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?

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?

It will have a flame failure device. The likliest culprit is the
thermocouple either not putting out the full voltage or not getting
heated enough. (ie not in the flame or flame is too small). Gas jet
could be semi-blocked, gas pressure too low.
Flame shield missing/displaced letting the flame be blown out.
Most tradtional gas equipment's problems revolve around the
thermocouple.

The thermocouple can unfortunately only be checked by substitution as
it's difficult to check the output under load. ie you have to buy one
& it might not be needed.

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.

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?

MAKE SURE YOU DON'T LEAVE ANY GAS LEAKS.
Propane is more dangerous than natural gas as it is denser than air
and slow to disperse.

On 12/17/2010 1:28 AM, Wayne Boatwright wrote:
On Thu 16 Dec 2010 11:39:04p, Smitty Two told us...

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?


I'm sorry, but I have no answers or suggestions.

Just wanted to say that I've always been fascinated by the natural
gas and kerosene powered refrigerators and gas airconditioners of
many decades ago. The fridges reqired no electric power whatsoever
and werwe often purchased by families in rural areas without electric
service. From what I understand, gas a/c was more efficient to
operate than electric units, with many fewer moving parts to wear
out.

Good luck with finding what you need.


The sealed unit contains a mixture of ammonia, water and hydrogen which
is in a specific ratio. When the refrigeration unit is repaired, a
refill cylinder containing the proper mix must be used to completely
replace the gas charge. It's a very interesting old and proven
technology but you must know what you're doing or the darn thing will
never work. If the cooling unit is defective, the usual repair is to
remove the whole assembly from the refrigerator case and replace it with
a re manufactured unit. The repair depots have the proper equipment to
replace the ammonia, water and hydrogen charge.

http://bryantrv.com/reefer.html

http://www.rvmobile.com/tech/Trouble/cooldoc.htm

TDD

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.

On Dec 17, 9:07*am, 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 -

By "manual pushbutton" do you mean one of those piezo spark generators
such as are found on grills? Because if it has one of those then most
likely it has a pilot light.

In article
,
jamesgangnc wrote:


By "manual pushbutton" do you mean one of those piezo spark generators
such as are found on grills? Because if it has one of those then most
likely it has a pilot light.

AH, thanks. I haven't seen the unit yet, so I'm not sure about that.
When she said piezo, I assumed no pilot light. I'll check on that.

Smitty Two wrote:

In article
,
jamesgangnc wrote:


By "manual pushbutton" do you mean one of those piezo spark generators
such as are found on grills? Because if it has one of those then most
likely it has a pilot light.

AH, thanks. I haven't seen the unit yet, so I'm not sure about that.
When she said piezo, I assumed no pilot light. I'll check on that.

If it's like the RV refrigerators it will indeed have a pilot light if
it uses a manual piezo igniter to get it started. The DC is presumably
just used for a circulator fan to keep temps more even and the unit
would actually operate without power.

Wayne Boatwright wrote:

On Thu 16 Dec 2010 11:39:04p, Smitty Two told us...

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?


I'm sorry, but I have no answers or suggestions.

Just wanted to say that I've always been fascinated by the natural
gas and kerosene powered refrigerators and gas airconditioners of
many decades ago. The fridges reqired no electric power whatsoever
and werwe often purchased by families in rural areas without electric
service. From what I understand, gas a/c was more efficient to
operate than electric units, with many fewer moving parts to wear
out.

Good luck with finding what you need.

Absorption chiller, interesting stuff. These days they are common in
little RV refrigerators, and in big industrial refrigeration,
particularly where there is waste heat available from another process to
drive the chiller. I've heard the factory fish processing ships use
absorption chillers powered off waste heat from the ship's engine(s).

On Dec 17, 9:18*am, Smitty Two wrote:
In article
,

*jamesgangnc wrote:

By "manual pushbutton" do you mean one of those piezo spark generators
such as are found on grills? *Because if it has one of those then most
likely it has a pilot light.

AH, thanks. I haven't seen the unit yet, so I'm not sure about that.
When she said piezo, I assumed no pilot light. I'll check on that.

Yes, they are common on devices that have a pilot but the location of
the pilot makes it difficult to relight it when it goes out.
Particularly with propane since running out of propane results in all
the heating devices pilots being exstinguished. It should have the
typical pilot detection setups that are common to gas appliances with
pilot lights. The tube type or the millivolt setup.

I've seen some videos on www.youtube.com which say the common problem
is needs cleaning. I'd take vacuum cleaner, brushes, air compressor,
hand tools. Electrical testers.

Disclosu I've never worked on one of these.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news 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?

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.

On Dec 17, 3:04*pm, "Pete C." wrote:
Wayne Boatwright wrote:

On Thu 16 Dec 2010 11:39:04p, Smitty Two told us...

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?

