Fridge problem at high altitude

[nstearns]

^ x2... pics would be great!

Thanks for the creative solution.

[Skyliner]

Another proven solution: Buy a spare stock "jet". Solder it closed with silver solder and redrill the jet one or two sizes smaller than stock size. Problem solved!

[HONDAMAN174]

When camping one trip in my pop up at 8500 ft, I had to open the water heater and outside fridge vent to get additional air. Now with my current unit we are camping during the summer at 9000 ft. But I don't have any issues with my new unit. The difference/ reason is that I installed 3 5 inch computer fans to increase airflow to help the fridge get cooler cause I live in such a hot climate. I have two up top sucking and one in the lower door pushing air in. After reading your troubles, I am thinking that more airflow could be a solution.


2014 Evo 2850 "Woodstock"
2011 Toyota Tundra "Clifford"

[Doxies in the Rockies]

Thanks for all these suggestions! We have an appt to take our camper in next week for this & another issue. We'll see what they can do - I'm going to show them these suggestions even though I know they likely won't do them. I'll let you know! We head back up to a higher elevation a couple weeks later.

[TsnTexas]

More ideas! Phil, some pics would be great so we could see your handiwork. I too am surprised by the open gap in that system.

[pmsherman]

I'm at the FR rally in Goshen right now, site 429. I'll need to disassemble the burner area to take pics and I'll try to get to it today or tomorrow.

Phil

[TsnTexas]

Here's a thought: assuming the regulator is adjustable, would lowering the pressure (water column) a small amount result in a more efficient flame at altitude?

[ShermanD]

Propane is liquid gas and with the colder temperatures and thinner air, the liquid can only
be converted to a gaseous state at a certain rate. If you have a look at your propane tank once your fridge quits, I would wager that the tank itself is iced up and therefore you are getting little to no gas flow.

Happens to me all the time here in the winter when I am using my propane turbo heater in my pole barn. A 20 pound tank will only provide "x" cu. ft of propane gas @70 degrees and sea level. Dropping temperature and increasing the elevation is going to that reduce cu.ft. with the colder it gets and the higher you go, the less available cu/ft/min

[Doxies in the Rockies]

We have good friends who have a Windjammer that has, I believe, the same fridge. They go to some of the same places we've gone, both with mid-summer heat & freezing night temps in the Fall, & their fridge has never failed them.

We have our appt tomorrow drop off our TT to get it checked out. I'll let you know when we get it back - they are saying about 7-10 days. Keeping our fingers crossed for a fix of some sort.

[TsnTexas]

Thanks, my sister in law is camping at 9500 ft. for three days now with their Norcold fridge (also on propane) and haven't had so much as a hiccup. In fact they were quite surprised to hear that we had problems. Our Dometic is brand new and theirs is probably 5 years old. Go figure.

[Russmd]

OK, add me to the list. North rim Grand Canyon, 8200 ft., Dometic RV frig 1 1/2 years old. Every morning awoke to find the check light on. After the day warmed up a tad, worked ok. Early morning, could hear click click click, ignite for a sec, go out, on and off. Sometimes stayed lit, other times didn't. Flame was loud when on. No AC available when dry camping. Let's stick to the propane for now.

I've read a lot on this forum and other sources. Here are some comments and questions:

1. Some people say to get a smaller orifice as the problem is too rich a mixture in this lower oxygen environment, however, no smaller orifice available from the company. I saw the Servel Dometic RGE400 High Altitude Jet online. https://www.thenaturalhome.com/gasappliances.htm
Any experience with this?

2. Others on this thread have tried creating a partial metal tube to help keep the propane jet flowing centered toward the burner as he says the lower air pressure doesn't keep the propane jet contained. Seems to me that would enrichen the mixture even more when we want more oxygen (lean)?

3. Others recommend increasing the regulator from 11" to 13" water. Wouldn't that also enrichen the mixture?

4. Others recommend opening up the housing to allow more air in, while some block airflow with a chair to keep the flame from being blown out.

YOW! I need an easy, occasional solution for occasion trips to altitude - and please don't say "ice chest." This can't be that hard.

