I've been having trouble with the fridge on propane, carbon build up on the electrode spark sensor and horizontal burner tube. Took them out cleaned them up and replaced the propane regulator on the rig. Still was having an issue with cooling a little so I decide to replace with an Amish cooling unit (built thicker and better than OEM.This is what I found when I pulled the fridge out,


that is the baffle tube that the propane exhaust goes through, there is a long rod in it with a 6' flat coil that was completely blocked with carbon/ soot. . Something to think about if you use your fridge on propane. I know after seeing this that the fridge will be pulled out once a years and baffle tube checked.

 

Man, the question in my head is why so much carbon. We were taught to check them if there was a problem, but I have never seen that much carbon. If you have a roof top vent, is that clear? I have had some not cool at all when the vent that covered with pine needles or leaves, but that is also a rarity.

Steve

 

Steve - or scraprat, can you tell us what we are looking at here in this photo? Or looking for if we try to "clean" our own refer? Thanks.

 

I'm guessing that maybe my regulator on the 5th wheel was on it was out when I did change it something was loose in it. The flame on the stove top was discolored and with excessive soot. I haven't used my furnace boondoocking mainly because I use a buddy heater but when I tried to light it I can't get it to go so I will pull it out and give it a cleaning. The water heater is only used with propane and no issues with it. The top vent was perfectly clean with no blockage or debris whats so ever.

 

In that picture the fridge is laying face down o the ground. There is a short exhaust tube (baffle) behind the cooling line going to the fins above. In that tube there is a rod connected to a flat spiral piece,

this is what should get pulled out and cleaned. On my rig you have to pull the fridge from the cubby to do this.

Here is a pic of the Amish cooling unit I replaced.




The yellow area is the top portion that goes behind the freezer/ fridge area that cools/ freezes. I don't have one after I put in the fridge before installing it in the cubby.

 

Bud,

In the picture the refrigerator is out and has been taken apart so the entire cooling coil has been removed. The cooling coil is what you are looking at in the picture.

The long can looking burner tube is what the exhaust from the gas flame at the bottom rises through finding it way out at the top. The blackened spot is where the heat exits the burner tube. Inside hangs a baffle, which very seldom gets carboned up and causes a problem. Although the problem is pretty dramatic here, given what I think is a rare situation, owners might be better served to make sure their burners are not loading up with rust or dirt.

Pulling a fridge varies in the amount of work that is involved for the most part because those things are quite heavy and usually take at least two people. As you know on new refrigerators, manufacturers require inspection every year by a technician in order to keep their warranty in effect for this reason. But they don't require the refrigerator to be pulled. With the increasing prevalence of household refrigerators in RVs, this type of problem should gradually become a thing of the past.

Steve

 

Update, since installing new unit when operating on propane it only needs to be set on #4 and will hold at 38-40 degrees and #3 for electric and hold the same. The old unit would need #8 on propane and #6 on electric. Now the propane will stay lit even in 30-50 mph winds (storm just came through for the past 6 hours). It use to blow out and relight if you sneezed in the direction of the flame.

 

Any chance you are doing a write-up or took more pictures showing how to change out the coil/cooling system?

 

There are instructions all over the Internet for that and a coil comes with instructions. Other than on the big four doors it is just the lifting it in and out. Taking it apart is just hand tools. With the big four doors the weight makes it much tougher.

But, I would not encourage anyone to do it as a matter of routine maintenance. In my experience choice of replacement coil has little impact on cooling efficiency unless there is a problem with the existing coil such as a partial blockage. You will find detractors for all brands if you search the Internet just as with everything else.

Steve

 

I actually did change the unit out more of a safety (peace of mind) thing. As you know Steve the occasional fires from the cooling system breaking apart and with the Amish unit being better built (thicker tubing) less chance of a fire.

Maybe for the weekend user of the rv not worth it but as a full time user with mostly boondocking and no hook ups (60 days straight as of today) crawling/ bouncing up blm/ forest roads I felt it couldn't hurt.

Sous, It was a really straight forward job. I watched a couple you tube videos a couple times took a couple notes and did the change. My unit is a single door and was able to just bear hug it out of the cubby and do the change in the living room area of the rv (putting an old sheet down). I did have to dremmel a small amount of foam from the back side of the fridge area to get the unit in, it's replaced with more foam when putting new unit in.

I personally felt a worth while upgrade project for our use of the rig.

 

It's a hard call because cooling coil failures make up a very small percentage of RV problems and most will last well beyond a decade and often two decades. When you full time all the components are used steadily and if I wanted to carry the parts with me most subject to failure, I would carry a Dinosaur module board in the event the board goes and a spare electric element as those are the bad boys (and actually I do carry those two parts with me because they are easy to replace with minimal tools).

The industry is changing to household model refrigerators so quickly I am not sure how long we will be seeing the models we all know best, though for boondocking a gas option is an essential. Trouble is most folks never boondock.

Steve

 

Having extra pieces does help for sure, I carry both the power board and control board just in case and a means to troubleshoot the issue incase. The residential fridges are becoming more prominent in the industry for sure and if I had another 200ah of battery that could be committed only to the fridge I might have switched myself possible.

You are correct about most folks not boondocking which is good for us that do leaving more room to enjoy nature.

 

I don't think you will ever need the board in the door, but you might want to add a thermistor to the mix. Not expensive and is the most common fix if your unit starts freezing everything. For those following this who have Dometics, you can just get replacement tips for the thermistor, even cheaper.

Steve

 

We are looking to full time RV in the next 5 years in the current trailer we have. We enjoy boondocking with the stop by a campground for freshening up on supplies.

We do have a 4 door double gas/electric fridge, which was a requirement when looking for our trailer. I have thought about pulling the fridge out and installing a small 12v silent fan near the coil to keep things cool. The fridge is on a slide, so it has an intake vent on the bottom sidewall and one near the top sidewall like in the picture below.






I believe it already has a fan in there, I think I can hear it running at times, but would like to put a better one in and maybe re-position it to allow for better ventilation. I figured, if I were to pull the fridge for this purpose, I might look at upgrading the coil system as well.

 

I like the layout of your rig and almost bought one in the same layout that Carriage had but didn't have enough truck to pull it at the time.

I don't have the fan behind mine and not sure if it's because it's a straight shot up to roof top unlike yours that vents through the slide wall. I was thinking of adding one still on the fence. I try to position the 5th wheel when possible to keep the fridge side out of the afternoon sun. Heat build in that space.

Some folks add a small fan inside the fridge to help circulate the air through fins and around the fridge for cooling and better operations. Still doing homework on that.
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