Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 07:40:02 -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 gasket and flame goes out remedies
In-Reply-To: <op.wiocwjrbflv9uo@felix.onebeam>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
It is hard to know what things to pay attention to when you haven't worked on multiple fridges. So here are a couple things NOT to worry about based on your situation: Gas pressure is not that critical and it is fine. Don't worry about elevation. The flame is in the right place. The difference in sound at the flue is due to the amout of air the flame is getting. Don't worry about how much noise it makes, and sound is just a good way to tell if the fridge is lit.
Get the multimeter hooked up, it helps a lot. You think you know when it is going out or gone out, but without the multimeter you are not getting instant feedback. When the flame is going strong (it is still small) the LED is bright and you may be able to see it through the pilot. But it could still be lit and be o.k. when it isn't gettign quite enough air to burn fully. But a well maintained fridge will ramp up in the first minute of running.
Your fridge doesn't sound like it is too far from 'normal'. Once you figure out how it likes to be lit and how long you need to give it gas, and whether it needs to be run on electric first, it will be much easier to light it in the future. The multimeter helps you get to know your fridge.
The dial doesn't do anything to a fridge that isn't cold yet. Because the temp hasn't reached a cold enough point where the flame will start cycling down. Just leave it on high. I have to turn mine down at night in the mountains of Colorado, otherwise it stays at max.
________________________________
From: Leonard Sitongia <sitongia@onebeam.net>
To: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com; David Vickery <david_vickery@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 7, 2012 10:22 AM
Subject: Re: Refrigerator gasket and flame goes out remedies
On Tue, 07 Aug 2012 08:04:34 -0600, David Vickery <david_vickery@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Your thermocouple sounds fine. The clicking after the flame goes out is the valve closing off the gas, which happens after the flame has goine out.. it only takes 1 millivolt to keep that valve open. The thermocouple will put out 30 millivolts if it is very strong. Mine goes down as low as 8 when the fridge is running and it works fine, just a weak thermocouple and that doesn't affect cooling. The lower voltage affects the LED not being as bright.
That sounds good. Thanks for your ideas.
I think what is curious is that a couple of times it lighted normally, with the flame visible in the window and the LED coming on and the flame is quiet from the flue. Both times, the mode changed to not visible in the window, LED off, rumble from flue. And, other times when it would light, it would be in that second mode. I think the flame is burning in the wrong place, perhaps the gas pressure is too high? I made a manometer, and set the regulator pressure to 11". But, I keep thinking about my elevation (6000'). The air pressure is lower on the water column, so setting to 11" will be lower pressure in the regulator. Or, is it independent of elevation? Anyway, I tried different regulator settings last time I was messing with that, to no avail. I think I will try it again. I also messed with dial C, the temperature setting, to no avail. Anyway, this condition of two modes of the flame and the rumble seems significant to me.
--==Leonard
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