Thanks,
Russ

[northstar1960]

Originally Posted by Russmd

OK, add me to the list. North rim Grand Canyon, 8200 ft., Dometic RV frig 1 1/2 years old. Every morning awoke to find the check light on. After the day warmed up a tad, worked ok. Early morning, could hear click click click, ignite for a sec, go out, on and off. Sometimes stayed lit, other times didn't. Flame was loud when on. No AC available when dry camping. Let's stick to the propane for now.

I've read a lot on this forum and other sources. Here are some comments and questions:

1. Some people say to get a smaller orifice as the problem is too rich a mixture in this lower oxygen environment, however, no smaller orifice available from the company. I saw the Servel Dometic RGE400 High Altitude Jet online. https://www.thenaturalhome.com/gasappliances.htm
Any experience with this?

2. Others on this thread have tried creating a partial metal tube to help keep the propane jet flowing centered toward the burner as he says the lower air pressure doesn't keep the propane jet contained. Seems to me that would enrichen the mixture even more when we want more oxygen (lean)?

3. Others recommend increasing the regulator from 11" to 13" water. Wouldn't that also enrichen the mixture?

4. Others recommend opening up the housing to allow more air in, while some block airflow with a chair to keep the flame from being blown out.

YOW! I need an easy, occasional solution for occasion trips to altitude - and please don't say "ice chest." This can't be that hard.

Thanks,
Russ

. did you clean the burner tube [boiler] do you know if your flame sensor is clean ? if so and still issues then allowing more air in or less gas out will help . do not increase WC . on my old unit allowing more air in helped .
But by all means get a high alt orifice if available that's the only real solution

[Russmd]

I haven't cleaned anything yet as it's so new, but I will. Where is the flame sensor? I haven't heard of that before. The unit works perfectly at lower altitudes.
Most everybody says there's no smaller orifice available, but I saw the one mentioned earlier. Does anyone have any experience with it?
Does that "metal tube" idea sound plausible to others. It's further back in this thread.
Thanks.

[Doxies in the Rockies]

Russ - We live in Colorado at an elevation of 5600'. Our fridge works fine here but won't keep running on propane when we go to the mtns. - especially at night when it's already getting cold. Our new 2504s is in the shop now to check that out as well as a couple other warranty issues. When we dropped it off, they told us there is a different orifice that works at 10,000' & above - but it's not recommended for lower elevations. They are checking out the mother board as well as other things - hopefully we'll get an answer I can pass along. It's taking longer than expected to get it back because they had a huge hail storm that damaged 35 units - supposedly, not ours.

[Russmd]

Thanks. I'd be very interested to hear about the substitute orifice. From what I understand, they're easy to swap out when one goes to a higher or lower elevation. That would be fine with me. Thanks.

[Doxies in the Rockies]

Well, we got a call back from the dealer last night saying our camper is ready. They blew out sawdust & debris from around the orifice $ flue & are calling it good. Said it ran fine - of course it did, the dealer is at about 5,400'. $55 charge to us to remove what was left behind from the build. Oh well, it is what it is. This service mgr knew nothing of the high altitude orifice and really didn't seem to care. I'm not a real happy camper right now but we're taking it up to 8-8,500' in couple weeks & see what happens. Maybe it will work like a dream. If it quits on us again, the next step will be a call to the manufacturer & then possibly trying one of the fixes talked about here. At least they did fix around the slide where you could see daylight at the lower corners when shut. That was under warranty.

[Russmd]

I'll be very interested to hear how it goes after your trip. Thanks.

[Doxies in the Rockies]

I'll definitely update you!

[Doxies in the Rockies]

Well, it seems that the dealer blowing out sawdust & debris left behind from the build in the area of the orifice & flue fixed the problem. We spent this past weekend at 9400' and the fridge stayed on the whole time. Frustrating to think the whole problem was caused by debris that should have been cleaned up before it got to us, but the dealer said they did nothing else. As long as that fixes the problem, we won't look into the high altitude orifice. They told us to periodically open the vent on the back of the fridge & blow it out really well. We are expecting our first freeze later this week so it's time to winterize. Will keep fingers crossed for a working fridge next summer!

[TsnTexas]

Doxies, thanks for following up, although I'm surprised that simply blowing out the debris in the area could do much, I'm willing to give it a try.