Three way fridge not working on gas

[BigDave]

Any ideas please? My 3 way fridge is fine on mains electric and 12v, but gas fails to function.
pilot light working, new thermocouplng last year. On nice camp right now, mild weather good company,
let down by fridge. Off to Lake District in a fortnight, so any ideas would be welcome.

 

[Norfolk NewBoy]

Presumably you know that gas is flowing through the system by lighting a burner on your hob: otherwise it could be your regulator, which need replacing every decade or so.

Is it manual changeover or automatic energy selection?

Has it worked on gas previously?
Have you done anything which might affect this eg turn a tap on a manifold?
If someone else tries to get it running on gas, can you smell gas around the vents?

Gordon

 

[BigDave]

Everything else is working just fine. Fridge was working last week, pilot is alight.
so, gas is getting to the unit.

 

[r4dent]

Presumably you know that gas is flowing through the system by lighting a burner on your hob: otherwise it could be your regulator, which need replacing every decade or so.

pilot light working

So gas is getting to fridge.

BigDave
a) Dirty main burner. Lots of videos on YT about cleaning.

b) Thermocouple (not thermocouplng) is misaligned or faulty. Again lots of videos about cleaning and testing on YT

or

c) Faulty thermostat. Try turning from max to min a few times to clean the contacts.

Good Luck

 

[BigDave]

Brilliant suggestions.
thanks

 

[colinm]

On ours the main jet was partially blocked by rust, it's a common problem. Replaced the rusty parts, but I'm not sure that it would have been just as good to just clean them.

 

[horace]

Hi Dave i take it all worked ok after the thermocouple was fitted last year , please have a look at the flue tubes going up after the pilot are all fitted ok and not loose or leaking put your finger at the flue outlet it should be hot if not check backwards,

 

[BigDave]

Hi Horace

Yes, fridge was working very well. Many walkabouts later and it suddenly would not.
had chosen a remote wild spot for a few days with friends, so bad let down.
Have tried so many ideas to fix, probably my poor skills, so have resorted to an engineer later this week.
I will update everyone with outcome. Hopefully a tip for the future out of this!

 

[Shockingdog]

Any ideas please? My 3 way fridge is fine on mains electric and 12v, but gas fails to function.
pilot light working, new thermocouplng last year. On nice camp right now, mild weather good company,
let down by fridge. Off to Lake District in a fortnight, so any ideas would be welcome.

I had the same problem with my three way fridge last month. It was working OK on mains and on 12v but if I tried to use it on gas it would not ignite and the blue indicator light just kept flashing. So I decided to leave it flashing and left it over night. The next morning when I looked again the fridge was running OK on gas. No idea what the problem was, perhaps the gas was just slow to get through the pipe work ? It maybe worth trying the same ?

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I had an mobile bloke look at mine and he said he couldn't find the part needed to make it run on gas so fitted a small switch, never told me what the part was and won't answer phone or texts Ahole, I got another one out and he messed about for 3 hours and fixed nothing, My Ultrastore water heater won;t light either.

Not a gas problem as I can have the hob and oven all on at the same time, not thermocouple on the fridge as it stays lit but I want to have the proper part fitted, water heater has just had the PCB repaired.

 

[BigDave]

Thanks. good suggestion.
Did have similar a few years ago. I think that happens when the gas gets an air lock. Did
try that, good flow coming through. pilot okay, burner not responding even after several hours, so either burner or thermostat.
awaiting an engineer to sort me out as my diy skills are best left to none gas things!

 

[BigDave]

I had an mobile bloke look at mine and he said he couldn't find the part needed to make it run on gas so fitted a small switch, never told me what the part was and won't answer phone or texts Ahole, I got another one out and he messed about for 3 hours and fixed nothing, My Ultrastore water heater won;t light either.

If you are in East Midlands try CaravanGeek, very reliable!

 

[Markd]

So if gas gets through because pilot light is working the problem must be that the solenoid isn't opening to allow main burner to light.
Do you have electric solenoid?
Have you checked whether there's power at solenoid when thermostat is calling for operation?
Or if it's a mechanical valve has the capillary tube failed?
What's the make-modelof your fridge?

 

[BigDave]

So if gas gets through because pilot light is working the problem must be that the solenoid isn't opening to allow main burner to light.
Do you have electric solenoid?
Have you checked whether there's power at solenoid when thermostat is calling for operation?
Or if it's a mechanical valve has the capillary tube failed?
What's the make-modelof your fridge?

 

[Markd]

Thanks for photo.
I'm not sure what you mean when you say 'pilot light working".
On your fridge there's only one outlet for gas and that's the main burner.
So if you have any flame for more than a few seconds then the solenoid and thermocouple are working.
If you are not getting any cooling then the most likely issues are
1. Poor flame which is sorted by cleaning the burner - aa suggested earlier lots of YouTube vids available.
2. Partially blocked flue - again lots if vids.

These are fairly straightforward and don't involve working on the gas system itself and are definitely worth a try yourself.

 

[alwaysared]

I would clean the flue, it happened to me a couple of yeras ago when we first started out fulltime. I do it once a year now has part of my servicing and it's been fine to date

Regards,
Del

 

[BigDave]

Any ideas please? My 3 way fridge is fine on mains electric and 12v, but gas fails to function.
pilot light working, new thermocouplng last year. On nice camp right now, mild weather good company,
let down by fridge. Off to Lake District in a fortnight, so any ideas would be welcome.

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice, corrected my terminology and patiently gave guidance.
when cleaning the jet it looked very worn, it is 14 years old and in regular use.
So, got a new one and that did the job.
thanks again everyone

 

[r4dent]

Thanks for photo.
I'm not sure what you mean when you say 'pilot light working".
On your fridge there's only one outlet for gas and that's the main burner.
So if you have any flame for more than a few seconds then the solenoid and thermocouple are working.
If you are not getting any cooling then the most likely issues are
1. Poor flame which is sorted by cleaning the burner - aa suggested earlier lots of YouTube vids available.
2. Partially blocked flue - again lots if vids.

These are fairly straightforward and don't involve working on the gas system itself and are definitely worth a try yourself.

Photos shows the fridge in question is RM7271
Rm7271 is a non AES model.
Non AES fridges have a Pilot light that is lit by pressing in a button and stays on whilst the fridge is running on gas.
A thermocouple sits in the Pilot Flame.
If the thermocouple does not register heat the gas supply to the fridge is turned off by an inbuilt solenoid.
of some sort) 24/7.

Your comments are incorrect for non AES fridges.

 

[n brown]

so AES fridges have a separate pilot and main burner for the gas ?
this doesn't make sense to me ,as the main burner is little more than a pilot anyway

 

[BigDave]

Yep, that’s what held me up. But thanks to advice got sorted!