Refrigerator and fueling?

[svjim]

OK, to begin with I never pull into a fueling station without first turning my propane refrigerator OFF. The safety of doing this has been discussed elsewhere and not the subject that I am inquiring on.

I have a domestic dmr702 and the question I have is "If while the refrigerator is running if the battery is disconnected, is the propane then shut down to the refrigerator immediately?"

The reason for this question is that I have a TC and the refrigerator is in a push out which means before fueling, we stop, lower the the steps and push the slide out far enough to allow us to gain access to the refrigerator and turn it off. Then the slide has to be pushed back in before entering into the pumping station. After fueling we exit the pumping station and repeat the process to light the refrigerator.

I had been thinking that having an on off switch for the refrigerator that was accessible from the exterior of the camper would alleviate the need to push the slide in and out for turning the refrigerator on and off. However it has occurred to me that I have a battery disconnect already which is easily accessible from the exterior of the camper. If disconnecting the 12 volt source shuts the propane off also, then doing so is for me as good and probably better then modifying the electrical connections to install a switch.

So can anyone say with certainty that disconnecting the battery will immediately switch the propane off also?

Thanks Jim

[time2roll]

Propane valve needs 12v power from the control board to open.

[CloudDriver]

svjim wrote:
So can anyone say with certainty that disconnecting the battery will immediately switch the propane off also?

Thanks Jim

I'm 99.99% certain that removing 12 volt power from the RV will immediately cause the propane valve for the refrigerator to close. The same should be true for the propane valves for water heater and the furnace. A design that left the appliance propane valves open in a loss of power situation would be a major safety hazard.

Removing 12 volt power will also have the effect of shutting off the spark ignition, which is the other source of ignition for a gas station fire.

I'm also 99.99% certain that the refrigerator will restart when 12 volt power comes back.

Easy to test - just open the battery disconnect and confirm that the appliance propane valves close. Close the battery disconnect and confirm that the refrigerator restarts.

[DrewE]

Since it's a DSI setup with an electronic igniter, it should turn off pretty much immediately as the gas valve is a solenoid valve that needs power to permit the gas to flow. It would be a very unsafe setup otherwise; the burner would continue to burn in the event of 12V failure without any control system to turn it on or off, and without you being able to turn it on or off readily.

By the way, it's a Dometic fridge--no "s" in the brand name. It took me awhile to figure that out the first time.

[svjim]

wildtoad wrote:
Even if it worked to turn it off, how would you turn it back on? I suspect the fridge would not restart when power was restored.

Well you may be right, but I guess that will be easy enough to check out. I'll run some tests and check it out.

Jim

[2oldman]

Try it at home, yourself.

wildtoad wrote:
I suspect the fridge would not restart when power was restored.

good point.

[wildtoad]

Even if it worked to turn it off, how would you turn it back on? I suspect the fridge would not restart when power was restored.