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Topic: Refrigator fire blowing out (Read 4 times) previous topic - next topic
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Refrigator fire blowing out
Yahoo Message Number: 1584
Our 26 ' foot MB Lazy Daze was delivered in mid-July and our first big trip with it was to Penn. in Sept/Oct. The only little problem we had was the wind blowing out the fire in the refrig while we were driving.
The problem became quite severe driving East on I-80 in Wyoming. It was admittedly windy; a strong North-West wind. When we camped that night, the wind would still blow the fire out. I put a pie tin in the refig burner area and that the fire burned the rest of the night. The next day on the road, it was still windy and even with the pie tin, it kept blowing out. We stopped in Nebraska at a RV place and they checked out the refig and they said it was working properly.

My further solution was to form a shield around the fire area with heavy duty aluminum foil. I took some foil (about a foot square) and kind of hand formed it around the burner section, one corner of the foil was near and around the gas pipe leading to the burner and the opposite corner of the foil was tucked around the vertical chimney. The top and bottom corner was tucked and molded over the top and under the bottom to kind of hold it in place. I chose aluminum foil because it will not burn or is flammable at normal temperatures. I tried not to block the normal airflow through the grill, up over the cooling coils and out the top. I applied the fix there in Nebraska and we had only one more blow-out the rest of the trip to Penn. and back to Calif.

This "bailing wire fix" sure worked for us. We had some subsequent heavy winds and it only went out once.
I did talk with a Dometic service man and he told me about a baffle kit, he gave me a part number for it; he did not have any in stock but said that maybe LD had some. He said that part of the problem is the location of the refrig. That is, on the drivers side just behind the driver. He said in this position, the airflow sometimes tends to reverse, ie air flows down rather than up the "chimney", which blows out the light. When I described my "fix", he didn't offer any concern about the method.

I then talked with Tim at LD about the problem. He said that they thought that they had that problem fixed. Apparently it has been a problem in the past. He said that they basically have already built in a "baffle" in the 26' MB. He also appeared to be unconcerned about my "fix". But said I should stop by the factory sometime at my convenience, but to give him a call first to set a time.

For the time being, I think I will stay with my fix until I find some flaw with it.

The reason I am relating this story is that others may be having the same problem and can benefit from the fix; or even better, someone may have found a better solution.

Refrigator fire blowing out
Reply #1
Yahoo Message Number: 1586
Dan said: (snipped) ". . . others may be having the same problem and can benefit from the fix; or even better, someone may have found a better solution."

Well, Dan, this may not be a solution for everyone, but I've found no reason to run with the fridge on while traveling. I cool down the fridge the night before leaving and keep it closed until I arrive at my destination.
For those further interested, check out the fridge "Tips" link on the Fire Safety page of my web site:
 [url=http://www.lazydazeowners.com/[url=http://members.theglobe.com/harvdog2/RVLFIRE.HTML

Stay cool! ~Greg

Refrigator fire blowing out
Reply #2
Yahoo Message Number: 1602
OK, I must be missing something major.  I thought one travelled with the unit on 12V, not gas.  Is that not so??