Thetford fridge not working on gas Warwick XL

Hi,

The Thetford fridge in our Warwick XL works fine will driving and attached to the mains. But when parking and being off grid meaning no engine running or no mains it does not work on gas as it should. The gas valve for fridge is open and there is no error code. There is gas in the tank hob and owen works perfectly. Looking at the panel of the fridge it looks just as it should but it does not become cold. Noticed the problem this weekend. It has been a whole year since the fridge was used on gas. Any tips are welcome

One quick check, initiate fridge on gas and if fridge indication says fridge should be running feel top right hand side of upper fridge vent (or remove vent) to feel if warm gas exhaust is evident. This will then tell you if fridge is operating but not cooling or not igniting.
Not a total fix but a step forward.

Thank you will check that!

We had the same problem and which proved to be a partially blocked orifice in the gas burner. The diameter of the orifice is tiny (far less than pin sized) so it doesn’t take much to impede it. 

Easiest way to check is to remove the lower vent grill and peer into the rear of the fridge near the lower R/H side to see what colour the gas flame is. If should be blue, but if you find it’s yellow then the gas burner needs cleaning or even replacing by an appropriately competent person. The gas flame is easier to see once it’s dark. 

Tim

Thank you so much will check

Daft answer possibly.

as you haven't run it on gas for a year did you purge all the air from the system? this can take a couple of minutes.
Pete

Yes I think I have but thanks anyways!

Now I am not saying to do this so please make your own mind up!!

On our Dometic fridge I had the same problem, it was the jet blocked. You can get a new one, only a very small disc with a hole in it for about £25 or as I did I unblocked it with a very fine strand of copper wire, small needle would also work.

I made sure there were no leaks after with some soapy water.

Now we are talking about gas here, so please delete this post if I am out of order. Fridge been working fine for last 2 years.
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Richard

PS also had to unblock one of the hob jets some time ago.

Thanks Richard I take all suggestions under consideration since a non working fridge ain’t fun

Not much fun in these temps, having no fridge. 
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Richard

Have now made sure that it actually ignited when I put the fridge in gas mode and could see a blue flame so seems to be no problem with the gas supply. That leaves something inside the fridge since it is not cooling. Read somewhere there is some sort of liquid in there that might not be working properly due to the van having been standing still for such a long time. Also read somewhere that it could help to drive on bumpy roads or take out the fridge and shake it. Anyone knows if there is any truth in this? Or someone with the same problem found a good solution which does not involve a new fridge

Not really a practical solution, but I recall seeing fridges upside down for 24hrs at the back of a second hand shop in Dover, before they were resold.

Maybe reference to bumpy roads.
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Richard

Ahh so there might be some truth in it

If it’s working OK on EHU and on 12V when underway then I don’t see how it can be an issue with refrigerant liquid. Removing the fridge and turning it upside down won’t therefore achieve anything.

The picture below is from Thetford’s faultfinding guide (see link). It lists several possible faults. 

Tim

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Thank you so much Tim, will go through the list to see where I end up

Good luck, let us know how you resolve it.

Tim

Little update. Took the van to a garage. The guy thought it was a matter of cleaning the burner. So he did but then said there was nothing to clean so did not charge me. Could not see anything else that was wrong. But turned out that after he did that it started working again. So no clue if it was the cleaning or just him fiddling with other things that got it working

gobsmacked wrote:Little update. Took the van to a garage. The guy thought it was a matter of cleaning the burner. So he did but then said there was nothing to clean so did not charge me. Could not see anything else that was wrong. But turned out that after he did that it started working again. So no clue if it was the cleaning or just him fiddling with other things that got it working

The burner disc has a very very small hole, so I suspect he dislodged a bit of something that was causing your problem.

Glad you got it fixed and FOC

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Richard