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Date:         Thu, 5 Jun 2008 11:55:48 -0400
Reply-To:     Roger Sisler <rogersisler2000@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Roger Sisler <rogersisler2000@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Dometic condensation drain

I think the vent that exits on the side of the Vanagon can allow water to get inside the combustion area. Perhaps in a driving rain or some other nonsence like when washing the vehicle.

If your refrigerator wont stay lit while driving try to see if the combustion/vent system is sealed. A leaking system will cause the flame to blow out and for the unit to be hard of starting. To determine if you have a leaking system, close up that condensate drain, and remove the chrome vent cover from the exterior. Plug up the inner most of the two vents and blow into the other one. If you have a good seal, you will know it. Same for a leak.

Leaks can come from many areas. To find the leak, every connection of the burner/vent system needs to be considered. One biggie can be checked with the refrigerator installed. A common leak area, if the refrigerator has been previously removed, is in the corragated vent tubing. This stuff is very brittle and can crack when the refrigerator is jockyed during installation. You wont know that it has happened except for the blow out while driving and hard ignition.Otherwise, this is not a problem. The break is small and may not be visible. You might be able to find it by removing the brown vent grill that is on the side of the refrigerator cabinet and feeling along the venting while someone blows into the outside vent. The fix would be JB weld on the crack, and you could probably reach inside through the cabinet vent hole to mush on the JB. The condensate plug is another leak area.

The corragated vent is joined to the black vent piping via a collar nut and a split washer. This assembly is used on the intake in the 182b. It is usually trouble free. On the earlier 182a the collar nut system is installed only on the exhaust vent; the intake piping is connected together by some rubber gromet thing. It can become detached and the usual problems then exist. Got to remove the unit from the van to fix this. These 182a's are all dead now, right?

That burner box can leak like a sieve. The 182a box gasket is Rubegoldburg's finest, and I ended up using RTV profusely to get at "all of them leaks" It looked a mess when I was done RTVing, but it worked. Tastes like chicken. The 182a box is definately better and leaks less. How the orifice attaches to the box is not usually a leak area on either the 182a or b.

The gasket that is between the burner box and black vent pipes is probably ASBESTOS so look out! I know that it is very fragile and will crack without whim. Maybe it will seperate apart in several places if you try to mess with it. Where would you get another( Maybe Bus Boys)? If this gasket is not seated well, it will leak, so try to find your leak elsewhere, first.

Heat from the burner box is transfered to the ammonia water piping mostly via a 4 inch area just above the burner box. This conduction conduit is a thin line of weld between the exhaust piping(now rust) and ammonia/water pipe. That's it! Heat will transfer about 25 times as efficiently via conduction than with radiation, so every millimeter of this weld is critical. This conduction heat accounts for about 80 percent of the total heat in the refrigerant solution of the Dometic. The balance of needed heat comes from radiation between the vent pipe and the solution pipe, and is essential if the unit is to function. The insulation that is surrounded by the galvanized shield shows the area where this radiation occurs. It is about 12-14 inches. The vent piping and refrigerant lines diverge from each other in this area so that the corragaged tubings will have space to attach. The insulation here is essential for this needed radiation to occur. Without the insulation, refrigeration will not occur. I have tried several replacement insulations but have not found one as good as the original. To get better radiation heat transfer you might try capping the top of the galvanized cylinder, and use aluminum foil in the space between the top of the burner box and lower part of the galvanized heat shield. Then add some insulation to the exterior of the galvanized heat shield.


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