3 way fridge, gas lighting problem

hippihed

Guest
Hi. I have a 3way Electrolux RM2280 fridge, works fine on electric, but is a pig to light on gas! tends to ignite the gas in mini explosions, eventually lighting after much effort? I have taken the access panel off and given the burner etc. a good clean, I have a good spark and gas. When the whole burner assembly is dropped away from the flue it lights first click every time, but, when placed back under the flue, the mini explosions start again when trying to light? Once lit it will stay lit for hours/days! I've cleaned the flue with an airline and seems clear, my only query with the flue is - it has a diameter of about 20mm which then goes into the baffle then exits the baffle at 20mm again, but, I can get nothing bigger than a bit of 5mm tubing through it! should it be like this? or should it be 20mm diameter all the way through? is it clogged up with soot bringing the diameter down to 5mm? The lighting problem seems flue related, but am not sure how, I am now stumped :-(. Any theories or advice greatly appreciated.

Neil
 
cheers, yes i've had the panel on the outside of the van off, I can see pretty much the hole back of the fridge, what I can't see is what happens to the flue when it enters the baffle.
 
hippihed said:
cheers, yes i've had the panel on the outside of the van off, I can see pretty much the hole back of the fridge, what I can't see is what happens to the flue when it enters the baffle.
Click to expand...

Not too sure what you mean here, but if you clean the flue you need to follow this:-
Remove upper section(s) of flue, these are usually quite loose and don't need to be gas tight. You'll see / feel a thin steel wire which is hooked over the vertical flue lowest pipe, pull this up. A 'swirl plate' is attached to this, and will certainly be covered in carbon This needs cleaning till it shines. Then get a flue brush or something to clean / push through the remaining length of flue. I always put a sheet of white paper a the bottom of the flue to see how much rust, sh*te, etc falls down.

The flue doesn't narrow along its length, it's consistent at approx 20 mm dia, but you need to remove the swirl plate as above.

Hope that helps.

Allen
 
I've got a general trouble shooting manual for absorbtion fridges - pm me with your email and I can send it off. Its an oldy but a goody as the fundamentals have not changed in decades.
 
I used to have this problem with an older Electrolux fridge.

It was an RM212 I think.

It had a three position knob for the flame setting.

If the flame setting was set to MAX it did exactly what you describe.

However, if the flame setting was set to the lowest setting - i.e. least gas flow - it lit reliably.

Once alight, after a minute or so, I turned the flame setting to MAX and it was fine.

I don't know your fridge model - can you turn the gas setting down to a low level for lighting?
 
Many thanks to all who replied, a few things to try! I'll start with the easiest and see how I go, will let you know how I get on. Neil
 
Canalsman said:
I used to have this problem with an older Electrolux fridge.

It was an RM212 I think.

It had a three position knob for the flame setting.

If the flame setting was set to MAX it did exactly what you describe.

However, if the flame setting was set to the lowest setting - i.e. least gas flow - it lit reliably.

Once alight, after a minute or so, I turned the flame setting to MAX and it was fine.

I don't know your fridge model - can you turn the gas setting down to a low level for lighting?
Click to expand...

Yep, this is how I often light our RM212 as well. The gas pressure often seems to be too high to light with the knob at no.3 position and just keeps blowing itself out again, with quite a loud "pop" noise which sounds a bit like a mini explosion!

Tony
 
Yes had the same prob with an old luxy fridge in my caravan. I had to light it low as the gas filled the flue on high and so when it ignited it starved the burner of oxygen and blew out the flame! Just like they stop oilwell fires!!LOL:D
 
Lighting on max has never been a problem in the past! maybe the tolerences have changed? The fridge doesn't show 3 gas lighting settings, but, like it has been mentioned, if when turning the gas on to light I don't turn it on full, it does seem to light a lot more consistently - without the mini explosions! so fingers crossed, problem solved. Many thanks for everybodys help. Neil:)
 
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