Starting Dometic on 91 Westy from Propane "solved?"

[DLJ]

NOGANAV is right on.

[randywebb]

in what year did the late model Dometic start?

or is there some other way to know which one you have?
_________________
1986 2.1L Westy 2wd Auto Trans.

[grambo]

[kamzcab86]

[MarkWard]

Got it to light. I'm on my iPhone and will post tomorrow from work.

edit: At first I was having no luck. The pump seems to have no resistance and I could not see a spark in the site glass, nor could I hear one. The stove was lit during these attemps.

Since the pump seemed to have no resistance, I decided to put a peice of hose on the drain and to manually blow into the firebox. Not sure if that helped, but a good side affect was I could here the ignitor clicking as it should through the hose I added. Good test for others that are wondering if their auto igniter is clicking.

Once I knew the igniter was working, I went through the start up process a again and voila, the fridge started on propane. We let it run for about an hour and it was cooling well. Only one real question left. On my early Dometic the knob that I know as the thermostat is usually on max starting and running on propane.
Step 2 on this placard states: Step 2 Turn Gas/Electric thermostat knob "B" to MIN
Note: turn completely over the point where a slight resistannce is felt to "O"
Position "O" if you look at the photo above appears to be off. It makes no sense. I started this one with the thermostat between min and max. I don't quite understand the directions on the placard. Anyone else? Thanks for the help. Markw
_________________
☮️

[jetpoweredmonkey]

Agreed, the thermostat knob can be in pretty much any position and it will light. I believe it has to be in the off position to run on electric, but I won't swear to that. Also, I rebuilt my air pump with the GW update kit and it still has almost no resistance when pumping. I think this fridge would be a lot easier to work with if the pump actually moved a decent amount of air.

My usual procedure before a trip is to plug in and run the fridge on 110V overnight to get it cold, then fire it up on gas for the trip. You'd think running it on 12V would be the way to go, but 12V is only on when the key is on. Any brief stop for gas, etc. and it loses cooling almost immediately.
_________________
1991 Westfalia 2WD

[kamzcab86]

[MarkWard]

Maybe translating from german and the lack of space something was lost in the translation. There probably aren't that many of this type out there for it to come up. The problem was my friend was trying to follow the placard and I was trying to help over the phone on a system setup I have never come across. When you read the placard it almost seems like you need 3 hands. Maybe by setting it on min less gas would flow and there is a better chance of a proper mix for initial combustion and the reference to "O" is only to help identify where "MIN" is. Any how a result is a result. Thank you.
_________________
☮️

[bitingspider]

Same here to start (same as kam) - right dial always all the way turned counter-clockwise, left dial (thermostat) set to around 10 o'clock. I have found that the flame sometimes goes out if I turn the thermostat all the clockwise and so I let it run for an hour or so at 10 and then turn it all the way clockwise. When the flame goes out the sparker starts popping again.

I had to replace my auto-sparker - the old one would occasionally not spark which got frustrating real fast.

I've got a 90 westy from Nov 90 and she makes cute little ice cubes all the time.

[denwood]

My 90 up here in Canada has the auto igniter. A few hours on AC and the fridge always lights up on LP...then runs and restarts great. Also found the compressed air blown in lower access port helps.
_________________
Cheers,
Dennis Wood
The Grape

[jdphotography]

I just bought my first 1986 Westy and looking forward to getting out for some camping. I was trying to light the fridge but no luck. It works when plugged in but I cannot get it to light on propane. I looked further and noticed there is no sight glass, just the hole. Will that cause the fridge not to light? How can I replace or do I need to replace?






1986 Westy Camper

[DLJ]

You dont need to concern yourself with the sight glass. Get into the habit of looking at the display panel located in the middle of the stove unit. Lower left LED light (green) will light up when pilot is on. VW made this modification late 90,s to 91. Dont worry about the mode selection, you made it when you pushed the flame button.
The electronic start feature is so dependable that usually there is a flame but most of us assume there is not. You wont hear it, just look for a green light mentioned above.
If all else fails, your refrigerator (burner box) is chocked up with soot bugs ect. It will then be necessary to remove fridge and do a little service.

[jdphotography]

Thanks DLJ for the advice. I will concentrate on the display panel then and if still not able to light, I guess I'll have to remove and clean.

[RBEmerson]

I follow the instructions on the door ('90 Westy). With the gas valve on the tank open, light one stove burner to be sure gas is flowing. If the burner lights, there's gas is available to the fridge, too. All that's needed with the burner is to see it start burning. Once that happens, turn it off.

The igniter, when the safety device button (I like "igniter enable" better) is held in, definitely makes repeated snaps, like most gas stoves in homes.

