Club 80-90 Forums

Hi,
My Westy fridge is giving we a headache. Why does it work perfectly on mains but not on gas? It ignites and burns well, I've cleaned the jet and also stood it on its head for a night.

toastie

How long are you giving it? The flame alignment is pretty critical I've heard. The vehicle being level affects it too.

half an hour with no results, on electric it's icing up in minutes, fridge is on my workbench so as level as can be.
Flame alignment?? It worked fine last year and haven't touched it till now.

Well if it worked before and nothing's changed I'm out of ideas. The flame is the same size and colour as before presumably?
Half an hour isn't a huge time, I'd leave it a couple of hours and then (carefully) see how cold the metal tray in the freezer is - might just be that it's a lot quicker at getting going on mains?

Agreed. A couple of hours needed to be sure it's working on gas. Switch it on put a thermometer inside and leave the fridge door closed. Two hours later it should be fine.

Ok, will try this....let u know results later

thx

Make sure that it is level, they don't work well at an angle.

2 hours down the line ......not a sausage
bottom pipe is warm and pipe coming out of exhaust cladding also warm/hot, flame burning brightly!
If someone can help me I'll send you some Swiss weather! It's getting on for 28° here!!

You haven't removed that 'pointless' bit of twisty metal from the exhaust tube have you?

Not sure what you mean there, I'm referring to the in and out pipes of the cooling system.

I think the gas exhaust flue has a twisty bit of metal inside it that regulates the rate the gas rises in the tube before exiting the van. Might be in the boiler part though. A friend of mine had a fridge that he couldn't get to cool on gas for love nor money and it transpired that this twisty bit of metal was missing. Once he managed to get one the fridge worked fine on gas. Irrelevant if you haven't removed it though.

I do have a Dometic fridge diagnostics manual in PDF format and although I've not read through it it certainly does seem to be quite comprehensive. Can email it over to you if you PM me your email address - can't do any harm to have a read through. Have a couple of manuals as well, if you say which model fridge you've got I might have that as well.

That baffle is critical to operation on gas. Hang fire whilst I find the specs for it.

SPIRAL BAFFLE: Spiral metal device that is hung in the flue tube assembly of the cooling unit.
The baffle causes the heat supplied by the gas burner to stay at the boiler assembly a longer
period of time. This allows the absorption system to work as efficiently on LP gas as other
heat sources.

Yes but if he hasn't removed it and it was working last year we're no closer to a solution. I can't think of anything else, it should be working

Standing it upside down is pointless as you say that it is working well on 230v. (Do you know why you stood it on its head?)

This is for older models but is still relevant:

Have you fitted a lower pressure UK gas regulator to your gas tank since last year to replace the higher pressure German one fitted as standard to a westie? It should still work but perhaps less effectively.