Michael,

Are you preheating your exhaust riser by running for a while on electric
before you attempt to start on propane?  The warm exhaust will increase
airflow through the combustion chamber.

Karl Wolz

|-----Original Message-----
|From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]
|On Behalf Of Michael Snow
|Sent: Friday, August 05, 2011 8:26 AM
|To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
|Subject: Re: Dometic fridge works out of the van, but not in it.
|
|On 8/1/11 3:02 PM, Michael Snow wrote:
|> I want a Vitrifrigo/Truckfridge badly, but am leaving Saturday for
|> Niagara Falls with or without a working fridge.
|>
|> Sitting on a milk crate, connected to my barbecue tank and
|regulator,
|> the fridge runs fine on propane. The flame appears blue through the
|> sight hole. At the right viewing angle I can see what I think is the
|> tip of the thermocouple glowing red.
|>
|> When installed in my '82 Westy, the flame is partly yellow and goes
|> out 5-10 seconds after igniting. Guessing that I might have a
|> regulator problem, I swapped the old Marshall 290 for a new
|one. I verified 11"
|> water column using a home-built manometer. Condensation
|drain is closed.
|>
|> I have cleaned a bit of accumulated dust from the combustion chamber
|> and blown compressed air through the fridge intake/exhaust tubing.
|>
|> Does yellow flame indicate inadequate air supply? What am I
|overlooking?
|>
|> Mike
|
|Declaring partial victory on this.  I verified again that the
|regulator is holding 11" WC and attempted to start on propane.
| After three unsuccessful attempts, I turned the fridge gas
|level down to about 7/8 of maximum, started again, waited
|until the flame started to die and then clicked the igniter
|one time.  The flame re-lit and held steady for about 5
|minutes before I turned the propane flow up to maximum.  I has
|now been running for long enough to eat half of a box of girl
|scout cookies, about 30 minutes.  I'm going to guess that I
|have a flaky thermocouple that will need to be replaced after
|this trip.  One benefit of removing the fridge from the van
|and cleaning the combustion chamber is that I can now clearly
|see the flame and glowing thermocouple through the sight glass
|at the bottom corner of the fridge.
|
|Packing for Niagara Falls...
|
|Mike
|-----
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