modelmaker Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 fridge will light on gas but wont stay alight, does anyone know of a gas service person please that can service my fridge near worcester, many thanks john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 Any caravan or motorhome service department should be capable - look in Yellow Pages or do a Google search? Marquis at Tewksbury have a good service department but it won't be cheap! But first - how much gas is in the bottle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelmaker Posted September 1, 2010 Author Share Posted September 1, 2010 new bottle just fitted, was after mobile service, john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallii Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 Flame out sensor faulty? Not expensive but you have to use a "competent person" to fit it. Unless you are "competent" yourself. Who decides if you are competent? Why, you of course. But you can only be competent for DIY, you can't be competent for doing work for anyone else. So it's OK to blow yourself, the wife and kids to Kingdom come, but not anyone else. Hallii Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 No one ever taught me to service the fridge so I just take it apart, clean it all, put a new jet in, and put it all back together ensuring that I have no bits left over and that the gas joints are sealed (dilute washing up liquid and small paint brush). Access is tight but with the vents removed it usually costs me a skinned knuckle or two but it is not that hard to do. You may find step by step instructions in an old MMM or online or in one of John Wickershams excellent books on the subject of caravan and motorhome maintenence? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheer lunar-see Posted September 2, 2010 Share Posted September 2, 2010 Make sure you have a good BLUE flame, not yellow, check the flue isn't blocked by foreign bodies, and I don't mean our continental cousins. Check the tightness of the thermocouple at the valve end, these sometimes work loose with vibration, make sure that it is in the probe is in the flame, tip only, if all this fails, call in a bone fide gas engineer. Hope this helps, Nige the gasman. ;-) ;-) ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted September 2, 2010 Share Posted September 2, 2010 hallii - 2010-09-01 7:49 PM Flame out sensor faulty? Not expensive but you have to use a "competent person" to fit it. Unless you are "competent" yourself. Who decides if you are competent? Why, you of course. But you can only be competent for DIY, you can't be competent for doing work for anyone else. So it's OK to blow yourself, the wife and kids to Kingdom come, but not anyone else. Hallii I am sorry but that is not strictly true, you HAVE to be competent ie registered with "gas safe" to legaly carry out ANY work on a gas appliance if you accept payement. If it is your own appliance then you still have to be deemed as "Competent" to repair it in other words you would have to be able to prove that you attended a college or carried out some type of qualification. There are very stiff penaltys for anyone unregistered found to be working on a gas appliance unless they are TRULY competent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Newell Posted September 2, 2010 Share Posted September 2, 2010 ips - 2010-09-02 11:39 AM hallii - 2010-09-01 7:49 PM Flame out sensor faulty? Not expensive but you have to use a "competent person" to fit it. Unless you are "competent" yourself. Who decides if you are competent? Why, you of course. But you can only be competent for DIY, you can't be competent for doing work for anyone else. So it's OK to blow yourself, the wife and kids to Kingdom come, but not anyone else. Hallii I am sorry but that is not strictly true, you HAVE to be competent ie registered with "gas safe" to legaly carry out ANY work on a gas appliance if you accept payement. If it is your own appliance then you still have to be deemed as "Competent" to repair it in other words you would have to be able to prove that you attended a college or carried out some type of qualification. There are very stiff penaltys for anyone unregistered found to be working on a gas appliance unless they are TRULY competent. Sorry IPS but you are not quite correct either. You do not have to be Gas Safe registered to work on motorhome gas systems (unless they are hired out in the course of a business) but you do need to be demonstrably competent. Most caravan/motorhome workshops will have staff who have done a five day ACOP course and passed it. To the OP, there are three possible causes of your fault: 1, failed thermocouple, not too difficult to replace but the fridge may need removing to do it. 2, faulty gas control valve. The thermocouple connects to the rear of this valve. 3, faulty energy selector switch, try flicking the switch through the various positions a few times to clean the contacts. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Dave As is the case with most things connected with gas legislation this is a minefield, If we are being pedantic I "may" stand corrected that the business need not be gas safe reg if they only work on caravans not for hire and that the minimum required is an approved code of practice 5 day course. However the original question was related to if someone could attempt a repair with no formal training not even acop's (hence my proof of competency reference) In other words the only reason IMO that caravan repairers get away without gas safe reg is that the grey area around the term "proof of competency" can be interpreted that way. Seems ridiculous to me that the caravan industry need only send someone on a 5 day course and not be gas safe reg when the rest of us in the gas industry have to be "fully" qualified and be gas safe reg. Lets clarify ... Someone with the minimum of training can work on your van although that same person is not allowed by law to do the same work on a van that someone will be paying to hire. Or to put it another way why is the same "technician" not deemed qualified enough to do gas work for a family that have hired a motorhome for a week but he is deemed qualified (depending on how the regulations are interpreted) to work on a motorhome "owned" by a family. ?? ips Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordThornber Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 You won't catch me messing about with gas. I can't for the life of me (literally), imagine a scenario where I'd want to save £x whilst potentially putting our lives at risk. To say nothing of other folk being at risk from a possible explosion. How likely that is I don't know, or want to either. Would you mess about with your own central heating boiler? What's £50, or whatever to have peace of mind? What's that saying? A little knowledge can be dangerous, lethal more like. Any person who's doing their own DIY on gas appliances should carry a sign in their vehicles, just so I can make an informed choice of whether to camp within half a mile of them. It's the worst kind of amateurism in my opinion. Martyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Looking at the intelligence and communication skills of the average (but not all to be fair) mechanics/technicians these days and the inability of many (but not all) garages/repair shops to fully complete the most basic of tasks I'm surprised that any of us are still alive to tell the tale! The only way to learn is to do it and even the 1st year apprentice has to learn somehere for which there are plenty of good guide books and manuals around to learn from - but you still can't beat doing it yourself to learn. One of the biggest problems is that Soddes Law applies and these things often fail in a strange country at the most inconvenient time which is where some experience and a large dollop of common sense can really come into their own. The beauty of gas is that you can smell it and sometimes hear it when it leaks, and with water you can see it and often hear it when it leaks - unlike electricity which you can neither see nor hear until it gets you! One handy tip - don't look for a gas leak with a lighted match! Soapy water and a small paint brush are much more user friendly. Oh and by the way don't assume that every new Calor gas bottle will seal without checking it first. I always wipe the two mating faces before fitting and then check the joints for bubbles with soapy water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 LordThornber - 2010-09-03 10:30 AM You won't catch me messing about with gas. I can't for the life of me (literally), imagine a scenario where I'd want to save £x whilst potentially putting our lives at risk. To say nothing of other folk being at risk from a possible explosion. How likely that is I don't know, or want to either. Would you mess about with your own central heating boiler? What's £50, or whatever to have peace of mind? What's that saying? A little knowledge can be dangerous, lethal more like. Any person who's doing their own DIY on gas appliances should carry a sign in their vehicles, just so I can make an informed choice of whether to camp within half a mile of them. It's the worst kind of amateurism in my opinion. Martyn Couldnt agree more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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