Help With Operating Fridge on Propane

[russkerri]

When switching our fridge to propane, I understand that I spark it until the meter moves into the green. However, after that, is it supposed to stay in the green?

Our meter moves back to the white slowly, and I'm confused about whether that means it's not staying lit correctly. Should the outside vent continually feel hot if it's running?

We are new RVers and have been learning a lot about operating our fridge. Despite reading the book and searching for info online, I haven't figured out this propane operation.

Thanks!

[All_I_could_aff]

I am having kind of the opposite problem running my 1999 Dometic 2332 to work properly on propane. It gets perfectly cold on 120 Volt power. When I switch over to gas, I hold down the one button and repeatedly push the spark button until indicator gets into the green. Instructions on the refrigerator door say to keep holding down the one button for another 10 seconds and then release. This works perfectly fine and with the cover removed I can see a nice blue flame and the indicator will remain in the green indefinitely. However after a day or so the refrigerator has lost its coldness, even though the flame remains nice and blue and the indicator remains in the green area. I have tried cleaning the flu and the burner with a wire brush and gentle compressed air. After cleaning it will often work on propane for a day or two and then starts to get warm again. This pattern of cleaning and then working for a couple of days has happened several times over the last few years. I really want to figure this out but it's got me stumped. If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate hearing them

[kennyzzz]

well enjoy your trip,, i have an older trailer, i had a fridge problem. ie blinking light and not working on gas, turned out the rust flaked off the vent pipe, landed on the burner,so my first couple of trips i had to vacuum it off the burner. ( it was such a small piece of rust that did it )
ps the burner has a metal cover on it, a screw and it's off

[russkerri]

dougrainer wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:

Chris Bryant wrote:
I have the service manual for that at http://bryantrv.com/docs2/docs/n300.pdf- it gives specific steps for troubleshooting- the first and easiest thing would be vacuum out the burner- make sure it is clean. Just a vacuum through the burner access door would help.

There you go.......specific info for your model

We do NOT need specific info for the OP's question. He stated he had the Green needle meter refer and what we posted is spot on for how ANY of the meter refers operate. The needle will stay in the GREEN regardless if the flame stays lit as it should. Even in bypass mode. IF the needle goes down off the green the LP flame has failed. Doug

Thank you, Doug. That answers my question as succinctly as the question was intended. As you said, I wasn't trying to get anyone to fix my problem, I was really trying to easily determine IF we have a problem since the owner's manual did not clearly explain what should happen after the propane is lit. We are on our first big trip with our travel trailer and have lots of little details to attend to and things to learn. Thanks, Kerri

[russkerri]

Old-Biscuit wrote:

dougrainer wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:

Chris Bryant wrote:
I have the service manual for that at http://bryantrv.com/docs2/docs/n300.pdf- it gives specific steps for troubleshooting- the first and easiest thing would be vacuum out the burner- make sure it is clean. Just a vacuum through the burner access door would help.

There you go.......specific info for your model

We do NOT need specific info for the OP's question. He stated he had the Green needle meter refer and what we posted is spot on for how ANY of the meter refers operate. The needle will stay in the GREEN regardless if the flame stays lit as it should. Even in bypass mode. IF the needle goes down off the green the LP flame has failed. Doug

OP needs it so HE can further troubleshoot..unless you are making a 'mobile call'

Actually, the OP is a SHE...just for the record. The service manual is helpful and when we have time, we will appreciate having it available for troubleshooting. However, my original post really wasn't asking how to fix it, I was simply asking whether or not the meter was an indicator of whether the fridge is operating on propane.

[dougrainer]

His specific question was the function of the Green meter. That did not require the model/Brand. He stated he has the operators manual, but was unclear about the operation of the Green meter. Doug

[Old-Biscuit]

dougrainer wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:

Chris Bryant wrote:
I have the service manual for that at http://bryantrv.com/docs2/docs/n300.pdf- it gives specific steps for troubleshooting- the first and easiest thing would be vacuum out the burner- make sure it is clean. Just a vacuum through the burner access door would help.