I'm sorry, but I have no answers or suggestions.

Just wanted to say that I've always been fascinated by the natural
gas and kerosene powered refrigerators and gas airconditioners of
many decades ago. *The fridges reqired no electric power whatsoever
and werwe often purchased by families in rural areas without electric
service. *From what I understand, gas a/c was more efficient to
operate than electric units, with many fewer moving parts to wear
out.

Good luck with finding what you need.

Absorption chiller, interesting stuff. These days they are common in
little RV refrigerators, and in big industrial refrigeration,
particularly where there is waste heat available from another process to
drive the chiller. I've heard the factory fish processing ships use
absorption chillers powered off waste heat from the ship's engine(s).- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Hah. I once worked at a hospital that used exhaust steam for a large
absorption chiller for AC. It was huge and it was expensive and
inefficient too. We got rid of it in the end and put in conventional
commpressors. Big energy savings and a tenth of the size.
I seem to remeber the refrigerant there was water and lithium.

In article ,
The Daring Dufas wrote:




The sealed unit contains a mixture of ammonia, water and hydrogen which
is in a specific ratio. When the refrigeration unit is repaired, a
refill cylinder containing the proper mix must be used to completely
replace the gas charge. It's a very interesting old and proven
technology but you must know what you're doing or the darn thing will
never work.

Well, it cools fine, so I won't be messing with that cocktail.

In article
,
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?

This just in, this is the beast:

http://www.aaarv.net/rm2803_parts.htm

In article . com,
"Pete C." wrote:

Smitty Two wrote:

In article
,
jamesgangnc wrote:


By "manual pushbutton" do you mean one of those piezo spark generators
such as are found on grills? Because if it has one of those then most
likely it has a pilot light.

AH, thanks. I haven't seen the unit yet, so I'm not sure about that.
When she said piezo, I assumed no pilot light. I'll check on that.

If it's like the RV refrigerators it will indeed have a pilot light if
it uses a manual piezo igniter to get it started. The DC is presumably
just used for a circulator fan to keep temps more even and the unit
would actually operate without power.

I got the make / model and found this online:

http://www.aaarv.net/rm2803_parts.htm

Which I don't have time to study right now but it sure looks like there
is indeed a picture of a pilot light by the thermocouple.

I assume the DC is there for the interior light, and to power the
circuit board, too.

Smitty Two wrote:

In article . com,
"Pete C." wrote:

Smitty Two wrote:

In article
,
jamesgangnc wrote:


By "manual pushbutton" do you mean one of those piezo spark generators
such as are found on grills? Because if it has one of those then most
likely it has a pilot light.

AH, thanks. I haven't seen the unit yet, so I'm not sure about that.
When she said piezo, I assumed no pilot light. I'll check on that.

If it's like the RV refrigerators it will indeed have a pilot light if
it uses a manual piezo igniter to get it started. The DC is presumably
just used for a circulator fan to keep temps more even and the unit
would actually operate without power.

I got the make / model and found this online:

http://www.aaarv.net/rm2803_parts.htm

Which I don't have time to study right now but it sure looks like there
is indeed a picture of a pilot light by the thermocouple.

I assume the DC is there for the interior light, and to power the
circuit board, too.

That parts diagram shows the unit to have an electric reigniter. I
believe these are normally intended to reignite the pilot if it gets
blown out by a wind gust, as opposed to operating as a fully
intermittent ignition system. It should be pretty obvious if there is a
pilot burner by the thermocouple when you look at the unit, and if that
pilot is going out when it shouldn't.

On Dec 17, 6:41*pm, Smitty Two wrote:
In article . com,
*"Pete C." wrote:





Smitty Two wrote:

In article
,
*jamesgangnc wrote:

By "manual pushbutton" do you mean one of those piezo spark generators
such as are found on grills? *Because if it has one of those then most
likely it has a pilot light.

AH, thanks. I haven't seen the unit yet, so I'm not sure about that.
When she said piezo, I assumed no pilot light. I'll check on that.

If it's like the RV refrigerators it will indeed have a pilot light if
it uses a manual piezo igniter to get it started. The DC is presumably
just used for a circulator fan to keep temps more even and the unit
would actually operate without power.

I got the make / model and found this online:

http://www.aaarv.net/rm2803_parts.htm

Which I don't have time to study right now but it sure looks like there
is indeed a picture of a pilot light by the thermocouple.

I assume the DC is there for the interior light, and to power the
circuit board, too.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I looked at the drawing, I can't see a pilot light or a thermocouple
on the drawing or mentioned on the parts list. It looks to be one
where the control panel sends signal to open the gas valve and sends
a spark signal a couple of seconds later to the burner. I can't be
sure how the flame failure works from the drawing.
It also looks like it can also run off mains electricity there is a
120V heater shown, so may be dual or alternative gas/electricity.