Drovers new Rig - "Big Mal"

[Boots in Action]

%$#@!%^&*# (insert descriptive adjectives) ................... replaced the thermo switch with a new one for fridge fans, fired up fridge, walked by later to see how things were going, fans running BUT was a strong Cat Pee smell, , a few hours later while fridge is chilling down nicely, outside still smells like a kitty litter box, .........

So the tour for this year may be delayed if not cancelled, Fridge is in its 12th year with probably 80,000km under its belt, there was a lot of rust in the back when last looked at, so no sense trying for a repair, just be chasing tails forever a new fridge is the order of the day ................
3 way or Compressor ???????? Well its going to be another 3 way, at least then its just a cabinet mod where if I add a compressor fridge I will certainly have to up my storage capacity and the $$ won't stretch that far, the fridge itself is a lot of strain..... A Dometic RMD10.5XS is looking good so far............................................. suppose better to croak it at home than while away............. 2 steps forward 3 back as usual......................

@Drover , IMHO, it is not likely to be a leak in refrigerate unless there is obvious yellow stain of zinc chromate and a positive smell of ammonia gas. Absorption fridges go for ever and with no moving parts, there is nothing to wear out. However, in the unlikely event that a leak has occurred and rust has eaten through the piping of fridge from inside, then there will be obvious signs of leakage. The hydrogen in the system is pressurized at 300psi so will quickly escape and because there is no hydrogen, there will be NO cooling at all. As you are no doubt running on 240v at the moment and there is no gas flame, just make sure there is no chance of ignition of any remaining hydrogen (it is a very light gas and will tend to build up in any of the higher positions - not like LPG which is heavy and sticks around the floor!!!), so keep ALL windows and doors, vents fully open until fridge confirmed as cactus.. No switching of lights or anything else!!!l It could be just a lizard or insect that has been fried or even the smell of hot dust on the piping. Hopefully, you won't find any yellow leak in back of fridge piping.

 

[Drover]

Its all at the back, no smell internal, yep certainly running on 240 and I have had a good look down into the bowels of the thing but no stains but the pong will knock you ars up quick enough, I suspect it will be dead by morning, when I had it out for a clean up I did notice quite a few rust bubbles in places, old sailor so I know rust and certainly had no intention of touching them and thought at the time these are going to be a problem sooner than later, I think sooner has arrived........ I suppose if I went to gas it could be an insurance job but Ive done so much work to the old rig................... Looks like a 3 way will be ordered in the morning as I don't think it will last much longer, probably a tiny pin hole or crack, don't trust it anyway so in the bin and a newy, thankgoodness for pay Pal pay in 4 and we can stretch the pension out........... bluddy Jeep last month, rates and now van...................... Must be due for lotto.

 

[mikerezny]

Seems more like some animal has got in there and built a nest complete with pee and possibly died.

I had possums pee on my windscreen and it got down into the inlet for the ventilation. The smell was in the car for months. Nothing would shift it!

If it was me, I would be pulling the fridge out and having a good look in the cavity before ordering a new fridge.
No extra work, since, even if it is cactus, you would have to pull it out anyway.

I agree with Boots, if the fridge is working, it is most unlikely there is a refrigerant leak. If there is even the lightest leak, the high internal pressure will ensure it drops pressure very quickly and you will soon smell it.

 

[Boots in Action]

Its all at the back, no smell internal, yep certainly running on 240 and I have had a good look down into the bowels of the thing but no stains but the pong will knock you ars up quick enough, I suspect it will be dead by morning, when I had it out for a clean up I did notice quite a few rust bubbles in places, old sailor so I know rust and certainly had no intention of touching them and thought at the time these are going to be a problem sooner than later, I think sooner has arrived........ I suppose if I went to gas it could be an insurance job but Ive done so much work to the old rig................... Looks like a 3 way will be ordered in the morning as I don't think it will last much longer, probably a tiny pin hole or crack, don't trust it anyway so in the bin and a newy, thankgoodness for pay Pal pay in 4 and we can stretch the pension out........... bluddy Jeep last month, rates and now van...................... Must be due for lotto.