There is one simple trick in the startup process: pump slowly while pushing on the igniter enable button. When I pumped the pump at a pace of ...welll... let's say rabbits making more rabbits, the only way to get the fridge running was to pre-heat with the 110V running for several hours (overnight was good) before trying to run in gas mode. When I pumped the pump with, to borrow from The pointer Sisters, "a slow hand", success! The light over the button with the flame on it goes out. Once it's no longer blinking, I hold the igniter enable button down for at least 10-15 seconds. If the light starts flashing (rare but it happens), begin again with slow strokes on the pump while holding down the igniter enable button. The light usually goes out faster than before. Hold down the button again for 10-15 seconds and all should be well. I then advance the temperature knob gradually, advancing about 1/8 turn per step, and waiting 5-10 seconds between steps. Occasionally the flame goes out again; start the process from the beginning.

Despite my comments about restarting, if I don't rush the startup process, it's "one and done".

- - -

Here's a farkle I added to the LED panel: replace the green LED with the "*" next to it with a blue LED. When checking to see if the fridge is running, this LED is easy to spot and it's easier to ask the co-pilot, "is the blue light lit" than "which green lights are lit?" Here's a link to the original topic: link. Unfortunately, the two how-to links now 404. The good news is the job is "unscrew panel, pull panel out, unplug panel, remove old LED, put in new LED, reverse removal process." See the article to know which leads go where (there's a right and wrong way to install LED's). A simple soldering pencil is all that's needed. A big Weller soldering gun will work, but needs a fine touch to avoid over-heating things. IIRC, the LED isn't jammed down against the board but raised slightly. Check this before starting to work.
_________________
Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[DLJ]

RBE You shouldnt be having that much trouble. If your flame keeps going out, your not getting enough oxygen or burner box is fouled. I would first make sure you have no air leaks in the intake/exhaust system. Check outside connections first. Also it isnt necessary to have to increase temperature in small increments as you described. I hate to keep saying this but it looks like a good service is in order.

[RBEmerson]

Maybe, maybe not.

For laughs and grins, I fired up the fridge this evening. I modified my starting drill to follow the instructions on the door exactly. I pumped air for about ten strokes, pushed the gas mode button, and hit the ignition enable button. The first couple of times I had to do some more pumping before the flame lit. Then the flame when out when I bumped up the thermostat. On the third try, I did the usual ten strokes, pushed the buttons, and the flame lit on the first snap. And stayed lit. My guess is gas was still busy getting to the burner during the first two tries.

As to bumping the thermostat up, all I can say is the burner isn't cooperative if I slam the thermostat wide open immediately after lighting the burner. Once the flame has burned for a while, no worries. I'm assuming that things just need to come up to operating temperature before being put to work. Which doesn't strike me as a problem.
_________________
Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[crazyvwvanman]

The flame has only 2 sizes, pilot size and full size. Gradually advancing the thermostat in steps is useless, other than for delaying the time until it switches from pilot to full flame. You could just wait and accomplish the same thing. There are no intermediate stages to the flame size. Once you turn the knob far enough it will kick on full flame. Before then it will be pilot flame. It sounds like you have a combustion air flow problem. and until the pilot heat gets some air circulation going you don't have enough air flow to support full flame combustion. Cleaning the flue pipes is in order.

I take the outer flue cover off. I have a long thin flexible rod with a small piece of course cloth taped to the end. I carefully run that down each pipe, to clear spider webs etc. It should not be a snug fit in the pipe, just something to help clear the way. Don't force it so hard that it hurts anything in the burner box. Then I unscrew the drain cap under the fridge inside the van and put my air compressor hose nozzle in it to blow crap up the flue pipes and out. Use a lot of air. If enough crap has built up over time the drain pipe may be plugged solid. That would be an indication that it is time to take it apart.


Mark

[kamzcab86]

[RBEmerson]

Y'know, I haven't. I'll give it a try. Who knows? I might surprise myself. [/grin]
_________________
Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[Paulbeard]

I found all this a bit perplexing, for a few reasons. The gas flow knob has a 0 and a flame symbol next to each other and it wasn't clear to me where it should go. Wasn't really clear what it did, at first. I now know what it does and that the flame is the label for the knob and the 0 means "Off." Putting the flame at the top, where you turn the knob for "On" would have helped.

I heard no audible cues that anything was working. I saw the LED light up and that was my only indication. I did have it on shore power for a couple of days to see how that aspect of the thing works so it was in a good prepared state, ran the stove as well. It seems to get good and cold on AC but I think the door seal could be a little better, lots of water on the fins.

And where exactly is the sight glass? In the fridge itself (that black hole bottom left that looks like a drain) or in the cabinet, where the condensation drain is? I never saw any flame, perhaps because I never knew where to look. But the LED came on and the flue heated up, so I called it good.
_________________
Currently -> Frida: 87 Tizian Red (mostly) Vanagon GL Westfalia w/ 2.0L ABA conversion
Formerly -> Steward of a 73 Super Beetle (Beater) and 67 Beetle 1300 (Little Max) both names by POs