Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:45:01 -0700
Reply-To: David Vickery <david_vickery@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Vickery <david_vickery@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Refrigerator lighting
In-Reply-To: <27F83197-9DCA-41F5-873C-7FCE42500EA0@onebeam.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Leonard, sounds like you fridge is acting fairly 'normal' to me. When you hold down the gas, you flood the chamber very easily. If it is lit you have to hold it down for a while for it to stay lit. But if it isn't lit, you are flooding the crap out of the chamber.
Best thing to do, and believe me you will find this immensely helpful, is to get a digital voltmeter and set it to millivolts and connect one lead to the one spade lead under the sink (doesn't matter which, reading will be negative if you get it 'wrong'). It is the single lead that illuminates the led on the panel. The other lead goes to ground. I stick it in the metal channel in back of the passenger seat track. It stays by itself and gets a good ground. On the lead under the sink, I found it helpful to add a female spade connector that I can just plug the voltmeter lead into. That way I know I have good connections and my hands are free. Sounds like a hassle right, but it is totally worth it.
What this does for you is give immediate feedback on when the pilot is lit and immediately when it goes out. The LED does this but so slowly and with a weak light, that you can't really tell instantly what is happening. With the voltmeter attached, you will learn a lot about how your fridge 'likes to be lit' as many people seem to have a different ritual that works.
If it stays lit for a few minutes at most, it shouldn't go out again. Convection from heat expells the exhaust and draws in fresh air. I found on mine as little as 15 minutes running on DC or AC will get that convection process going and allow the fridge to light on one or 2 clicks without ever needing to use the stupid, almost useless pumper.
If you hear a big boom, its a good indicator that you have slightly flooded it. If you hear nothing, most likely it is very flooded. A trick there is to let go of the gas bipass and pump it a lot and every 5 or 10 pumps, click the igniter. When you hear it go boom again, you are getting close to clearing the chamber. Pump it a little bit more, then give it gas while you ignite it immediately. But if you connect up the voltmeter, you won't need to do that, because you probably won't flood it.
Ideally, on a perfect fridge you shouldn't have to do that, but I found it super helpful in diagnosis and also for routine starting. The very second it lights, the millivolt reader steadily climbs. When it hits 1 millivolt on mine, the magnetic gas shutoff allows gas to keep flowing. But I usually hold it down a little bit longer. For the first few minutes I keep and eye on the millivolt reading to make sure the flame doesn't go out.
Dave
--- On Wed, 8/31/11, Leonard Sitongia <sitongia@ONEBEAM.NET> wrote:
> From: Leonard Sitongia <sitongia@ONEBEAM.NET>
> Subject: Refrigerator lighting
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Date: Wednesday, August 31, 2011, 8:39 AM
> I know this sort of think is a FAQ,
> and I've spent some hours researching, but haven't found the
> solution...
>
> My fridge was lighting well, but it seemed that only half
> of the fins inside would cool, so it was not working
> well. Wouldn't cool well on electric, either.
> Brought it in to the local RV shop. They pulled it,
> did a full cleaning, and returned it to me. I put it
> on 110v and it cooled off well. On a road trip, the
> fridge would not light. Brought it back to the shop,
> and they had a hard time figuring out the cause.
> Concluded the regulator pressure was off, adjusted it, and
> gave it back to me. Doesn't light.
>
> There's spark, although it now seems to be
> intermittent.
>
> Sometimes there's a big pop as a bunch of gas
> ignites. Postings describe this as a air supply
> problem. I've tried supplementing by blowing in the
> condensation drain pipe and using an air pump. That
> gives me a pop or apparent ignition that doesn't keep
> going.
>
> So, I messed around with the adjustment of the regulator,
> with the "dial" under the plastic cap. I've gotten it
> to the point that flame will stay light while I hold the
> bypass (button next to the right of the
> plunger/igniter). But, the flame is very weak, and
> will go out in less than a minute when I release the
> bypass. The LED on the panel barely lights up.
>
> Do you think all of this is due to a faulty regulator?
>
> By the way, the regulator, which I got from one of the
> Westy supply shops, is a Marshall 605H. It has the
> vent facing forward instead of down. They say that's
> not a problem. I know it's not involved in this, at
> least not directly, but I wanted to mention it.
>
> Another question: the stove flames are good. There's
> a separate supply hose for that, right? The stove
> flame quality doesn't imply that the fridge flame quality
> will be good, right? The fridge line could be blocked
> while the stove line is clear?
>
> Also, I'm going to make a manometer. I haven't seen
> mention that the setting is dependent on air pressure.
> I'm at 6,000' elevation. Does this cancel out in the
> equation regarding the pressure of the gas? In other
> words, the pressure is lower to achieve 11" of water, but it
> doesn't matter because less pressure is needed to operate
> the fridge. Or, should one correct for altitude?
>
> Thanks so much for your help!
>
> ==Leonard E. Sitongia
> One Inextricable Beam
> http://www.onebeam.net/
>
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