cooling in the AC mode (24F the next morn), I switched to LP. Temps
inched up to mid 40's during the afternoon heat (76F in the garage). Later
on, the temps went down a few degrees, so I turned the thermostat down until
the flame kicked down to low. Now it's holding at 43F. Fridge is empty,
ambient temp is 75F.
A while back, I used a needle to clean the jet and found out later that the
manual says not to do that. Oops! So I still want to try a known-to-be-good
jet to see if it makes a difference. Maybe the flame is too big because the
orifice is a tiny bit larger than spec.
I know some of you think I'm nuts doing all of this to a fridge that may
never work as well as a compressor fridge, but I am not quite ready to shell
out the $700-1200 for a Vitrigo, Isotherm, Norcold or Engel.
Keith O
On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 4:47 PM, David Clarkson <Dvdclarksn@aol.com> wrote:
> This is several days late but I thought that I would chime in here. I
> purchased the stainless fan from GoWesty and am getting ready to install
> it with a
> thorough clean up and going over of my fridge. I was thinking about piping
> air
> in from below the van with a similar fan that had a screen and some sort
> of
> removable varmint barrier to pipe in cooler air. With the skylight vent
> open
> and some air in from the window behind the fridge this would cool a bit
> better I think. It seems like I have read about someone on the list that
> has done
> this. This is an idea that I was considering while doing some rust repair
> with the camping interior removed. Any one have any thoughts? Thanks
> listees!
>
> David Clarkson
> 90 Westy (250k)
>
>
>
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