Electrolux RM4233 fridge ignition fault

Switching the fridge into gas mode, the pilot light ignites correctly and stays lit, the fridge works, but the ignition switch keeps on clicking as if the pilot had gone out, we had to switch it off - creating a possible safety issue? Cause/solutions? Thanks

Shelagh wrote:creating a possible safety issue?

I don't think so - the gas jet has a flame failure device, so if it goes out, the gas should be cut off.

The fridge on my last van did exactly the same thing, and I could see no harm in leaving it with the ignition switched off - because mine, once lit, never blew out, irrespective of the wind/weather conditions. The only reason for it to go out would be if the gas ran out, and having the ignition clicking away wouldn't resolve that problem anyway...

I think the underlying cause is a partial failure of the igniter circuit, but spares for my fridge were so expensive that I just lived with it - I think the part alone would have been over £90!

Thanks, reassuring, we are going to check for dust behind the controls just in case that sorts the problem, otherwise we will just switch off. Response appreciated x

Yes i've had exactly the same problem with mine too. I just switch the igniter off once it's lit the gas.

In fact the main complaint i have over the igniter switch is the 'clicking' just simply is not loud enough and i once accidentally left it going for three days before discovering it was on!

What would also prove extremely useful is an indicator on the dashboard showing that 12v is running when switched to that.

I seem to remember that this is a flame rectification problem, we had the same problem with ours and I think that cleaning the gas jet solved it.

If it isn't that it may be that the igniter electrode is not in the hottest part of the flame.

Just bringing this thread back to the top as we are experiencing exactly the same problem, in the middle of a trip in Spain/Portugal.

When starting up the fridge on gas: occasionally, the ignition keeps flashing, even though we know the fridge has ignited. Thus, we are currently at the stage of this being an intermittent fault.

We suspect it is the jet that needs cleaning of debris/dust. Is there any way to approach this as a DIY project? We took off the exterior plastic grill to peep into the back of the fridge, but did not see where to go from there.

[For now, we are doing as others here have mentioned: turning the ignition off after we know the fridge has fired up. We always turn our gas off at night at the bottle, while sleeping, so can keep a careful watch on things during the day].

There are threads on here about access and cleaning fridge burner.  If you do get too it don't poke anything into the jet as its diameter is critical.  Blow compressed air through it to clean it.

Peter

Thanks, Peter. We will hunt around the Forum. 

I don't know about access on a Duetto, but on mine (a Flair) it simply wasn't possible to get to the jet through the external vents because the burner has a metal shroud round it and I could not get to one of the fixing screws.

So on my van I had to remove the fridge to get to it, and that was a bit of a pain to do. It's an easy enough job once the fridge is out though!

On mine, the mixer tube in front of the jet was almost full up with rust scales that had dropped off the inside of the tube...

Thanks, mojo!

It is perhaps the same on the Duetto. On a first look, taking off the bottom vent, there was nothing obvious to get at.

As we are in the middle of a trip, we will wait until we get home before meddling further in case we make things worse.

The good news, is that our intermittent fault has disappeared for now.

For the first time on a trip, as a result of having just fitted a refillable gas cylinder system, we are enjoying the luxury of using the fridge on a gas setting on an almost constant basis.

With the fridge hopefully being used every day on gas for the next month or so, it might just burn off any crud and solve our problem - at least we hope so.  If there is anything further worthwhile to report, we will add to this thread at some future date.

Ok - I don't want to sound alarmist, but be aware of a potential problem if the mixer tube is partially blocked.

On mine the blockage was sufficient that some of the gas that was supposed to flow down it was being deflected sideways out through one of the two air intake holes. As a result I was getting a very small flame at the burner, but also another flame some distance away from where it was supposed to be. This second flame had burned through the insulation of the wire that sits beside/above the mixer tube.

I don't think there was any significant danger of fire spreading, because I think the wire used there is of a self-extinguishing plastic, but I did have to re-sleeve the wire at the same time as cleaning the jet/burner and realigning the ignition electrode.