@Drover , uhgg!! rust bubbles are not a good sign. Too close to salt air where you live??? Ammonia does have a "take your breathe away" stench, so you may be correct. Strange that there is no sign of yellow zinc chromate leak visible. At 300psi in the system, it would not take long to evacuate the pressure in the piping of all the liquids and gas, both ammonia and hydrogen. Still hoping against hope that it is just a problem with your nose!! Cheers.

 

[Boots in Action]

if the fridge is working, it is most unlikely there is a refrigerant leak

I am with you on that @mikerezny . Good advice on watch and check operation BEFORE having to hit the cash pocket. That is what I would do anyway, as like you, I do not like parting with my hard earned cash unless absolutely necessary!!!!

 

[Drover]

Well I went back and had a full on look around now that its been running for a few hours, before the view from the top was clear and the view from the bottom was clear, no sign of a leak just a big pong, you couldn't hang around very long and it was certainly ammonia not a dead thing, used the stuff enough to know, but this time with my torch and mirror I noticed in the pan under the burner tube its all yellow, I never noticed it earlier but really wasn't looking at the burner area, so thats the tube thats failed, moisture and heat great place for corrosion, certainly is ammonia, worst nappy bucket ever I can tell you.............. time for a new fridge...bluddy expensive buggas........ like an AC a slow leak will stretch out the time to failure......

Of course the glass is half full, nice new fridge should keep things colder .................. and rise in pension this month.....

Bonus data this new fridge will burn less lpg than the old jigger might get near 14 days out of a 8.5 bottle, I wonder if I can afford one now ?????

 

[Boots in Action]

Well I went back and had a full on look around now that its been running for a few hours, before the view from the top was clear and the view from the bottom was clear, no sign of a leak just a big pong, you couldn't hang around very long and it was certainly ammonia not a dead thing, used the stuff enough to know, but this time with my torch and mirror I noticed in the pan under the burner tube its all yellow, I never noticed it earlier but really wasn't looking at the burner area, so thats the tube thats failed, moisture and heat great place for corrosion, certainly is ammonia, worst nappy bucket ever I can tell you.............. time for a new fridge...bluddy expensive buggas........ like an AC a slow leak will stretch out the time to failure......

Of course the glass is half full, nice new fridge should keep things colder .................. and rise in pension this month.....

Bonus data this new fridge will burn less lpg than the old jigger might get near 14 days out of a 8.5 bottle, I wonder if I can afford one now ?????

@Drover, Ian, see latest video link for what has occurred, despite you being careful in levelling your van, when on gas, 240v or even 12 volts. Looks like you have to keep liquid in burner moving all the time to prevent overheating , which not only can cause the zinc chromate to crystalize and block percolator heating tube , but prolonged heating will cause boiler to fail. You learn something every day.

ALL MEMBERS: TAKE NOTE!!!

 

[Drover]

I think age kills them as well but another good vid on the things ............... since mine spends more time on gas I think more likely corrosion from outside, I'm OCD on levels, the old heat and steel issue, once I pull it apart will be interesting to see whats ,what .......................... as an old sailor of the Seaman variety rust and I are old mates....aarrgghh.

Some fancy accounting and we might just getaway in April if lucky, I'm more worried about my wood butcher skills fitting the new unit in the hole...............

 

[Drover]

Old fridge removed from Big Mal, went well ... I didn't want to remove the van door so I pulled the doors and frame off the fridge, managed without destroying things, removed screws and then needed a small pry bar, would you believe packing tape was holding the frame on like it was welded............ now just to wait for the new one to turn up before I get to carried away with cabinet remodelling just to be safe................... Will dismantle the old job for a parts box and ditch whats not needed............ never know when someone may need a control box or other bits that come in handy to have stashed away..... I know doors are like rocking horse doo doo's............

