[BogWelsh]

Hi, I've got a problem with the Dometic RMS8551 fridge (not AES) in my AutoTrail motorhome. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

Day 1: Walking past the van and the gas igniter was sparking athough the fridge was turned off at its front control panel. Got the keys and returned to the van and sparking had stopped. Turned the fridge on at the control panel but couldn't get it to operate on gas - not sparking or igniting when pressing the button for gas operation. Checked: i) fridge is operating (getting cold) on mains power and switching ok between mains and 12V when the engine is running ii) there is gas in the bottle iii) no errors to reset iv) no build-up of dirt in the igniter.

Day 2: Next day and magically everything was functioning OK - able to switch between mains and 12V and the gas was operating as normal, and lighting on the first click.

Day 3: Now back to where we were on Day 1 - operating fine on mains and 12V power but not operating on gas - no spark and no ignition. One difference this time was that after selecting gas the fridge showed an error after a few seconds. Cleared the error but it returned every time I tried to switch to gas.

Any suggestions about the source of the problem? The control panel appears to be functioning OK. The big mystery (and hopefully the biggest clue) is why would the gas igniter start clicking on its own?

Spencer.

 

[DACS]

I cannot offer any suggestions about the fridge trying to light the gas when switched off. However, what gas are you using? If you have butane then the inconsistent behaviour could be caused by variations in outside temperature as butane will not work when it is around freezing point..

 

[erneboy]

My experience with butane is that it gasses off less well starting at around 5 or 6 degrees. I've known us to be able to boil a kettle but not simultaneously run the heating on cool mornings in Spain in Winter. Since then I've used only Propane.

 

[jiwawa]

Cleared the error but it returned every time I tried to switch to gas.

What does the error indicate?

 

[BogWelsh]

Thank you all for the replies.

It's using propane for the same reasons as mentioned.

The error appears to be the standard one that comes up when the fridge tries to ignite but fails because there is no gas supply e.g. empty bottle / tap turned off.

 

[jiwawa]

Day 3: Now back to where we were on Day 1 - operating fine on mains and 12V power but not operating on gas - no spark and no ignition.

This (along with the sparking when not trying to light it) would, to me, indicate it's an electrical fault rather than a gas fault. But I am most definitely no expert!

 

[BogWelsh]

Thanks Jijawa. Yes it's almost certainly an electrical fault -the problem is pinpointing exactly what's gong on. I'm going to splash out on a new control panel and go from there.

 

[jiwawa]

Could you disconnect the control panel for a bit then reconnect, like a laptop reboot? Seems to work wonders with other problems!

 

[BogWelsh]

Thanks a gain. I've tried disconnecting and reconnecting the control panel but it made no difference.

 

[Malshadow]

Hi, it is quite possible that two different faults are occurring the gas regulators and pipes can become contaminated with oil, google that for information, secondly if the fridge gas igniter is a push button it is possible the contacts behind the button have momentarily not released, make sure you check every avenue before throwing replacement parts at the problem for there is nothing worse than replacing a part to find the problem still exists

 

[BogWelsh]

After repeated button pressing the fridge eventually switched over to gas but then it wouldn't switch back to electric or turn off and I had to disconnect the ribbon cable at the back of the panel.

Based on that I decided it had to be a control panel fault -- how else would the gas igniter start sparking on its own and why else would the fridge refuse to turn off? Anyway, a new panel arrived over the weekend, has been connected and so far it looks good (...though I'm not completely confident about declaring job done - time will tell!)

Thanks again to all for your suggestions.