Fridge Flue "Burning Oil?" smell!

[LandRoutes]

My gas fridge is 10 years old and works like a champ but... This year I have re-visited Spain and have filled my tanks at Repsol. Suddenly I smell the fridge flue exhaust like I have never smelled before. It is a strong "Petrol automobile exhaust" smell. It is also sooting up the grates which has never happened before as well. What has happened? Is there oil in the Repsol GPL??? No clue as to what has changed except that I have used the GPL from Repsol. Any takers?

How can I clear up the system to restore a clean burning flame?

 

[Deleted member 207]

First up safety - any stinks/soot entering the habitation area then turn off the gas until you find the problem.

http://gasrefrigeration.net/dom_techdata/MAN_SM.PDF is a link to a Dometic troubleshooting manual.

There are other model specific manuals available - most are 120V for the US market - but translate to 220/240 easily enough.

A quick shot in the dark - the flexible chimney has come lose from rigid flue and some gases are passing into living area. Also have a look at the height colour of the flame (remove lower external body vent) if its black and sooty then that a good start. There are a range of possibilities from damaged/cracked/dirty orifices which will need checking.

Another possibility is that your regulator is starting to malfunction - older European vans ran on 50mBar new ones on 30mBar which may interfere with clean burning.

Without tools like monometers and bypass screws it maybe hard to isolate the issue.

There is a little wire gauze filter fitted on top of the fridge, just before the thermostat controller, maybe that has become clogged and dose of new gas has cleaned it out a bit and causing the sooting.

 

[Deleted member 3011]

Is the flame on the gas cooker normal colour and normal height. Does it turn down to low flame the same as before?

Did the problem start immediately the refilled bottle was connected (or soon after) or is it a while since the new gas was purchased.

That may help you work out whether the problem is with the gas or the fridge.

If the results are inconclusive, the easiest way to isolate the problem would be to borrow a gas bottle from another MH and see if the problem goes away.

 

[rickboy]

Run the country?

Tony do you fancy running England?
Logical,simple, no cost, clear,effective approach to a problem.Top man!!!!
I hope you anwser if I have a problem,you often see things more clearly when not directly involved.
Rickboy

 

[LandRoutes]

Results of flame examination

Slight orange tips on a nice blue flame about 35-40mm high. Irregularly shaped I believe from the thermocouple and igniter obstructing flame channel. The gas hissing is somewhat prevalent. There is no sooty build-up at the burner chamber. Turn up and down the flame? can this model (RM6401L) do this? I have heard of some electrolux fridges self lighting/extinguishing and self adjusting their flames via the thermostat. Mine has only shown thermostatic control when on mains only.

Could be a jet issue? I have found "Flakey" black bits behind the orifice in the past. I have also run a fine wire (smaller than the orifice opening diameter, being very careful not to broach the prescribed opening) through the orifice to dislodge a tiny flake (>.003"). Could be that I opened the orifice slightly but I cannot see that I could have done this as I was once a machinist by trade and worked with accuracies to the millionths of an inch. But that would not be infeasible.

I cannot imagine that the GPL industry would be ignorant of the danger of light oil vapor in their product? I was once told that combination would be very dangerously explosive. Once when watching a welder pipe-weld a natural gas line I observed he was very fastidious about keeping and cleaning all lubricants out of the line. He explained that at the pressures of the transmission line that light oils can auto-combust? I dunno? Maybe he just did not want me watching what he was doing!

Anyway I digress... Does any of the above indicate an obvious condition or solution to anyone?

Thanks All!

