On Dec 17, 2:07*pm, Smitty Two wrote:
In article
,





*harry wrote:
On Dec 17, 6:39 am, Smitty Two wrote:
Sometime soon I'll be taking a 45 minute drive to look at a friend's DC
powered propane fridge. I've never even seen one of these. She says it
hasn't worked for months, but recently a solar power expert has been
working up there, repairing things. Now the fridge works, sort of. As
she describes it:

There is an ON/OFF slide switch which is now mysteriously backwards; the
ON indicator light comes on with the switch supposedly in the OFF
position. I'm thinking this is a SPST that just got pulled and
reinstalled backwards, but maybe not.

The burner will light, and cool the box to 34F, when she presses the
start button. However, once the fridge warms up, it won't re-ignite
automatically.

What tools should I take, and what should I be looking for?

If, on the other hand it has automatic spark ignition (newer
technology, no pilot light) you will have to see if the spark is being
generated first. The spark is tiny & easy to miss..
The flame failure detection device is usually an electrode in the
flame. (The flame has low electrical resistance compared with air) The
gap is critical and it has a ceramic insulator that can soot up.
Don't confuse with the spark device which has similar appearance.
(Uses identical component in some cases.)This also can soot up. ie,
there may be two electrode s in the flame. (Some burners use the one
electrode for both purposes.)
If it's not that and there's nothing else apparent, you're down to the
control box which is again another substitution test.

Before you get into fiddling with all this gas stuff you should make a
general check of the electrical circuit for loose connections etc.
Look for the easy ones first.

Thanks, and I'm confused. The unit doesn't have a pilot light, it's a
piezo igniter. So does it still have a "flame failure" sensor?
Thermocouple? Obviously on start-up, the manual pushbutton ignites the
piezo starter and starts the gas flowing, but what is the mechanism by
which the flame re-lights once the fridge warms up? It's in that chain
of hardware and events that the problem lies.

Understand and agree that loose or corroded connections are the first
thing to check.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

There has to be a flame failure device of some sort. In days of yore
there was a permanent pilot light and a thermocouple to detect
failure. The piezo device only saved having to light the pilot light
with a match, that's all. (You pushed a button [clicks, the piezo
device] holding the auxiliary gas valve open manually until the
thermocouple warmed up.)

Later to save gas, the pilot light was done away with and the ignition
was done with an electric spark every time it switched on. There are
various technologies for achieving this ranging from a simple
transformer, You will need to determine which it is.