There you go.......specific info for your model

We do NOT need specific info for the OP's question. He stated he had the Green needle meter refer and what we posted is spot on for how ANY of the meter refers operate. The needle will stay in the GREEN regardless if the flame stays lit as it should. Even in bypass mode. IF the needle goes down off the green the LP flame has failed. Doug

OP needs it so HE can further troubleshoot..unless you are making a 'mobile call'

[dougrainer]

Old-Biscuit wrote:

Chris Bryant wrote:
I have the service manual for that at http://bryantrv.com/docs2/docs/n300.pdf- it gives specific steps for troubleshooting- the first and easiest thing would be vacuum out the burner- make sure it is clean. Just a vacuum through the burner access door would help.

There you go.......specific info for your model

We do NOT need specific info for the OP's question. He stated he had the Green needle meter refer and what we posted is spot on for how ANY of the meter refers operate. The needle will stay in the GREEN regardless if the flame stays lit as it should. Even in bypass mode. IF the needle goes down off the green the LP flame has failed. Doug

[Old-Biscuit]

Chris Bryant wrote:
I have the service manual for that at http://bryantrv.com/docs2/docs/n300.pdf- it gives specific steps for troubleshooting- the first and easiest thing would be vacuum out the burner- make sure it is clean. Just a vacuum through the burner access door would help.

There you go.......specific info for your model

[Chris_Bryant]

I have the service manual for that at http://bryantrv.com/docs2/docs/n300.pdf- it gives specific steps for troubleshooting- the first and easiest thing would be vacuum out the burner- make sure it is clean. Just a vacuum through the burner access door would help.

[russkerri]

loggenrock wrote:
I have a similar fridge in my van. You should have 2 buttons to push - one is the "sparker", the other allows a little extra propane thru until the thermocouple heats up and allows the valve to stay open (as I understand it...). Once the needle goes up into the green, release the sparker, but continue to hold the other button in for maybe 3-5 seconds. If the fridge hasn't been run in a while, then it may need cleaning at the burner so enough flame reaches the thermocouple probe to keep the gas valve open. The beauty of these types of fridges is they do not need any 12V souce to keep running! ST

Thank you. That sounds exactly like how we gets ours started, and I'm not having trouble getting it to the green where it appears to start. However, it seemed to get warm on our drive yesterday, and I noticed the meter didn't stay on green (but like I said, I'm not sure it's supposed to). We'll have to do the sound test and poke around in there when we have time. We are driving cross country, so there's not a lot of time for troubleshooting.

[russkerri]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Again.......

Post Brand/model.

Then specific info for YOUR fridge can be posted

Sorry, we were driving down the road and didn't have that info handy. It's a Norcold 302.3

[loggenrock]

I have a similar fridge in my van. You should have 2 buttons to push - one is the "sparker", the other allows a little extra propane thru until the thermocouple heats up and allows the valve to stay open (as I understand it...). Once the needle goes up into the green, release the sparker, but continue to hold the other button in for maybe 3-5 seconds. If the fridge hasn't been run in a while, then it may need cleaning at the burner so enough flame reaches the thermocouple probe to keep the gas valve open. The beauty of these types of fridges is they do not need any 12V souce to keep running! ST

[dougrainer]

Pangaea Ron wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
Yes, on a Meter type refer, the needle should stay in the green. You have a bypass type tstat, that lowers the flame when inside refer temp is reached, but the flame stays ON and the needle should stay in the green. That IS your indication that the refer is indeed on, on LP. Doug

Doug

If you could charge $0.10 for every time that we read, learn and use the information in your posts (especially about HWH levelers), you would be living very well now. Thanks.

Maybe you could start a crowdfunding site for me:B Doug

[Pangaea_Ron]

dougrainer wrote:
Yes, on a Meter type refer, the needle should stay in the green. You have a bypass type tstat, that lowers the flame when inside refer temp is reached, but the flame stays ON and the needle should stay in the green. That IS your indication that the refer is indeed on, on LP. Doug

Doug

If you could charge $0.10 for every time that we read, learn and use the information in your posts (especially about HWH levelers), you would be living very well now. Thanks.