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Old 07-11-2012, 02:10 PM   #1
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Default Fridge piliot Click

We've got a X160 2007 FF, love it! There are things FF did to make it 'lightweight' that seem cheap but it has gotten all the way to AK from Cali. We use it 100% off the grid, we have to. No electricity where we are living for a few months in Alaska. Did a voltage reading and we are keeping both batts around 12 volts. We have been charging through a 410 WATT inverter directly to our truck battery. Which we do everyday, and it's getting very tiring. It's also destroying the truck battery I think. Going to do buy a 150ft ext.cord to hook up to the main house where we can run a diesel generator to put a better charge into it. Poor batteries, not happy.

Also, since we left in mid-May our refrigerator propane pilot light continues to click on, click a few times, and then fade out. I then hear the quiet roar of the flame and I wonder why it keeps needing to do that. It has become more frequent over the past month. Any thoughts? Thanks so much Finders of Fun!
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Old 07-13-2012, 10:10 AM   #2
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Are you sure what you are hearing is the refrigerator? There usually isn't a burner assembly that "roars"...the refrigerator has a single flame, that is the "heater" for the cooling unit and it is like a pilot flame; that is all that is required for running the cooling unit. Your water heater has a "burner" tube (like a grill) and it does make a "whooshing" sound when it fires up. Is it possible that what you are hearing is the water heater firing up to keep your water hot?



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Bronwyn
2 Cats; J-Lo and Ragamuffin :R

2014 Thor Tuscany 40RX DP
2011 Ram 2500 Longhorn CTD HO
2011 Keystone Cougar 318SAB (now gone)
2008 FunFinder X 210WBS (Sadly gone)
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Old 07-14-2012, 06:19 AM   #3
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I hear clicking when the propane lights but it stops once kicked over. A whoosh I agree is typically heater/furnace. I wonder of your getting air in propane line that fridge has to keep re igniting maybe. Maybe light your burner and see if it stays lit. Just my thoughts.
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Old 07-14-2012, 12:38 PM   #4
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We do not use our water heater since we are off the grid and do not need hot water for showers or dishes. I actually flipped the breaker off for the water heater, TV, roof, and AC. I figured it would use less electicity if I flipped the breakers off. Maybe not, not sure.

The click only happens a few times then fades off once lit, I am guessing. Maybe there is air getting in there blowing out the pilot and it just keeps trying to relite. I do hear a very faint sound of what I think it a flame igniting and roaring. It is very very quiet though. I know it is the fridge because when I have had the fridge off for a period of time, say a couple days, the clicking ceases to happen. That is actually how I figured out it was the fridge, by turning it off and waiting for the click. Since it happens like 4-5 times a day now.

Another question/concern- I hooked up an exstention cord to my main 30amp shore cord to get to an outlet where our diseal generator can charge our RV, totally blew the battery fuse that is actually with the battery cables up front. PLEASE HELP! What did I do wrong? How am I supposed to charge this thing without hauling it somwhere with normal full time electricity?
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Old 07-14-2012, 05:39 PM   #5
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While you have a breaker for your water heater, it only controls the 120v element and not the 12v/LPG segment. You should also have an automotive style fuse in the bank of them (next to the 120v circuit breakers) that will disconnect the 12v. You really don't need to kill the circuit breakers though...leaving the individual devices off will remove them from drawing current since the 120v appliances (television and A/C) won't run on 12v, so, unless you are plugged into shore power, there is no current for them to draw. The biggest 12v drain is going to be the lighting, the Jensen radio/CD/DVD unit and your LP gas leak detector and the LP Detector, for safety reasons, has no provision, short of cutting the power wire, for turning it off and depending on your model of trailer, the Jensen may or may not have a fuse in the fuse panel... In some models, the Jensen fuse is part of the wiring harness; you would have to pull the whole unit out of the cabinet to get to it. 12v lighting is also a huge power draw, that's why many folks that spend most of their time off the grid convert to LED lighting; ample light at a fraction of the current draw.

The clicking is the DSI unit igniting the small pilot flame for the refrigerator. In all my years of RVing, I've never heard the burner for a refrigerator...the DSI clicks, yes, the burner, no. It is just a small pilot flame and should not be drawing so much gas that it whooshes. Normally, once the unit fires up the first time, it ceases the DSI multiple clicks. The multiple clicks happen because the LP bleeds out of the line over time and it can take a minute or so to refill the line from the tank to the device (whether it be your stove, oven, water heater or refrigerator), but, once the line is full and is in use daily, it usually doesn't bleed off that fast as long as you leave your tanks on. Once the line is filled, one click and it should be lit unless you have a constant 30 mph gale blowing directly at the outside refrigerator access/vent panel. If you are turning your LP tanks off, that is why you get the multiple clicks, or you may have a leak that is letting the gas in the line bleed off. As for the water heater...it doesn't use much electricity (12v) in LP mode. We do not leave our water heater on all the time. We turn it on for about 15 minutes at night...it heats up that fast on LP and then we turn it off. Plenty of hot water (6 gallons) for washing the dishes and a quick wash up before bed. If we take a shower, we leave it on just for the duration of the shower (short navy showers) if we are off the grid. Again, the refrigerator and the water heater (in LP mode) don't use very much current (12v).

As for blowing the fuse at the battery... How is your battery hooked up? Many folks, new to RVing, will hook the battery up with the white being hot thinking that the black must be ground. In an RV, that is backwards. Black should go to the + post and white to the - post. That's the only reason I can think of that would cause the fuse at the battery to blow when you hooked up your shore power...the convertor tried to push ~13.5 volts of positive DC current down the wire into the negative terminal of the battery in the attempt to recharge the battery. If that is the case, you may have also damaged the convertor. It would help to know how you hooked up your 30 amp power cord to your diesel generator...does the generator have an RV 30 amp socket or did you use an RV 30 amp to 120v plug adapter? If your trailer is older, it is even possible, assuming the battery cables are hooked up correctly, that you may have a defective convertor. If the convertor tries passing too much charging current to the battery, that will also blow the fuse at the battery's cable...



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My 2 cents, your mileage may vary...

Don
Bronwyn
2 Cats; J-Lo and Ragamuffin :R

2014 Thor Tuscany 40RX DP
2011 Ram 2500 Longhorn CTD HO
2011 Keystone Cougar 318SAB (now gone)
2008 FunFinder X 210WBS (Sadly gone)
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Old 08-01-2012, 11:33 PM   #6
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I want to thank you for such a thorough answer to my question WebSlave! Everything you said helped so much. I had connected the battery cables backwards. No one has every told me, and I have never noticed that the process is backwards from an automotive. Why is this? Bought a new 15 amp fuse and replaced the one at the batterys, worked like a charm and now we are charging. Thanks so much.
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