....

 

[jazzeddie1234]

Wow well done. Now I don't feel so lonely in replacing my fridge

 

[Drover]

Wow well done. Now I don't feel so lonely in replacing my fridge

Mate I was thinking of the neato job you did and am hoping I can do the same, thankfully I have a stock of panels left over from the seat change i did and while I was thinking I could lift this fridge off the floor since its about 100mm lower, if I did the rear lower vent would only allow me half as much space to access the back workings of the fridge so it will stay at floor level and I will just replace the front panelling which will make it heaps easier though I have room at the top to add a cupboard, I actually have a door left over from my seat build so it might be a goeras my neatness skills wouldnt be noticed........... I would have loved a compressor but the maths confirmed my beleif that I it would need an allocation of a 120ah battery for it on top of my current 100amp usable, ideally change the whole system to 300ah lithium to keep things running smoothly, so not a hope.

 

[Drover]

Well the new fridge is on its way, fingers crossed it gets here by Thursday, now I am not the neatest fella when building stuff. especially wood work and I try very hard to be square, the fellas that put this van together must have been to the Ettamogah Pub building school, bluddy hell nothing is square, a few mm's okay but 5mm in multiple directions is driving me nuts, when the whole outer cabinet isn't square , tempting to rebuild but that would end up with dismantling the whole interior I fear, not going to happen, so I am awaiting the fridge before I finish my final internal lining of the insulated hole for it, if it fits then all is good but I fear some trimming may be required only a few mm if that ..................... My addition of a cupboard in the empty space above fridge, well I knew it was a gamble as I hate doing cupboards but I managed it, then I went looking for my bits from previous mod, bummer the door was originally a vertical door, latch is not central and the hinges are just plain swing jobs they will have to do until I get around to some lift and hold type jobbies ................. of course I forgot to allow for the latch catch, my multi tool saved the day......................... so far once the fridge is in it will look great, the tricky stuff is out of sight as it should be........ this unit will have a minimum of 40mm insulation all round, alloy heat shields around the cooking gear and comes with 2 fans and with my 2 back ups on the vent it should be an awesome unit.... might be awhile till I can afford fuel to go away as the pension increase of about $3 per day won't quite cover the expense...........

...... and this is after I cleaned up the mess...I hope the chimney will plumb in okay as I have a frame right below the outlet.

 

[Boots in Action]

Well the new fridge is on its way, fingers crossed it gets here by Thursday, now I am not the neatest fella when building stuff. especially wood work and I try very hard to be square, the fellas that put this van together must have been to the Ettamogah Pub building school, bluddy hell nothing is square, a few mm's okay but 5mm in multiple directions is driving me nuts, when the whole outer cabinet isn't square , tempting to rebuild but that would end up with dismantling the whole interior I fear, not going to happen, so I am awaiting the fridge before I finish my final internal lining of the insulated hole for it, if it fits then all is good but I fear some trimming may be required only a few mm if that ..................... My addition of a cupboard in the empty space above fridge, well I knew it was a gamble as I hate doing cupboards but I managed it, then I went looking for my bits from previous mod, bummer the door was originally a vertical door, latch is not central and the hinges are just plain swing jobs they will have to do until I get around to some lift and hold type jobbies ................. of course I forgot to allow for the latch catch, my multi tool saved the day......................... so far once the fridge is in it will look great, the tricky stuff is out of sight as it should be........ this unit will have a minimum of 40mm insulation all round, alloy heat shields around the cooking gear and comes with 2 fans and with my 2 back ups on the vent it should be an awesome unit.... might be awhile till I can afford fuel to go away as the pension increase of about $3 per day won't quite cover the expense...........

View attachment 68969 ...... and this is after I cleaned up the mess...I hope the chimney will plumb in okay as I have a frame right below the outlet.

Go for it @Drover! Consider having the internal (reflective) insulation facing outwards on internal wall that sun will hit as I have done. On that wall, you are not trying to stop heat going anywhere internally, but you will be trying to reflect heat from outside (caused by sun) from penetrating INTO the fridge cavity.

