It could be an airlock in the liquid fridge coolant (ammonia?),
it happened to me many years ago, ‘94 Ace Airstream, the engineer took the
fridge out, turned it upside down and left it for 24 hours or so. The air dispersed
and it worked OK after that.
If it was an airlock in the coolant then it would not work on any mode. Also caravan does need to be level or fridge might not work so if you are testing it on a sloping driveway this could be the cause.
Apart from that it is possible burner needs cleaning out & flue could be blocked with debris. It is best to clean burner with high pressure airline but a small paintbrush & meths with often do the job. You can usually access burner without removing fridge by removing lower fridge vent on outside of caravan & burner is at bottom right.
Same here. I took out the fridge, turned it upside down. There were lots of gurglings going on. After approx 3 hours, I turned it back the right way up and left it for another hour to settle, and it worked fine on gas after that. Apparently, it also 'wets the pipes' as well as getting rid of air locks, so that the coolant (inside the unit itself) can circulate properly.
It doesn't usually take long for the gas side of the fridge to start working. You can tell if it is by feeling inside the ice box (or in my little one, a cooling bar at the back top end. That soon starts going cold, then icy, and mine seems to work better and quicker on gas than it does on electric! I leave it on the highest setting for an hour, then turn it down to low to maintain the temperature.
You could also try putting both the electricity and the gas on at the same time for an hour. This won't damage your fridge, but may 'kick start' the gas side. After an hour or so, switch off the electric and see what happens. If it stays cold, then the problem might be solved.
There is no "pilot light" in a fridge. The flame you see is the actual gas flame.
If you take off the outside gas vent, inside is a "T" shaped piece where the top of the "T" lies at an angle. This sits on top of the flue. Check that this is all clear and that no debris is blocking the chimney.
Also, if you are using high pressure air to clean the burner, give it a couple of squirts up the chimney as well.
Older fridges had a spiralled piece of metal on the end of a length of wire that hung down the chimney to spiral the gas as it went up the chimney. If yours has this, take it out (from the top) and clean it.
We had this problem last year and someone suggested we may have it set too high - on max setting. They were quite correct it solved our problem, so try on a lower setting.
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Topic: Caravan Fridge
