Interior Gas Fumes from Fridge

[Dede]

Hi All,
Just a heads up with the new vans that have the fridge on the annex side. I always thought fridge on gas, no problem, never smelt fumes before etc. ect. Well on the weekend we went away free camping and had strong winds coming from the fridge side of the van (no our fridge is on the other side, not the annex). Anyway, went into the van on the second dad (windy) and when I opened the cupboards, wardrobe etc, I could smell gas fumes. Went outside to vent and couldn't smell any fumes. Left the van open and 4 seasons hatch open all day. Not really a problem. But was concerned that we may have a gas leak. That evening when the wind had died down, no gas fumes smell. All the next day, lighter winds, no gas fumes. As I said we had never had this occur before, thus we are assuming it was the vented fumes being pushed back through the vent behind the fridge. So I can really see the concern with having an enclosed annex on the same side as the fridge vent when on gas! Just my two cents worth. We have a full height Expanda with soft bed ends.

 

[Drover]

I would have a look at the back of your fridge, remove vent covers and just see if there are any openings into the van, cable runs etc as you shouldn't be getting fumes inside no matter what the weather. You may find that the top of your fridge is open which will allow entry to inside.
The rear of the fridge should be sealed so the air flow is only allowed to flow up thru the fins and straight out the top vent, any other open area allows hot air the accumulate and makes for poor fridge performance also check that the flu hasn't come loose causing it to vent into the cavity.

 

[Dede]

Hi Drover
We have had the vent open behind the fridge and yes there is room there to swing a cat. Yes our fridge performs badly in hot weather when the sun is on that side of the van. However, we have had the fridge on gas again, with no fumes inside. We also have a window above the fridge which was open on this very windy day, I believe the fumes were getting blown back in via the vent and the window. As I said earlier, once the wind died down, no more gas fumes. We also switched over gas bottles (as we ran out of gas) and again, no fumes, but I think the gas bottle had nothing to do with it, just a coincidence that we had to change bottles. Once the wind died down, no more fumes. As far as space above the fridge, we are planning on selling (oops! thats a no no here, right!). We are going to downsize as our teenagers no longer want to camp with us oldies?

 

[Drover]

They will only get older and have kids then expect you to have a 6 berth van, our is only a 2 berth job, phew....................too hard to pick who to take.
If you are downsizing !!!!! yeah I wouldn't worry about the mod.....I'm pretty sure I have pics on my link.