Gas fridge and strong winds?

Submitted: Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011 at 20:08

ThreadID: 89625 Views:6301 Replies:3 FollowUps:5

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coral and jussy

Hi all, can't fault our fridge when working on gas in terms of its coldness and reliability unless we have a direct and strong wind which continually blows out the pilot light. Is this an issue for others? We are on the loop around oz and close to Perth and can pretty much use 240 volt til then. Should we book it into Dometic or are there other creative solutions out there that we can try? Thanks in advance for your help.
Col and Justin

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Reply By: Rangiephil - Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011 at 20:12

Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011 at 20:12

Shield the flame from the wind with eg a chopping board and turn the fridge so that the flame is not directly in the wind.

Regards Philip A

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Follow Up By: coral and jussy - Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011 at 20:17

Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011 at 20:17

Thanks for your speedy reply! We have tried a number of alternatives to shield the flame and when the site allows we have turned the van so as to avoid it but this is not always possible. Very windy in Cape Range National Park but other vans seemed to cope ok last week. Probably looking for a more long term solution.

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Follow Up By: Bob Y. - Qld - Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011 at 21:16

Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011 at 21:16

We lived in a van for 6 years, and when SE winds blew the fridge out regularly, we'd put a cover over the external fridge vent. Just used enough duct tape, and bit of old bag, to block the worst of the gusts.

Some will say "not safe", but if it's a bit loose, then there's some ventilation anyway. If the wind is that strong, then it's going to blow most of the fridge into the van anyway.

We didn't shift the van around at all, as liked to keep the nearside(and annexe) to the north.

Bob.

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Follow Up By: Bob Y. - Qld - Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011 at 21:18

Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011 at 21:18

That would be: "blow most of the fridge heat.....etc"

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Follow Up By: coral and jussy - Wednesday, Oct 19, 2011 at 12:41

Wednesday, Oct 19, 2011 at 12:41

Thanks for the advice and we did try that but gusts still seemed to get through. I guess we were curious that others in the campground were all ok and is it that there is an issue which can be fixed by having the fridge serviced?

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Reply By: timothy - Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011 at 21:05

Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011 at 21:05

Ours used to do the same thing, to fix it I put insulation around the fridge so that the wind didn't blow through the fridge cabinet and into the van when it was blowing towards the vent and also blocked about 2" of the vent on the chimney side to about half way up the fridge. The insulation helps keep things cool as well as blocking air flow, to combat heat I installed two small fans behind the fridge blowing out of the vent with a temperature operated relay.

My van is the older style with the vent that runs the height of the fridge at the back, the newer vans only have small vents at the top and bottom so this fix might not be possible

AnswerID: 468011