I've never had any problems with my fridge over the last three years. So I headed out to my annual music festival thing this week, intending to crank it up when I got here, because I don't *really* need it, and didn't have any food to put in it yet anyway. There would be time for it to cool down. I arrived only to find that for some reason, the pilot light wouldn't stay lit. What!?? Actually, this has happened before, but usually it'll get started and stay working by the third or fourth try. Not yesterday.
So I thought, "Try the stove." It lit s-o-o slowly, till the ring filled in. The propane tank is full. Can there be problems with the line between the tank and appliances, when nothing has been run in (I would be embarrassed to admit this if there weren't excellent reasons) a year? Does one have to, in effect, "bleed" a propane line? Could that be the problem? Third and four attempts to light the stove seemed to work much faster: WHOOSH, fire. But by then I was sort of counting on a 120v outlet to work for the fridge and didn't go out to try again.
For once, I have access to 120v AC. Sort of. It worked, in that it seemed to power the outlet in the Scamp, so I switched the fridge to 120. It didn't cool down a bit, over the course of three hours. Hmm. Did I just not wait long enough, with temps of 82F and dew point 72-73F? At 4:00 am, as repeated storms were passing through and soaking the poorly maintained and inadequately caulked outlet on a lamp pole that I was plugged into, the outlet's GFCI was repeatedly tripped. (Resets still aren't doing the job, and it'll probably be a while until it dries out enough.) I don't know that I'm going to be able to test the 120v operability of the fridge while I'm here. We'll see.
Meanwhile, between showers and storms, I figured I'd try the propane again, in case the refrigerator draw was causing a problem with the outlet. The propane worked, this time! (I may be able to get a bottle of chardonnay after all.)
I'll have to do some playing around with the fridge 120v either later this week, though I'm not too confident about the available supply/wiring etc, or when I get home.
Any thoughts about propane supply issues, and why I couldn't get it going yesterday?
Ours will trip a GFI if it hasn't been used in a while. I attribute it to dampness, possibly held in place by insect nests. It usually works fine after being on propane for a while. GFIs are designed to be extremely sensitive to prevent us from electrocution.
The maintenance guy for the "camp" where I'm staying came and checked the outlet. It needed to be changed out. It was tripping every 13-15 seconds with *nothing* plugged in. Pretty sure anything in the trailer wasn't the problem; it was all clean and dry. I'll still test the 120v cooling ability of the refrigerator when I get home and am certain about the quality of the power.
Definitely take a volt meter to the plug feeding the Fridge right at the fridge plug... As already stated a major cause of GFI trips seems to be a damp or wet fridge heating rod/wiring. . I have seen the propane regulator fail and clog in only three years and not work as you had. But this seems to come from contaminated old tanks. But one more thing we see is if some appliance is on when you open the tank valve or of the valve is opened suddenly a safety valve can slam closed and keep the system from operating. The safety valve is there to stop propane from spraying out in the event of a line or hose rupture or break. Were you operating the fridge in a level place as this too is critical for proper operation.
2019 Scamp 13 standard
Salukispeed, the "some appliance is on" scenario is probably it. I had the gas on for the refrigerator when I opened the tank valve. When it actually worked, the next morning, everything had been turned to off for a while. Wow, what a brilliant call! I would never have guessed this, although by "jiggling the handle" I accidentally managed to create the proper conditions for everything to be functional again. I can see it now: appliance on, tank valve gets opened, safety engages; attempts to light the propane result in a "poof" because of the small amount of propane that is there to burn, but of course the burner won't stay lit. It would explain the slow-lighting stove too.
The other scenarios are less likely. Trailer definitely level fore and aft and side to side. All the electrics look clean, and there is no corrosion and not even much dust. (Scamp is stored in a garage when not in use.)
I should probably study up on the use of volt meters; it's really handy knowledge for all kinds of electrical trouble-shooting, especially on things like utility trailers where wiring goes bad ALL THE TIME, ha ha. I used to know more about volt meters than I can now remember. Do I attach the probes/clips to the plug prongs for the fridge, to check for continuity? Or do I measure whether the circuit is closed in the outlet itself, when the 120v switch is on? Or maybe both?
On mine with the clips to the plug prongs for the fridge, I get about 86 ohms (W/switch on electric). Also check the ground to the other two, that should be open (no connection).
Thanks for that stat. Very useful.
I was about to request a "Multimeter for Dummies" sort of instruction, but upon further reflection, checked on YouTube. There are instructional videos there about multimeters and their uses. I'll take a peek.
Obviously careful use of meter and leads is first. I do not know what the Ohms should be for the heat element but as stated above 86 ohms sounds somewhere in the ball park to get enough heat for the boiler of the fridge. larger fridges may be slightly lower and smaller might be slightly higher . When Diagnosing a poor cool condition on a motorhome the Dometic technician I talked to was convinced the least likely heat source to fail or be incorrect was the 120v it either work properly or not at all in most cases. also checking to ground should be nothing or a ground fault will trip. Then probing the supply receptacle to see that you have close to 110-120 .
Fyi the safety check valve is on most gas grills also and I found out the hard way about slow open and no knob turned on.
2019 Scamp 13 standard