Propane Refrigerator Use at High Elevation

Good to hear - I was hoping that an adjustment of the igniter would be all that is needed to solve the problem. FWIW, we actually camped at different sites ranging from 5,500 - 10,200. The higher the elevation, the tougher time we had getting it to kick in and cool.
The TT is new, under warranty, and needs to go in for a dump valve problem anyway, so I'll get this looked at as well. We love the mountains, and sure plan on extended use at high elevations!

JiminDenver wrote:
We live at 5000 ft and camp at 10,000 ft and never have issues with our propane appliances.

Ditto

I would have your dealer check it out. I've never had an issue with altitude with any RV I've ever owned. Possibly it just needs some adjustment to make it dependable at altitude.

We live at 5000 ft and camp at 10,000 ft and never have issues with our propane appliances.

I believe something is not quite right with your fridge as 5000' is ho hum in our neck of the woods. Our rig is 7 years old and we camp 9 out of 10 times in elevations above 6500' since we camp in the mountain west and live at nearly 6K' elevation. Never an issue with our Dometic fridge in all that time even when camping an 10K'.

Now we do notice that on occasion our water heater won't always light at elevations higher than 8K', but that is easily remedied by simply opening the WH's exterior door, lights up fine thereafter. Since we primarily drycamp and boondock our propane appliances get heavy use and these higher elevations and all continue to perform as designed.

Might be time to have the fridge checked if you plan on camping at higher elevations. As you have noted on your previous rig, you did not and should not have these issues at only 5K' elevation. Happy Camping!!!

I'd look into the procedure to be sure propane regulator is adjusted to proper pressure and not defective.

Interesting issue. My s&b is at 5,000 ft never had a problem. Recent TT had a norcold. My MH has a dometic. Never had a problem even up near Yellowstone. In fact never had an issue with any RV fridge at high elevation. Been camping high elevation since the 80s with propane fridge. Think the previous posts are correct, spark not igniting rich propane.

Maybe the spark is too weak to ignite a rich mixture at altitude. If you can manually light it when it is trying then maybe some maintenance or alignment of the igniter parts or gap needs to be done?

Some peoples will work fine some won't. I agree with camperpaul hopefully you can get a little more oxygen to it.

Yup, it is normal.

At 5,000 ft. the propane/air mixture is too rich.