chris Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 The van is registered new from last october but its a 2008 model. Before xmas it would not even light so went to dometic agent and he couldn't find anything but thought it might have been cobwebs. We used van on gas at shepton show in january no problem. 1we are now in Devon and the gas pilot lights but does not cool the fridge at all but it is perfect on the battery and electric hook up. Its Dometic RMT7655\7855 tower fridge freezer cooker. Any advice please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Are you on Propane or Butane? Butane does not 'gas off' from it's stored liquid form in cold weather but if your gas hob works OK it won't be that? Can we assume that the gas taps are fully open both inside the van and at the bottle? Have you changed gas bottles recently as some can be faulty - as can the regulators, or the hoses (pigtails) could be kinked? If you have two gas bottles have you tried both and if you have a spare regulator now would be a good time to try it! If, as seems likely, none of the above apply then maybe start looking at the fridge itself for problems like possibly a speck of dirt on the jet causing partial blockage? If you are in South Devon, Alan Kerr at Paignton, Marquis at Lee Mill near Plymouth, or Martins just off the M5 J30 at Exeter or maybe Chelstons near Wellington on the A38 just off M5 J26 or even West Country Motorhomes A38 Lower Weare Nr Axbridge, should be able to help? What about the supplying dealer - can't they help - you should have a warranty? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 Tracker, we have 2 connected autogas bottles and we did a refill of them on. Saturday. - have just turned gas bottles off and main gas knob inside for the fridge. I will put them back on again and test the fridge overnight. Bottles were fully opened before. We are under waranty and will have to take it back again. -I hope its not. The autogas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 chris - 2011-02-22 8:41 PM The van is registered new from last october but its a 2008 model. Before xmas it would not even light so went to dometic agent and he couldn't find anything but thought it might have been cobwebs. We used van on gas at shepton show in january no problem. 1we are now in Devon and the gas pilot lights but does not cool the fridge at all but it is perfect on the battery and electric hook up. Its Dometic RMT7655\7855 tower fridge freezer cooker. Any advice please? No advice on the specific problem, but if the fridge is working on mains and 12V, the cooling circuit is plainly OK. The gas jet lights, so you have gas to the fridge. But, does the gas jet stay lit? (Incidentally, it is not a pilot, what you see is what you get, it is just a small, single flame. There ain't no more!) If the gas jet stays lit, and the fridge isn't cooling, there must be a blockage somewhere in the flue, or the gas jet is displaced, or something else, somewhere, between the gas jet and the flue outlet, is allowing all the heat to dissipate before it gets to the cooling circuit. They are very simple devices, and all the electric elements do is to heat the same pipe the gas jet should be heating, but a bit higher up the pipe that rises vertically above the gas jet.If the gas jet is going out after a while, then I'd suspect the thermocouple (which maintains the gas valve open) is either duff, or more likely, out of place.Have you considered diverting via Dometic, at Blandford St Mary, on your way back? Just south of Blandford Forum, in Dorset. Bit of a divert, but they have some technicians there so it may be worth giving them a ring to see if they can help if you can drop in. Failing that, they may put you in touch with a good service agent near where you are. It's under their warranty, after all. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Newell Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 There are two possibilities: 1, the gas is dirty and the flue has become sooted up. The soot then acts as an insualtor and not enough of the flame's heat gets absorbed to evaporate the amonia mixture. solution is to clean the burner and flue and if the gas is contaminated (you'll know if it is 'cos the fridge flue will smell quite bad when its running on gas) you'll need to purge the cylinder and refill it. 2, you have not got winter covers fitted and the ambient temperature is below 10 degrees. In this case there simply isn't enough energy from the burner to overcome the low temperature and evaporate the amonia mixture. Solution is to fit winter covers when ambient temp is below 10 degrees C. I recently had a motorhome in for hab service and the fridge kept setting off their CO alarm. On testing it the fridge was giving over 4000 parts per million of CO, the safe maximum level is 150 ppm 8-) . After cleaning the fridge was no better running from the fitted refillable cylinder but as soon as I switched the supply over to the non refillable cylinder the fridge's flue gas readings dropped to 1ppm! Don't sniff the flue gas too deeply or for too long as if it is producing excessive CO IT WILL KILL YOU! D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris Posted February 23, 2011 Author Share Posted February 23, 2011 Thanks all. Fridge didn't work overnight even though light on front indicated it was lit as not flashing so we will have to take it back. Dave can you answer 2 questions please? 1. How do you purge gas bottles and should they be professionally cleaned? 2. They are gaslow bottles filled up at West Country Farmers lpg pumps at their stores. We have had the bottles for 2years in our previous van and no problems with the Thetford fridge. The dealer transferred the bottles over for us. Reading the manual now it says do not use Autogas for this fridge? Are there problems with Dometic and Autogas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickt Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Have you got covers on the outside vents, if so remove them and try again on gas. Re Auto Gas being used for fridges , i have used this for over 2 years without any problem, i have Gaslow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris Posted February 23, 2011 Author Share Posted February 23, 2011 No fridge vents have been fitted by us. We have just phoned and booked it in FRIDay to a Dometic agent at home so will report back then Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I think, from memory, the outside fridge vent covers should remain on whilst the ambient temperature is below around 16 deg C but the handbook will tell you for sure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 chris - 2011-02-23 9:35 AM Reading the manual now it says do not use Autogas for this fridge? Are there problems with Dometic and Autogas? There are certainly problems with Dometic and Autogas, hence the comments in the manual. Whether there are problems with the fridge and autogas seems to be a moot point. Dometic have blamed the use of Autogas for a number