Questions on running fridge on gas

[Pandaexpress]

Hey everyone just purchased my brother in laws 2010 expanda off him,
Question on running the fridge on gas,
.is it safe
.how long does one gas bottle last
.is it easy to change over

 

[MDS69]

Yes it is safe but never run on fridge on gas when driving. Make sure fridge is level.
A 9kg bottle can last around 2 weeks
If you have 2 bottles it is as easy as turning the selector lever at the regulator. You will probably have to relight the fridge.

 

[mikerezny]

Hi,
we have a 95l Dometic RM2350. A 9kg gas bottle lasts us between 22 and 28 days. We use the gas for the fridge and a small amount of cooking.

If you haven't used the van for a while, the gas may have been purged from the gas lines. In that case, they can be a pain to get started. The usual cure is to turn the gas on at the bottle, go inside, light one of the gas burners on the stove to ensure you have gas in the lines.

After that it can take a while to get the fridge lit.

Note, that this is my experience with our fridge. Other fridges will behave differently.

Yes, they are safe. The gas section of the fridge is sealed from living area of the van. Correct installation will ensure there is a hole in the floor at the rear of the fridge to allow any gas leaking to drain out through the hole since gas is heavier than air. The fridge has a flame our detector, so should the flame go out, the detector turns the gas off.

We have one gas bottle in the van and carry a second one in the car. After a bit of practivce, they can be changed over in about five minutes.

take care
Mike

 

[Drover]

An 8.5/9kg gas bottle has 440MJ of gas, if you look at the tag on your fridge it will show the burn rate in MJ/hr, do the maths and it will give a rough idea how long your bottle/s will last, depending on the model fridge not all burn the same, of course you have to take into account if you are cooking, using a HWS etc, when off grid camping its a must to know as you will run it 24hrs a day but if in a park then you would be using 240v so its a matter of just keeping an eye on the tank level using one of the myriad of devices, I just use a magnetic strip which I pour hot water over to show level...........

Best to have a read of the manual for it, if not available just type the model number into Google and it will appear, they are worth a read.

Changing a gas bottle is the same as on a barbie........ Swap bottles are just as good as refills, in fact better than some dodgy refills....

Before going away run your fridge on 240v for 2 days to get it all chilled down and load up the night before. If you start from scratch the day you leave it will be a food warmer.

 

[Boots in Action]

Hi,
we have a 95l Dometic RM2350. A 9kg gas bottle lasts us between 22 and 28 days. We use the gas for the fridge and a small amount of cooking.

If you haven't used the van for a while, the gas may have been purged from the gas lines. In that case, they can be a pain to get started. The usual cure is to turn the gas on at the bottle, go inside, light one of the gas burners on the stove to ensure you have gas in the lines.

After that it can take a while to get the fridge lit.

Note, that this is my experience with our fridge. Other fridges will behave differently.

Yes, they are safe. The gas section of the fridge is sealed from living area of the van. Correct installation will ensure there is a hole in the floor at the rear of the fridge to allow any gas leaking to drain out through the hole since gas is heavier than air. The fridge has a flame our detector, so should the flame go out, the detector turns the gas off.

We have one gas bottle in the van and carry a second one in the car. After a bit of practivce, they can be changed over in about five minutes.

take care
Mike

@Pandaexpress , the reason @mikerezny says that it may take some time to ignite gas for fridge, is that the pressure through the regulator at the gas bottle is limited to 2.7kps only. Using the calculation that approx 7kps equals 1psi, there is not a lot of gas pressure to fill up all the gas lines before it even gets to the restricted gas burner for the fridge operation. Yes, turning on the gas stove (and lighting it) does help the gas to get through faster and therefore easier to light the fridge. Just be patient and hold down the gas button continuously if you have a manual light up type, and occasionally press the piezeo switch for ignition. When the "gas lit" indicator on meter starts to move, continue to hold down the gas button until the indicator stays in the green. If you take your finger off the gas button too early, the gas is likely to go out and you have to start again. It is important that the gas burner is clean and that thermistor is also clean and actually IN the flame when burner ON.