Fridge Driving Me Mad

[Mickt]

I to have got problems with my fridge, keeps refusing to work on mains . Any body recommend an engineer , i live on the Essex Suffolk border. Just telephoned a repair man in Colchester and he said leave the MH with him for at least a week for test, no way will i do that . Surely there are people who can do these repairs without needing that sort of time, ?? how much will that cost

 

[vwalan]

hi its a qualification that allows an lpg engineer to work on a motor home not for hire. cant remember the exact wordind .in fact i hope i have it right. i used to build campers and althow my mate was a corgi gas lpg fitter he still could not under the corgi banner work on m,homes .he now is a gassafe engineer .but it still doesnt give him a real qualification. he will have to go on a further course. just for m,homes not for hire. yet he can and i do work on m,homes as we are competent. but no corgi or gassafe have a category to work on said vehicles and certify the job. getrs really insane dont you think.

 

[Tbear]

hi its a qualification that allows an lpg engineer to work on a motor home not for hire. cant remember the exact wordind .in fact i hope i have it right. i used to build campers and althow my mate was a corgi gas lpg fitter he still could not under the corgi banner work on m,homes .he now is a gassafe engineer .but it still doesnt give him a real qualification. he will have to go on a further course. just for m,homes not for hire. yet he can and i do work on m,homes as we are competent. but no corgi or gassafe have a category to work on said vehicles and certify the job. getrs really insane dont you think.

Alan
So under the rules I can get cookers, fridges and heaters from scrap caravans which may be twenty years old. Clean them up a bit and coble them together in a van and sell it as long as I have basic DIY skills and have read manuals for the kit. Yet I cannot connect a brand new gas cooker to the manifold in my kitchen even if I get a Gassafe engineer to sign it off. Thats worse than insane thats bureaucracy.

 

[misty]

as gassafe dont have a qualification to work on motorhomes not for hire or reward . they are no more competant than me or you.as long as you are competent. right load of crap it is, you need cops to be qualified .on m,homes . and gas safe dont have to have them .neither did corgi. like i say there are very few that have a qualification to work on them thats valid.cheers alan.

i think alan has missed the A off from acop's (approved codes of practice) which now have changed to nacs (National Accredited Certification Scheme) so i believe,
misty

 

[vwalan]

hi misty ,you could be right .i spoke to gas safe a while ago and they put me in touch with a college or something possibly liecester . i decided not to do it. as i only work on a few now and again. but it does make a mockery when insurance companies request you go to gas safe for a check etc . but anyway hope op. gets their fridge sorted asc its getting a bit expensive . there are alot of rogues out there . cheers alan.
tbear ,yes thats quite correct. my mate is covered to do your house and caravan ,but not your m,home .we laugh because it makes us equal. we have both been fitting lpg to cars for years . i let him work on my house just to cover any problems if anything happens. but its a joke .

 

[AndyC]

Gas Safe, like CORGI before it, is just a registration scheme. You need the correct qualification before you can register with Gas Safe at all, then there are further training and update modules you can do to increase the range of work that you are legally qualified to do.

Ga Safe itself doesn't do anything apart from maintain the register, and deal with complaints about registered gas engineers, and anyone who is not registered found working on a system which can only legally be worked on by a registered engineer.

Gas Safe, and the HSE, would dearly like all LPG systems to be covered by the regulations, I suspect that it will happen in the future, but it will require a revision of The Gas Safety Installation and Use Regulations.

AndyC

 

[caspar]

Would he consent to an independent inspection. If he's right, you pay, if you're right, he pays?

 

[ubuntu1]

Fridge

Please be careful when quoting so called law on gas - Gas Safe isn't necessary to work on motorhomes and neither is ACOPS (Gas Certified). However if you want to be sure that the engineer has received specific training to work on motorhomes or caravans then you need to check that they have the ACOPS (gas) registration It is complicated but please don't confuse the domestic Gas Safe registration with what's required for motorhomes.

There are lots of ACOPS (gas) engineers out there. Try the MCEA.Mobile Caravan Engineers - Mobile Repairs Service for Touring Caravans Campervans and Motorhome Caravans

 

[AndyC]

Please be careful when quoting so called law on gas - Gas Safe isn't necessary to work on motorhomes and neither is ACOPS (Gas Certified). However if you want to be sure that the engineer has received specific training to work on motorhomes or caravans then you need to check that they have the ACOPS (gas) registration It is complicated but please don't confuse the domestic Gas Safe registration with what's required for motorhomes.

There are lots of ACOPS (gas) engineers out there. Try the MCEA.Mobile Caravan Engineers - Mobile Repairs Service for Touring Caravans Campervans and Motorhome Caravans

That's pretty much correct, Gas Safe registration is not 'required' to work on motorhomes unless they are hired out.

This page gives a bit on info on ACOPS and has links through to details of the training that's required to gain the qualifications: Gas Competence Training for Caravan Engineers - CITO

AndyC

 

[rommel]

Fridge

Its quite easy to see what your fridge gas burner is doing , remove the lower plastic cover from the side of the van this will reveal the burner protection box , this is made up of three seperate galvanized panels held together with self tappers, loosen the screws and the box will dismantle enough to get it out around the gas pipe and thermo couple .
Remove the screw that holds the burner cup in place and pull the burner down . There should now be enough flexibility in the pipe to pull the burner out through the lower vent aparture clear of the van .While holding the burner pipe get someone to ignite the fridge burner and turn the temperature control up and down ,you should see the flame rise and fall and be able to ascertain if it is smoking or not , the colour of it and if it is too fierse.If this is OK then there is something burning in the flue .

 

[alanval]

Just reading this thread and wondering did you get your fridge fixed?
We had problems with ours running on gas for over a year.First it was sooting up and red ignition light kept coming on.We had the Dometic engineer from out nearest town here 4 times .He did stop the sooting up problem but it still was intermitinlay going off.Finally phoned Delamere and they gave us another number for a place at Carstairs .So up we went there not holding out much hope.However the Guy there was brilliant Took the fridge out and replaces various parts (its 12 yrs old) he also renewed the ignighter only took him about 2 hrs, and the fridge has run perfect since .
Pity he is so far north I would highly recommend this firm..Even a phone call to him lovely chap to deal with..

...
motorhomes caravans servicing repairs gas safety damp repairs workshop - MB&G Warranty

 

[Forester]

I had this problem on my nearly new Dometic fridge

The pipes in my fridge were all black and the CO smell was worrying. I called Dometic who sent one of their agents to my house to fix it. He cleaned it all out and strongly suggested I change the rubber tails to metal mesh type. I did this nearly two years ago and the problem has never returned. There is often mentions of the rubber tails causing "sooting" in the pipes. The Gaslow people make a big deal about how preferable the metal mesh tails are. If you want the details of my repairer let me know. my email address is on my profile.