of issues arising from using the fridge on gas; many people have reported running fridges for extended periods on Autogas with no problem whatsoever. The jury seems to be out on whether there is a problem or whether it is being used as an excuse to avoid warranty repair. Whatever the truth is, you may need to be careful in what you say in getting it fixed, given the instructions in the manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Dave Newell - 2011-02-23 6:52 AM I recently had a motorhome in for hab service and the fridge kept setting off their CO alarm. On testing it the fridge was giving over 4000 parts per million of CO, the safe maximum level is 150 ppm 8-) . After cleaning the fridge was no better running from the fitted refillable cylinder but as soon as I switched the supply over to the non refillable cylinder the fridge's flue gas readings dropped to 1ppm! Don't sniff the flue gas too deeply or for too long as if it is producing excessive CO IT WILL KILL YOU! D. Dave, are you saying than autogas can be dirty & have more oil in it than bottled gas? I've been led to believe that French autogas is dirtier than other supplies ( by my supplying Belgium dealer) but on other threads most say there is no problems with auto gas from any country. We did meet one couple on our travels who had to have the jet cleaned after filling up on French gas. Just to be safe I avoid filling up in France. We have the 76 series fridge freezer & it says don't use autogas but we have been using it for 2½ years without a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Newell Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 It is not only Autogas that can be dirty but it appears there is a slightly increased risk of contamination using Autogas than exchange bottles. For my money I'd say your problem is down to not having the winter covers on so fit them and try it again. If it was contaminated gas you'd smell it. The only way to purge a refillabe cylinder yourself that I know of is to invert the cylinder when its just about empty and open the valve to allow any muck out. Exchange cylinders get regular purging/cleaning but obviously refillables don't. It only ever seems to affect fridges, probably due to the relatively small amount they burn. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I recently had a motorhome in for hab service and the fridge kept setting off their CO alarm. On testing it the fridge was giving over 4000 parts per million of CO, the safe maximum level is 150 ppm 8-) .D. 4000ppm of CO ...... 8-) wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 For my money I'd say your problem is down to not having the winter covers on D. I agree with the above, if its working on elec ok, and you have a gas flame then the unit should be working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris Posted February 23, 2011 Author Share Posted February 23, 2011 Thanks all, will now get "googling" and buy a pair of fridge vents straight away and hope that sorts it out. Are you supposed to leave those fridge vents on when running on gas? CHRIS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 chris - 2011-02-23 5:54 PM Thanks all, will now get "googling" and buy a pair of fridge vents straight away and hope that sorts it out. Are you supposed to leave those fridge vents on when running on gas? CHRIS Fridge vent covers should have been supplied with the van so ask the dealer for them! Yes - the handbook should tell you how and when to use them but basically whenever the temperature gets below about 16 C - but you will have to check that yourself from the handbook or Googling it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris Posted February 23, 2011 Author Share Posted February 23, 2011 Manual says "optional" fridge vents to be fitted if weather below +8c and fix vents when not using and when washing the outside. Aha thats another one. We washed the van before coming away so maybe thats another contributor. We live and learn every day. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Tracker - 2011-02-23 6:00 PM Fridge vent covers should have been supplied with the van so ask the dealer for them! Yes - the handbook should tell you how and when to use them but basically whenever the temperature gets below about 16 C - but you will have to check that yourself from the handbook or Googling it Rich, the covers don't come as standard with the fridge. :-S Some converters supply them as standard, others (e.g. Swift, may offer them as part of, say, a Winter Pack. I've either had them supplied from scratch, or had to buy them, depending on the 'van. Also 16C seems a bit high for their use. I would say maybe 10C downward, but definitely around freezing and below. Edit: posted in parallel with Chris. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 We bought one set of covers from these: http://www.leisurespares.co.uk/ ..I think at the time,they were pretty reasonable compared to some other sites we'd tried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Thanks folks - I stand corrected! I don't believe in doing all the research for every enquirer as I believe people will learn and remember a lot more in the long run when guided in the right direction to do their own finding out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Newell Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 From a recent visit to Dometic they recomend winter covers be fitted if ambient is below 8 degrees C but better to work to 10 degrees C. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 Thanks Dave AND PEPE63 , Have just ordered the vents covers from leisure spares. Expensive job as we needed 4 so came to £69.34 but that is cheaper than a dealer we called into today. They dont do vents this size anymore ie L500 so that Is why we needed 4 smaller ones to fit the gap. Probably stopped doing such large vents because of problems like ours! cHRIS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero boy Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Hi, does the recommendation on fitting fridge covers apply if you are running it on EHU or is this advice solely for gas operation? Thanks, Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverback Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 hi Chris, as far as im aware the recomendation is for EHU, we keep ours on nov thro apr till it warms up never had any probs jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 chris - 2011-02-24 5:17 PM Thanks Dave AND PEPE63 , Have just ordered the vents covers from leisure spares. Expensive job as we needed 4 so came to £69.34 but that is cheaper than a dealer we called into today. They dont do vents this size anymore ie L500 so that Is why we needed 4 smaller ones to fit the gap. Probably stopped doing such large vents because of problems like ours! cHRIS The L500 was replaced with the LS300, Leisureshopdirect have the covers on their site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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