You are like the boy with the loaded push cart - the big job is ahead of you!!!! Good luck.

 

[Drover]

- the big job is ahead of you!!!! Good luck.

Don't say that, it been about 3 days of pull apart and rebuild with only internal lining to fit then push the fridge in .... of course it won't be that easy, for me it never is ................. external wall is tin so didn't think another layer would do much really so the inner wall will be light alloy sheet with insulation tightly stuffed between , no air gap so no heat pockets which should translate to no heat transfer, well thats the theory .......hopefully... anyway be far better than before by miles............. I think I will be well and truly modded out by the time I finish this job, so long as there no gaps visible and it looks square I will be very happy.....

No way I could have done this if I was still working, 6 day weeks would mean 3 days of this work would have equated to about 3 weeks or a lot of very late nights after work and a dodgy job .......

 

[jazzeddie1234]

Looking great so far! Cabinet internals much tidier than mine

 

[Drover]

I'm at home on my own and my new fridge is sitting in a the Border Express Depot at Underwood in Brissie, has been since Mon night and while they estimated delivery on Tues, i didn't believe that at all, thinking Wed or Thurs but the &%$#@ thing is still there.............

With the van all cleaned up and ready and waiting for the new fridge, I dismantled the old fridge and once I pulled the chimney apart the tell tale cats wee stain on the insulation and scorch mark on fridge wall showed it to be a leak around where the element tubes are welded to the plumbing, rusty and flaky but as to if from inside or external, who knows but if the other welds on the tubes are anything to go by then one of these welds are a prime candidate to cause a crack in the piping ..............

Friends down the road getting a new roof kindly donated some under roof insulation which I have put on the external wall of the fridge cabinet and even though it has a foil layer I fitted a sheet of alloy over it , the sides have HD styro fitted one side covered with ply and the other with a HD alloy foil and the baffle is alloy sheet....... now just waiting.........waiting.......waiting.................

.... showing the saddles for the heaters with one element fitted.............
while the next pic shows the scorch mark on the wall of fridge......

Remember there's a flue panel between it and the tubes so it must have been hot....... ....................

The new fridge cavity, nearly finished off in this pic, well insulated and functional and the fitting instructions better have given the right dimensions.

..........................

 

[Boots in Action]

W

I'm at home on my own and my new fridge is sitting in a the Border Express Depot at Underwood in Brissie, has been since Mon night and while they estimated delivery on Tues, i didn't believe that at all, thinking Wed or Thurs but the &%$#@ thing is still there.............

With the van all cleaned up and ready and waiting for the new fridge, I dismantled the old fridge and once I pulled the chimney apart the tell tale cats wee stain on the insulation and scorch mark on fridge wall showed it to be a leak around where the element tubes are welded to the plumbing, rusty and flaky but as to if from inside or external, who knows but if the other welds on the tubes are anything to go by then one of these welds are a prime candidate to cause a crack in the piping ..............

Friends down the road getting a new roof kindly donated some under roof insulation which I have put on the external wall of the fridge cabinet and even though it has a foil layer I fitted a sheet of alloy over it , the sides have HD styro fitted one side covered with ply and the other with a HD alloy foil and the baffle is alloy sheet....... now just waiting.........waiting.......waiting.................

View attachment 68970.... showing the saddles for the heaters with one element fitted.............
while the next pic shows the scorch mark on the wall of fridge......View attachment 68971

Remember there's a flue panel between it and the tubes so it must have been hot....... ....................

The new fridge cavity, nearly finished off in this pic, well insulated and functional and the fitting instructions better have given the right dimensions.

View attachment 68972 ..........................