 

[LandRoutes]

Just checking in... On the road full time and don't always get wifi. But if anyone has any comment regarding the conditions above I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[handiyman]

Oily deposits from fridge

Hi,

I too had this exact problem on my 3 year old fridge in the Frankia.
Shortly after topping up my Gaslow tanks in East France, the black sticky soot and horrible smell started. I was so worried about toxic fumes, that I went out and bought a gas alarm and parked up with the wind on the opposite side of the fridge to prevent fumes blowing back into the van.
On my way back home I went to the Dutch main dealer, who changed the burner and cleaned the flue pipe, but also told me not to use LPG (as it says in the manual of the fridge actually).
On my return home, as the smell still was there, I got in touch with Gaslow. After some discussions, I decided to swap the rubber feed hoses for the Gaslow stainless ones. Trouble solved. It seems that some of the gasses can start to 'eat' in to the rubber of the hoses and that causes the oily deposits.

Hopefully this may help you, it certainly did it for me.

Good luck from handiyman

 

[Deleted member 3011]

Turn up and down the flame? can this model (RM6401L) do this?

Not the fridge, the cooker. I was just curious if the burning characteristics of the gas had changed or whether the flame was unstable of different to usual when the cooker burner was turned to low heat. Just attempting to get info that might point to changes in the regulator pressure of gas quality.

Other suggestions - is the repsol LPG all propane or is it a mixture of propane and butane - or did they even refill with butane by mistake. Most European MHs have appliances and regulators that can handle both but I understand that isn't always the case with UK ones.

The smell could also be a case of excessive amount of odouriser added to the gas

 

[LandRoutes]

The Possibility of Oil in Repsol GPL?

Regulator OK, I think? Started all three burners, blue flame from low to high. Also I have an Alde heater, it sounds normal as usual...click...3...2...1... BLAST-OFF, "Houston we have ignition!"

I refill standard German 11Kg bottles using a set of adapters that cover me from Egypt to Norway and Russia to Ireland. Its just one of those necessity things when full timing across the globe. I assume that GPL is pretty much the same everywhere. I also replace (trade-in) the tanks every 2 years to get newly refurbished bottles with at least a 10+ year certification printed on the bottles, I.E. my bottles now have 2019 & 2020 stamped on them. This is to ensure a filling at the occasional depot that requires that stamp be 5+years out or they will not refill them. Mostly I refill at service stations with GPL pumps. But over the course of a year or so I have noticed the build up of a few centiliters of green slime that accumulates in the bottom of the tanks. Seems to be the origin of that "Gas" smell that is added to GPL for aroma purposes only (Odorizer, sorry I'm a Yank!). Once in a while I just turn over the bottle and squirt out that slime before refilling. Job done.

So lets assume slime free bottles. Now remember I have been refilling at Repsol, Spain, and I now have refilled my first bottle in Portugal at BP. I just went on that BP refilled bottle and voila! No "burning oil" or "Petrol engine exhaust" smell? And just in time too, I just received a new jet orifice replacement Post Restante! Hummm, but I think I will replace the jet anyway, the old one is ten years old, hell I'm over 50 and there are things wearing out all over that I should also be replacing too.

Don't really know the reason for the sudden appearance of the "Burning Oil" smell but I'm going to blame it on Spain's economic instability and give Portugal a break for once.

If anyone can tell me what's happened and how I can avoid getting caught in it next time I would really like to know! Oh yeah, and I'm really interested in solving the origin of the smelly gas thing, its a real burning mystery too!

 

[Deleted member 3011]

Good that the problem was fairly easily solved. I've seen posts where people complain about the gas smelling more when the bottle is nearly empty (Betty's nose is a good indication that a refill is required) so it looks as if the odoriser doesn't evaporate at exactly the same rate as the LPG and does tend to get concentrated at the bottom of the bottle. However this means that any burning problems or smell when the bottle is full shouldn't be due to the odoriser so your conclusion that it was just a "bad" batch may be correct.

As an aside - in Australia several years ago, one particular supplier of autogas delivered a batch to several outlets and it apparently caused major damage to some vehicles - so obviously it can happen. Similarly, a bad batch of Avgas caused major damage to a very large number of small aircraft and took months to fully resolve. Roll of the dice.