Date:         Tue, 7 Aug 2012 07:04:34 -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.wikt6v1iflv9uo@felix.onebeam>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

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.
 
I hav found it most helpful to hook up the voltmeter because the reading is more sensitive and tells you exaclty when the flame lights and when it goes out.  The thermocouple has a delay while it heats up and cools down which makes the LED not as responsive.  You can't try to hold the leads by hand while you are messing with the fridge.  Make sure the connections to the voltmeter are secure.  Works awesome for seeing how long and under what conditions the fridge lights.  
 
Everything is probably fine with your fridge except a leak in the flue or the burner box.  But that mostly causes problems with it blowing out while driving or with wind.  Less so when just sitting there, but still harder to light.  The jet gets clogged sometime too but if it is lighting yours sounds fine.
 
I've fouind running it on 12V or 110- for 15 minutes is enough to get the air moving (hot rising, and fresh air sinking) so it should stay lit.
 
Most of the time you are flooding the chamber if you aren't sure when the pilot is lit or not.  You have to wait for it to clear out or pump the heck out of it to clear it.  The voltmeter makes that a lot less frustrating because the second the voltage starts to drop you know the flame is out and you shoudl stop holding the gas button down.


________________________________
From: Leonard Sitongia <sitongia@ONEBEAM.NET>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM 
Sent: Sunday, August 5, 2012 12:45 PM
Subject: Re: Refrigerator gasket and flame goes out remedies

On Sun, 05 Aug 2012 10:30:09 -0600, David Beierl <dbeierl@attglobal.net>
wrote:

>  Can I power the fridge on 110v
> and use water to test it or does that risk damaging the thermocouple
> sensor, especially since there is fraying.
>  I don't understand the test you're contemplating.  Please be much more
> specific.  The thermocouple does not enter into 110 V operation in any
> way.

Thank you for your lengthy answers.  I really appreciate that.  Regarding
the thermocouple, I assumed the fridge would need to be operating to test
the thermocouple.  I was wondering how to troubleshoot it.  Measure
conductivity through it with it in hot water and ice water?  But, since
you've pointed out that I'm probably talking about the sparker (which I
need to check to make sure I know what I'm talking about), I shouldn't
worry about the thermocouple and I know the sparker works, but I'll put
some silicone on it.

--
==Leonard