Fridge won't stay lit

wa8yxm wrote:

enblethen wrote:
No thermal couple. It uses a flame sensor.
Manual

Yup many companies call it a "Flame Sensor"

There are two or three types of Flame Sensors. I know two of them
One is a common Thermocouple
The other is photovoltic

I'm not sure there is a 3rd or but am allowing for the posibility. I'm guessing a high temp thermostat might work.

Thermocouples are the most common.

I'm familiar with standard Thermocouples. They are in a lot of furnaces and in the water heater on my camper. They have to heat up and then they hold a valve open so the gas can flow though.

I don't know anything about Photovoltic sensors but, I can kinda guess how they work from the name.

On this fridge the igniter and the sensor are the same thing. When you activate the fridge the circuit board opens the gas valve and the igniter sparks. After the gas lights the the igniter senses the flame it then shuts off the sparking at the igniter and the circuit board continues to hold the gas valve open. If it doesn't sense the flame the circuit board will shut everything down. After 3 tries it goes into lock out and you have to turn the fridge off and back on to try again.

I'm told it does this by measuring the amount of currant flowing through when the igniter is sparking. When the flame is in the way of the spark the amount of currant is different and the circuit board senses this.

So it's not a Thermocouple and it's not a Photovoltaic sensor either.