on the topic of fridges......

is running it off of propane more powerful? I assume
it will run much longer than off my second battery.

I have a westy that i got recently. I have figured out
how to opperate most everything except running the
fridge off of propane. I have a manual for the camper
conversion, but it is for the wrong year. I can tell
slight differences in the pictures of the fridges.

Does anyone know if there is a trick as I have
followed the instructions in the manual and on the
inside of the fridge. The previous owner mentioned
having to light the pilot light with a match through a
hole on the inside of the fridge..... i think. does
this sound right? Could my pilot starter [ the button
inside the fridge ] be broken?

battery power is nice while driving, but i go places
where there is no AC and my secondary battery dies in
a day of fridge use.

thanks in advance.=]

-chris
90' westy
"MotherShip"

--- David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET> wrote:
> At 11:51 AM 5/17/2003, vw_traveler wrote:
> >I don't know if I am potentially espousing heresy,
> but the OEM
> >refrigerator affords little cooling power on
> battery power, which is
> >mostly the way I use it. It's not a lot better on
> shore power. There seem
> >to be a number of 12V coolers on the market that
> have improved cooling
> >technology. Has anyone tried replacing the Dometic
> with a 12V only fridge,
> >such as the Igloo Kool Mate 40?
> >
>
>http://www.igloocoolers.com/products/active/kool_mate_40.html
>
> I would expect coolers like this to give fairly
> similar performance to a
> Dometic in good condition.  They have similar rated
> temperature drop
> against ambient (because of the difficulty of
> keeping the heat from the hot
> side of the Peltier device from leaking back to the
> cold side), and they
> use noticeably less power doing it.  They have
> external and maybe internal
> fans that run continuously when the unit is actively
> cooling, and I *think*
> that in general they cool continuously.
> High-quality insulation will
> reduce the run-time if there's a thermostat, but it
> won't get the box any
> colder.  They do start cooling immediately, unlike
> the absorption units
> that take 20 minutes to start up; and likewise they
> aren't affected by
> vehicle motion which the gravity-driven absorption
> systems definitely are.
>
> If you want seriously good performance you're going
> to need a
> compressor-driven system, and for decent efficiency
> (much better than
> either absorption or Peltier coolers) one of the new
> breed like
>
http://www.sundanzer.com/PDF/SunDanzer_Batt_Powered.pdf
> -- though of course
> those particular units are much too large.  There
> are good smaller units if
> you look around -- a number from Australia I think.
>
> Finally, for decent results with the Dometic on DC
> you need to arrange to
> keep it running during brief stops so the absorption
> cycle doesn't
> stop.  Also control the van inside temp since that's
> the ambient temp that
> you're getting your 40-degree drop from -- this
> includes keeping the area
> of the side of the van outboard of the fridge out of
> the sun.  All these
> small units have very limited ability to move heat,
> so they recover very
> slowly from having a load of warm groceries shoved
> in them -- pre-cooling
> highly advisable if possible.  Finally, wiring
> quality makes a big
> difference at 12v, and Westalia was sorta skimpy --
> increase wiring size
> including ground, and make sure fuse clips are clean
> and making good
> contact to get minimum voltage drop between the
> battery and the fridge.  It
> is possible to rewire the thermostat so you can
> switch between AC control
> (direct) and DC control (through a relay so you
> don't beat up the
> thermostat contacts).
>
> david
>
>
> --
> David Beierl - Providence RI USA --
> http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
> '84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
> '85 GL "Poor Relation"

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