Howdy guys new scamp owner here.
I don't know if i'm missing something but my brand new Scamp 16" seems to have a defective refrigerator. Last weekend before we took it out for our maiden voyage I tried to get the refrigerator to work on LP gas. It took several tries but finally the pilot light lit and was viewable through the view port. I set the temperature dial about halfway but the temperature never seemed to change. The fridge just never cooled at all. I let it go for about an hour with no change in temperature and then shut it down after I thought I smelled a heated plastic-y smell. We ended up using a cooler for the food on that trip but I really want to get this thing working for the future.
Am I making any big mistakes here? Is there something I forgot to switch on or is it possible that this fridge is defective? Any ideas or adive would be appreciatie
Congrats on ur new Scamp and welcome to the clubhouse!
The Fridges can take sometimes 24 hrs to get cool when first starting up. Fire it up in the afternoon and then check it with a thermometer the next morning. The freezer section is the very first area you'll notice cooling, but sometimes 4-6 hrs before it will show cooling.
If still not working call into Scamp for warranty service.
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I had a very difficult time getting our fridge to light. Then I read the manual! The manual says that the igniter should be pushed twice in quick succession. Doing that for me has worked every time. Greg A is right. Keeping the gas on for only an hour is not enough time. Give it more! I still find it difficult to see the flame. The only time I can see it well is at night and even then I have to get down on my hands and knees to peer into that little hole. Most of the time I just sniff at the upper vent cover. LPG has a distinct odor went it burns.
We have the 110v & LP fridge in our 16 Deluxe. On a very warm day (85 degrees) it takes about 3-hours to bring down the temp and 4-5 hours to get into the safe zone for food. The freezer gets cold first so in an hour or so it should feel cold to the touch but that's about all. We have a refrigerator thermometer to judge when its at food safe temps.
I to have difficulty seeing any "flame" in the little view port on the front of this fridge. In fact I had trouble getting it to light and judge my success by listening and looking at the back of the frig once I thought it was lit. I discovered on my particular frig that I have to turn the gas/elec control knob to "gas" and as far beyond that setting as the knob will turn to get it to lite correctly. (I guess the valve or related linkage to the valve is a little out of adjustment to the knob.)
We have also found that if "6" is a good setting during the day then "4" might be better at night. (or suffer frozen food in the frig compartment overnight)
It's an odd animal but once we got to understand the care-n-feeding of our frig its become a pretty reliable routine. We always start out with cold food and travel with our cold food in a picnic cooler with those blue ice freezer packs. Once we setup at an RV site we start the frig, gas or electric and wait for the magic to start and temps to get where they need to be. We have found that the freezer compartment will easily re-freeze those blue ice packs so when we travel our freezer packs allow us to move our cold food back into the picnic cooler when we go down the road.
Also a good tip........when in storage for any period where the frig is not in use we leave the door open to prevent mold growth if the interior of the frig has collected any condensation after a camping trip. (NEVER travel with the door open when going down the road.) We also travel with the LP tanks OFF;
It's almost impossible to see the lit flame in the daytime. I light ours with with a long butane lighter. To make sure it stayed burning, I push only the gas valve on the butane lighter - if I get a flame, I know the fridge is lit. The butane lighter is also very good for lighting the stove - use spark only.
Lynn