Date:         Thu, 7 Aug 1997 14:31:13 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Scott Semyan <scottse@microsoft.com>
Subject:      Dometic Fridge Tips (long)

With all the talk of fridge's I thought I would share some of the
knowledge that I have gleaned from other people and from mucking with
the thing my self.

Disclaimer: I have the stock '85 Westy Dometic fridge. Your mileage may
vary.

OK. Before I pulled it, my fridge worked meagerly on Propane & AC and
not noticeably on DC. Also, after running for a while with warm ambient
temps, the fan would come on making a ton of noise. More on that later.
Here is what I did to solve these problems:

1) I pulled the fridge. This is not hard to do. Bentley has a good
description. 

2) While the fridge is out, give the rear cooling fins a good cleaning.
They will cool better when not caked with dust, etc.

3) Be sure to clean the back of the little "flame viewer" in the lower
left corner of the fridge. Also clean the viewport into the combustion
chamber. This will help you see if your fridge is lit when trying to
light it.

4) Make sure the temperature control for the fan is securely connected
to one of the cooling fins. It looks like the holding bracket for the
thing is made out of aluminum foil and it can become loose. If the
temperature thing is not securely touching the cooling fin, your fan
will never come on and the liquid in the fridge may overheat. I have
heard this can cause crystals in the liquid ruining the fridge.

5) Examine the fan. Mine was making a lot of noise because the tip of
the fan was hitting a pipe. Also, the fan was old and the motor was
making a ton of racket. You have three options if you want to replace
the fan. A) get a new motor from VW for $ 150. Yeah, right. B) Buy an
exact replacement motor at radio shack for $2. This motor will still
generate a good deal of noise. or C) Pick up a brushless 12V cooling fan
from a computer supply store and use that instead. These are the little
box style fans about 3 inches on a side that are used to cool computer
power supplies. I picked mine up for $10. It is dead quiet and pushes
more air then the old one. The higher amperage you get the more air the
fan will move. I got a .29 A fan. This means this fan, if run
continuously would drain my 65 AmpHour battery in just over 9 days.
Experience has shown the fan only comes on when the van is parked in the
sun with the fridge side in the sun and all the doors closed.

6) Take the time to wire spare cabling (i.e. the AC cable) out of the
way on top of the fridge. You don't want these cables interfering with
airflow (or the fan) on the back of the fridge.

7) Check the metal exhaust and intake hoses for spider webs. They
apparently love these things.

8) Put the fridge back in. Tricky but doable. Three tips: don't screw in
the fridge until you know the faceplate will fit, use the opening to the
left of the stove to reach in and bend the metal hoses into submission
because they won't fit as nicely as they did when you took the unit out,
and use plumbers tape or some other thing to seal the fitting on the gas
line. Don't want any leaks.


Now you are all ready with your clean fridge. Lighting tricks I have
learned:

To light: turn on the propane, pump the pump 5 or 6 times and then push
the gas button while you are clicking the lighter with the pump. You
should see an orange flash through the peephole after that, hold the gas
button down a little while longer then check though the peephole for a
blue flame. Got it? You are in business. Don't see it? Click the switch
on the control panel that tells you how much battery power you have
left. The green LED next to the asterisk (*) should be glowing if the
stove is lit. If not try the whole thing again. Resist the urge to keep
the gas button down too long. This only floods the chamber with gas and
makes the fridge harder to light. When this happens you need to pump the
pump several times to clear the chamber and refill it with air.

I hope this helps some of you new van owners.

Oh, as for DC. Supposedly, it will keep an already cold fridge cool but
don't even try to cool down a warm fridge with it. It simply won't work.