Well @Drover , a handyman like you would know that the weakest link of any welded union is never the weld itself, but the area where the weld has been made to attach the other metal, although I know sophisticated equipment can get around that problem. Not done in most cases including yours. and you can bet the weld was not X-rayed like high pressure pipelines.
Great pictures of your insulation job - should certainly do the trick. Hopefully the baffle on internal wall of van will be in the right position to fit against the condenser fins on new fridge. Good luck and no swearing either!! Too bloody hot at the moment to be inside van maneuvering new fridge into position anyway.

 

[Drover]

W

Well @Drover , a handyman like you would know that the weakest link of any welded union is never the weld itself, but the area where the weld has been made to attach the other metal, although I know sophisticated equipment can get around that problem. Not done in most cases including yours. and you can bet the weld was not X-rayed like high pressure pipelines.
Great pictures of your insulation job - should certainly do the trick. Hopefully the baffle on internal wall of van will be in the right position to fit against the condenser fins on new fridge. Good luck and no swearing either!! Too bloody hot at the moment to be inside van maneuvering new fridge into position anyway.

Bluddy melting here for sure with a storm in bound from the south but may not get this far................................ The baffle is cut to width with a couple of tabs but I'm waiting for the fridge so I can cut to the right length, so while screwed at the top the sides and bottom will just get silastic, that way easily to remove fridge if needed, silsatic isn't bothered by the heat......
The Two tubes for the heating elements welded together onto the plumbing would more than likely cause a spot which would expand and contract differently to the rest of the pipe, an obvious spot to fail in time I would assume, over a decade is not that bad really........

Beer O'clock........................

 

[Drover]

Its bluddy well finished .................................. ........................ New fridge turned up after lunch yesterday, the delay was a truck with a lift on the back, truckie was very happy he could back in thru my 5m wide gates and not use the driveway, dodging a light pole, so yesterday arvo was spent trying to get the damn thing in the space, while I made the opening to the max size stipulated in the instructions, they didn't allow for rivet heads, in the end got the *#@ts and ripped another 5mm off and that sorted it out, then realized since these screw from the side now, not the bottom, I hadn't allowed enough depth in the front panel to match their screw positions, so a quick bit of blocking which meant remove some of my nice neat insulation, not so neat once I had finished, but its out of sight ...................... so got it in place then hooked up the 12v and 240 and fired it up, got a hot chimney and it was working so went ahead sorting out all the other little bits, got the gas fired up, it was cooking so then I could fit the baffle in place and secure everything, ran on 240 overnight, all good, and this morning tidied up all the loose ends while the gas was cooking this time to burn all the paint and crap off, it certainly stinks for awhile............. and yes I checked the gas connection with a sniffer and the old soapy water trick........

This unit has 2 fans at the back, one right down low and another half way up under the condensor fins, seems they fire up when the ambient gets to 32c, sounds a bit late to me but my old 2 on the upper vent are plumbed in and fire up at 55c and seem to be getting the warm air out nicely............... Of course the exhaust tube from the old fridge was too short for this one, 31mm ID alloy pipe, rocking horse poo size, But wait hanging on the shed wall is an old vacuum cleaner pipe which I use on my Shop Vac, its now 150mm shorter ............ made my day.................. other than shed stock the fit out cost me $32, while the fridge was $2350 delivered and actually came direct from Dometic in Brisbane.................. well and truly broke.........

If I ever have the misfortune to do something like this again, rest assured it won't be a fridge thats a different size to the previous, what a pain to do.

......................... my new Dometic RMD 10.5XS .................

 

[Drover]

Made an interesting discovery today as I dismantled the old fridge, it had a shield covering the side and bottom of the burner/flue to as high as the elements but it doesn't exist on the new version, wish I had pulled the old ne apart as I would have inncorporated it into the fit out for the new fridge, I have manged to fit the side shield in and may with a bit of trimming fit the tray for the bottom pan section............. if anyone needs parts for a RM 4605 fridge I have doors, hinges, shelves and the electronics including the control panel, I will keep the elements as spares unless they don't fit the new jigger, haven't checked yet and I have added the burner as I think its the same another part to cross reference...............