Out on our first trip? On gas fridge

luberhill wrote:
So I assume there is NO thermocouple because it has an ignotor right ?
Acoukd it have been air in the line from having the gas shutoff ?? Thx

Bad assumption.. There is a thermocouple IT MAY be the igniter rod.

Here is the start up sequence as best I recall it

Thermostat calls for COLD
(note I'm doing gas only here)
Control board opens gas valve and starts sending voltage to the spark gap. roughly 1,000 volts. Spark jumps gap and flame happens. We hope.

Possible issues. Bad solenoid valve. dirty orifice no propane or propane turned off.

Assuming good flame

Flame heats thermocouple. This may the the ignition rod or another rod near it. Thermocouple sends 0.480 volts to the control board. Board senses and is happy till T-Stat inside Fridge says "Cold enough"

Mine is 33 degrees when that happens.

Now... IF it is a SINGLE WIRE ignightion system then the Thermocouple and spark rod are the same rod.. And if the change over goes funkey the sensor chip can get hit with around a kilovolt of power.. pop goes the sensor..

Not the Fridge board but my furnace board. I'm fairly sure that is what happened. THe new board (Dinosaur boards) has a nifty little over voltage arrestor right next to the sensor chip.. I'm guessing they too think that is what happened.

I always light a range burner to pull gas thorough the lines, once the flame is clean blue the fridge will light on the first or second attempt.

luberhill wrote:
Ahh ok thx... so I assume because it’s been lit for 4 hrs now it’s not the thermocouple,,,
We had the fridge open doing lunch etc
But had it closed for an hour,,, temoninside is 41...
So if it went up to say 50 because it was open wouldn’t the gas have it back below 40 in an hour or not ?
Thx

DON'T leave that door open... It takes a long time to cool back down. I've been told that for every minute you leave the door open it takes an hour to recover (probably in warm weather). Wait til you put a bunch of warm beer bottles in there... you'll wish you'd stuck them in the freezer!

Probably just air in the line that needed to be purged. Our instructions say to hold the "on" button down until it lights the first time which could take a minute or more. This is supposed to purge the air. Also - takes up to 24 hrs for the frig to really get cold and it helps to have only cold stuff in it. Don't start with warm beer/pop etc.

Ahh ok thx... so I assume because it’s been lit for 4 hrs now it’s not the thermocouple,,,
We had the fridge open doing lunch etc
But had it closed for an hour,,, temoninside is 41...
So if it went up to say 50 because it was open wouldn’t the gas have it back below 40 in an hour or not ?
Thx

Since the propane had been off prior to going on the trip there may have still been air in the section of line to the fridge. If that was the case taking a few tries to clear the air out would be normal.

My practice before going on a trip is to test all the the propane fueled systems at least a few days before leaving to avoid surprises.

The ignitor that is in the flame is also a thermocouple to sense that the flame is burning or not.

Mandalay Parr wrote:
Do you have good 12 volts at the fridge?

y
Assume so ... it’s been fine ever since,,everything else works as it ahould

Do you have good 12 volts at the fridge?

luberhill wrote:
Acoukd it have been air in the line from having the gas shutoff ?? Thx

Yes it Acoukd have been.