Every once in a while it pays to open up the side panel behind your reefer (the one on the outside of your motor home or camper) and check to make sure no bugs have made homes in the mechanism. The flue pipe may also get rusty, and you want to make sure you have a nice clean blue flame right where it ought to be.

The same is true of water heaters...

In fact MORE so. There is a gas/air mixing tube that is prone to becoming infested with critters that think it's a nifty place to build a nest. It doesn't bother much if only a pilot light is on, but when the main gas flow comes through - if it is blocked - the propane can divert around the tube, fill the compartment until it reaches the pilot flame, and BWOOOOSH!!!

You can expect to find your access cover about twenty feet away...

I also wanted to mention that you should never ever operate the water heater if there is no water in it. For one thing - if it is hooked up to park power, the electric heating element will burn up. The system can only read water temperature if there is water inside. QED: No water, no temperature reading - it will keep on running, thus using up all of your LPG, and/or destroying a perfectly good heating element.


Consider this my initial tip of the day....


~Wolfie

 

great post, might be stickie material

 

To add to this if the fridge doesn't work well on gas (or at all for that matter), check for rust on the burner. I have had 2 friends who had the same fridge issue. A peice of rust from the flue fell down and covered the burner. It covered enough of the burner to keep it from heating correctly, but not enough to keep the sensor from telling the system the flame wasn't on. Very strange, but true...

 

On reefers - beware of the igniter wire too. It doubles as a thermocouple to the controller board, but the main thing is it carries enough volts to lift you right out of your socks!

If the reefer is running in "AUTO" mode, and it doesn't sense 115V from a hookup - it will try to light the LP burner. Make sure it is turned off before reaching around inside the compartment.

It's also a good idea to make sure your LPG valve is on before running the fridge. (DOH!)

Refrigerators don't use much gas. The flame is only about as tall as a butane lighter flame, and it would take a month of sundays to use up a 7.4 gallon propane tank. THIS is a good way to save amperes for other things such as your A/C, especially with a thirty amp RV connection.

You always have to figure - if there are only thirty amps coming in, you need to budget those amps for whatever you run.

A 15,000 BTU A/C unit will pull close to 20 amps initially, and then drop to about 16.

 

Thats the way I set up. I use LPG setting for the fridge and hot water. Something like a toaster or hair dryer will draw a lot to. Using the gas settings usually gives you more reserve power for other appliances or tools. I have used my air on low with only 15 amp hookups set up this way.

 

Right on!

Keep on RV-ing!

They are what they are, because of what is learned on the road....

 

they sell a weird wand for 10 bucks , put on end of hose and clean out water heater, u should see all the white crap that comes out every year!!!

 

All good advice. The most common problem I see is partially blocked burner tubes at the water heater. I have seen some creative reassemblies with about a three foot flame out of the burner tube on the water heater.

Not sure why folks who have never held a wrench in their hands buy an RV and suddenly think they are Mr. Fixit.

Can't tell you how many requests I turn down to fix things that aren't broken. If I did everything owners wanted me to do, I would make twice as much in half the time.

Steve

 

Great post! I go through mine every spring. Please add checking the furnace exhaust to that list also. I know of a family close to here that lost their son and a neighbor's kid to carbon monoxide poisoning due to that.

 

Good point. Propane, CO, and smoke detectors are mandatory. Propane and CO have to be changed every five years. They are not testable or repairable. Smoke detector every ten years.

Steve