On a trip earlier in the year, our fridge/freezer (Dometic RMD8505) stopped working properly. It wasn't working well on EHU (-4°C in the freezer, although the fridge got down to 5°C) and really poorly on gas (the freezer was above 0°C and the fridge more like 20°C).
After the trip I diagnosed two faults - thermal conductive compound had failed and the gas jet was blocked, which I could see looking through it (although it had a blue flame, after cleaning the flame was much stronger). I also gave the flue it's annual clean - only a tiny bit of soot came out.
I've previously added thermocouples and displays so that I can see the temperatures - quite handy as it was the first indication that the gas was not working.
After that the freezer was down to -17°C on EHU and the fridge 5°C. Switching to gas it held the freezer around -15°C and the fridge 6°C.
On the next trip, again the fridge is not performing as well as it should (freezer around -10°C and fridge 13°C). At times (but not always) there has been a smell of burnt gas that I've not really noticed before around the outside of the motorhome - the flame is all blue.
I've tried cleaning the jet again (twice, but it makes no difference, although it visually looks OK). The flame looks fairly strong (certainly not as small as when it was partially blocked; difficult to say if it is smaller than when I had it working really well).
I am aware that cleaning the jet has to be done carefully - given that it was working really well after cleaning I thought I'd done a good job.
There's not too much in the gas side of the fridge - supply pipe, a control that allows the fridge to turn the gas on and off, the jet and the burner.
What most likely caused the jet blockage in the first place? Could that have caused a blockage elsewhere in the system?
Do parts wear out (it is 11 years old)? A new jet is circa £20 and a burner circa £100. My first thought is to get a new jet.
Grateful for any suggestions before I order anything.
After the trip I diagnosed two faults - thermal conductive compound had failed and the gas jet was blocked, which I could see looking through it (although it had a blue flame, after cleaning the flame was much stronger). I also gave the flue it's annual clean - only a tiny bit of soot came out.
I've previously added thermocouples and displays so that I can see the temperatures - quite handy as it was the first indication that the gas was not working.
After that the freezer was down to -17°C on EHU and the fridge 5°C. Switching to gas it held the freezer around -15°C and the fridge 6°C.
On the next trip, again the fridge is not performing as well as it should (freezer around -10°C and fridge 13°C). At times (but not always) there has been a smell of burnt gas that I've not really noticed before around the outside of the motorhome - the flame is all blue.
I've tried cleaning the jet again (twice, but it makes no difference, although it visually looks OK). The flame looks fairly strong (certainly not as small as when it was partially blocked; difficult to say if it is smaller than when I had it working really well).
I am aware that cleaning the jet has to be done carefully - given that it was working really well after cleaning I thought I'd done a good job.
There's not too much in the gas side of the fridge - supply pipe, a control that allows the fridge to turn the gas on and off, the jet and the burner.
What most likely caused the jet blockage in the first place? Could that have caused a blockage elsewhere in the system?
Do parts wear out (it is 11 years old)? A new jet is circa £20 and a burner circa £100. My first thought is to get a new jet.
Grateful for any suggestions before I order anything.
