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Vibrant93's avatar
Vibrant93
Explorer
Jul 27, 2016

Norcold. LP side. Vid enclosed.

Thanks for looking. We recently purchased a 2000 Itasca 35u (sorry, I said 36u in the vid) Suncruiser and continue to find things we need to learn!!! Up until a week or so ago we had never run the Norcold on LP.... Well, I should't say that. I did run it on LP once overnight to get the fridge cool but soon found out after we set foot down the road that we had a major LP smell inside the coach which set the LP detector off. I just assumed the wind of the road blew the flame out and it never re-lit so we shut the fridge down and didn't run it again until we were at our site and had AC power. Fast forward to two weeks ago and we ended up at a site that didn't have AC power when we arrived so I started the fridge up on propane. About 10 minutes into running the fridge we could smell a distinct gas smell. It wasn't raw propane but more so of a combusted smell. Again the LP detector did it's job and went off so we shut the fridge down. This past week I've done some research and have done many of the tests for LP leakage. I did the soapy water test and found nothing. I pulled the inspection cover off the burner and found a very large pile of rust and debris. After cleaning that up and blowing compressed air through the burner the fridge now sounds like a blow torch when powered on LP! I'm assuming this is ok but just want to make sure before leaving it run for extended time. Video is attached

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRq8IPlQDcI

Not sure what happened but the direct link isn't working. Here's the actual URL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRq8IPlQDcI
  • SCVJeff wrote:
    WORKING LINK

    I agree the flame sounds fine. That valve needs to be on all the way. The flame is controlled by the on board LP regulator and the jet in the burner itself. The only thing you can do at this point just to be sure is look at the LP pressure out of the regulator.

    Is it possible that since it hasn't been on LP apparently forever, that you are smelling dust? Was it the LP or smoke detector that went off?


    Thanks for the link help.

    No it wasn't dust that we were smelling. It wasn't raw LP either. It was the LP detector going off in the coach, not the smoke detector. We've used the stove, heater, and water heater on LP with great success so far. I honestly think, now knowing that the flame is right, that it wasn't a clean burn and we were getting fumes because of it. Previously the flame was blue but it was a weak flame and didn't go up into the flue (sp) like it does now. I didn't leave it on for very long as it was getting late last night and I didn't want to burn the place down overnight if something was wrong. I'll fire it up today after work and see if it cools down.

    Thanks again everyone!
  • WORKING LINK

    I agree the flame sounds fine. That valve needs to be on all the way. The flame is controlled by the on board LP regulator and the jet in the burner itself. The only thing you can do at this point just to be sure is look at the LP pressure out of the regulator.

    Is it possible that since it hasn't been on LP apparently forever, that you are smelling dust? Was it the LP or smoke detector that went off?
  • Vibrant93 wrote:
    darsben1 wrote:
    Flame looks good and sounds good


    Thank you! I agree but wanted to make sure. The added heat soak is what concerns me though. After running things as is for roughly 10 minutes I cannot touch the tin shield that surrounds the flue. Before I could easily touch it. If this is normal than so be it.

    normal.
    How does the frig cool now?
  • I don't think you're supposed to be able to touch it. Mine gets hot. Flame looks good.
  • darsben1 wrote:
    Flame looks good and sounds good


    Thank you! I agree but wanted to make sure. The added heat soak is what concerns me though. After running things as is for roughly 10 minutes I cannot touch the tin shield that surrounds the flue. Before I could easily touch it. If this is normal than so be it.