Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 13:08:38 -0500
Reply-To: Jim Fritz <jfritz@DECORAH.K12.IA.US>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Jim Fritz <jfritz@DECORAH.K12.IA.US>
Subject: Re: WESTFALIA REFRIGERATOR BURPING & OTHER IRRATIONAL FEARS!
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
RE: WESTFALIA REFRIGERATOR BURPING & OTHER 11/8/98
Bob,
FWIW, please find below the response to my query about my refrigerator from the technical folks at Dometic.
Jim
Dear James, The inverting trick will not help whatsoever with a unit that will not light in gas. On refrigerators prior to 1983 the "burp" may help if it had stopped cooling. First suggestion is to run the unit in AC first. This will warm up the unit and allow air flow through the combustion chamber (convection airflow). Secondly is to turn the thermostat just past on to allow the unit to light in the lowest flame possible. In this manner it will not require a great deal of air. Let the unit run this way for about 10 or 15 minutes. Again this will allow the combustion chamber to heat up and get the air flow. If you have any other questions please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely,Dometic Technical Service
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Fritz [mailto:jfritz@decorah.k12.ia.us]
Sent: Friday, November 06, 1998 8:40 AM
To: techservice
Subject: Dometic in 89 VW Westfalia
To whom it may concern:
I'm having trouble getting my Dometic to fire up on Propane. It has been suggested through a listserve group that I belong to, that taking the refrig out and inverting it overnight will "burp" it and help in the lighting and cooling properties of my refrig. Your suggestions and comments on this would be greatly appreciated.
Robert A. Alexander wrote:
>Volks - Jeez, what ever happened to the good old American pioneering
>spirit of facing the unknown, unfazed by bashful detractors???
>
>I managed to contact Don Staie, my
>AC/Heating/Cooling/Refrigeration/December-Water-Skiing Guru this evening
>and ran some of the List members' criticisms by him about his
>suggestions about "burping" RV refrigerators. I was mistaken in my
>earlier post. Don's been here in TN for twenty years before retiring.
>Worked in the profession only for twenty-five years in MN! Still has
>that weird foreign accent, though.
>
>His suggestion for Westfalia owners and others who have these types of
>refrigerators is to remove them every Spring and invert them for 24
>hours and then reinstall them, fire them up and go on about your
>business. He points out that it is NOT a "correct all" for other
>problems, but that when one is having weird problems with their frig.
>and nothing else works this is his first suggestion.
>
>His second suggestion is to go to the URL
>http://www.rvmobile.com/welcome.htm and gain a "crash-course" education
>in the theory, operation, maintenance and repair of these ammonia
>beasts!
>
>His third suggestion is that anyone who thinks one can damage an A/C or
>refrigeration unit via turning it upside down has NO concept of what
>they are talking about. The one "qualifier" he offers concerns
>compressor driven units. Once inverted, he suggests righting them and
>leaving them alone for 24 hours to allow the oil in the system to settle
>back to where it's happy. He authorized me to post on the Net that
>anyone who claims that simply inverting any cooling unit resulted in any
>type of damage is full of Beaver Dung! I assume they must have a lot of
>beavers in MN!
>
>Don tells me that it is tempting to think of this neat mixture of
>ammonia/water/sodium chromate as being a homogeneous mixture, but he
>says even after sitting there for a few months, it is far from being a
>"homogeneous" mixture. Things separate. That's the idea behind
>"burping".
>
>Like I said before, I've never had one of these beasts. Don's
>interested in my forwarding the more timid posts which are received,
>though. He tells me he'll participate on the List for $30/hr for those
>who want decent advice about their refrigeration problems. He, also,
>invited me to go water-skiing with him Christmas day this year on
>Chickamagua Lake!!!
>
>BOB - WA4RRN
>'85GL
>http://www.impeachment.org
James L. Fritz
Director of Bands
Decorah High School
100 E. Claiborne Drive
Decorah, IA 52101
319-382-3643
FAX 319-382-3107
jfritz@decorah.k12.ia.us
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