Gas smell from refrigerator

[gjmaker95]

So I spent a good part of the day today working on this. I had a problem with the flame gauge on the fridge so I thought I'd check that out first. Removed the door, took out the fridge's mounting screws and pulled the fridge out a few inches. Immediately discovered why the gauge wasn't working properly: a mouse had made a nest in the top of the fridge and had eaten through the wire. The mess at the top of the fridge took a bit of cleaning and included all of the normal mouse nest stuff, along with about ten to fifteen acorn shells. Along the way, I noticed and fixed the following:

• gave the entire space the best anti-mouse nest cleaning job I could, then I spliced the blue flame gauge wire.
• restored plastic covering over backs of phone, TV, 12V and 120V outlets
• applied foil duct tape to seal plastic edges, preventing movement of exhaust into cabin from that vector
• R&Red faced fiberglass insulation from the top and sides of the fridge
• applied weather stripping to edges of cabinet where fridge screws in
• reinstalled the fridge to original position, taking care to make sure no insulation was near burner exhaust T and to place aluminum diverter at top of fridge to correctly shunt exhaust toward plastic vent cover.
• started fridge on propane (flame gauge works!) and checked flame color: nothing but true blue.

I let the fridge run for an hour on propane with all doors and windows closed (roof vent slightly open), and while the odor was greatly diminished, my wife and I could still detect a faint smell of exhaust in the main cabin of the camper, particularly from the area around the stereo unit. No exhaust smell detectable from the outlets, however.

I am positive that there is nothing combustible that is near the top of the exhaust tube. I am at a bit of a loss as to why I am smelling exhaust still. Maybe the prior owner got a bad gas fill? I haven't filled the tanks since I bought this in April.

Thoughts? Many thanks in advance...

[gjmaker95]

Latest: yesterday I took out my compressor and blew air into the top of the exhaust stack best I could with 100 psi of pressure to try to blow out any debri/insects/spiders, etc. Turned on the gas and started the fridge. Left the fridge on for about an hour on gas then poked my head in the camper...still smelled gas. I'm out of ideas on this one...maybe try some Beeno?

Originally Posted by gjmaker95

Latest: yesterday I took out my compressor and blew air into the top of the exhaust stack best I could with 100 psi of pressure to try to blow out any debri/insects/spiders, etc. Turned on the gas and started the fridge. Left the fridge on for about an hour on gas then poked my head in the camper...still smelled gas. I'm out of ideas on this one...maybe try some Beeno?

I am now a bit confused. I believe you have stated an "exhaust" smell in previous posts. Now you mention a gas smell. Those are two different things, and the troubleshooting is different.

Looking for a gas leak is tedious, but is simply a spray bottle with a little dish liquid and water. Spray the solution on EVERY connection on your propane lines, and look for bubbles. Gently tighten any bubbling connector until the leak stops. Do Not use pipe thread compound on gas line connectors, they are compression fittings.

So, has the smell changed to something different?

[Folkie]

I had what sounds like a similar problem 2 weeks ago while boon docking. We noticed a strong exhaust smell in the camper. When I pulled the upper vent cover there was a brown discoloration in the area of the chimney indicating improper combustion. I attempted to clean the burner twice but still had the same issue and now the fridge warmed up to 55 overnight with outside temp about 57
I could not get a good view of the whole burner to check the flame quality but what I could see looked ok. The only other thing I could think to do was try to clean out the chimney but didn't want to get too invasive while on the road. I was able to bum a very fuzzy craft pipe cleaner from another TM owner and fished it down the flue with some bailing wire after I let it cool off for awhile. It removed a lot of soot. After blowing out the debris it fired right up and overnight cooled down to 38 on a setting of 3.5
After we got home I bought a 3/4" boiler brush with wire handle 30". I pulled the cap and baffle out and ran the brush down a couple of times then gave the burner a good brushing and verified that the flame was good.
Then I went to work using a lot of foil tape and caulk to close off as much of gaps around the back of the fridge as I could reach. I case we ever have the problem on the road again at least we will not get smoked out!

Folkie
Good work in solving the problem and thank's for passing along the fix. I'm sure it will help others down the road.

Ed

[gjmaker95]

Originally Posted by MisterP

I am now a bit confused. I believe you have stated an "exhaust" smell in previous posts. Now you mention a gas smell. Those are two different things, and the troubleshooting is different.

Looking for a gas leak is tedious, but is simply a spray bottle with a little dish liquid and water. Spray the solution on EVERY connection on your propane lines, and look for bubbles. Gently tighten any bubbling connector until the leak stops. Do Not use pipe thread compound on gas line connectors, they are compression fittings.

So, has the smell changed to something different?

I am sorry, I am saying "gas" when I really mean exhaust. I tested the connections on the top of the fridge with soapy water and saw no evidence of leaks in the connections there.

[gjmaker95]

Originally Posted by Folkie

I had what sounds like a similar problem 2 weeks ago while boon docking. We noticed a strong exhaust smell in the camper. When I pulled the upper vent cover there was a brown discoloration in the area of the chimney indicating improper combustion. I attempted to clean the burner twice but still had the same issue and now the fridge warmed up to 55 overnight with outside temp about 57
I could not get a good view of the whole burner to check the flame quality but what I could see looked ok. The only other thing I could think to do was try to clean out the chimney but didn't want to get too invasive while on the road. I was able to bum a very fuzzy craft pipe cleaner from another TM owner and fished it down the flue with some bailing wire after I let it cool off for awhile. It removed a lot of soot. After blowing out the debris it fired right up and overnight cooled down to 38 on a setting of 3.5
After we got home I bought a 3/4" boiler brush with wire handle 30". I pulled the cap and baffle out and ran the brush down a couple of times then gave the burner a good brushing and verified that the flame was good.
Then I went to work using a lot of foil tape and caulk to close off as much of gaps around the back of the fridge as I could reach. I case we ever have the problem on the road again at least we will not get smoked out!

Thanks for that information. I will try that today and see what happens.

[gjmaker95]

Did you foil tape & caulk the back of the fridge from top to bottom, or just the top vent area?

[Bill]

Perhaps you have solved the problem - I've lost track. But let me add one other note. Make sure the exhaust fan behind the refrig is running in the proper direction. It is mounted on the floor of the refrig compartment, and the white slinky comes down around it. The fan must blow DOWNWARD, out through the hole in the floor. When it is running, you should be able to put your hand under the TM, and feel the air flow coming out of the hole. Since the white slinky hose is mounted on and over the fan, it creates a suction at the top of the refrig compartment, which prevents any fumes in the top of the compartment from entering the living spaces. But if the fan blows upward, it pressurizes the space above the refrig, which pumps any fumes into the TM.

If your fan is blowing upward, this is wrong. Look for an arrow molded into the case indicating the preferred direction of air flow through the fan. If air is flowing with the arrow, but the arrow is pointing up, you need to turn the fan over. If the arrow is pointing down, but the fan is blowing upward, then you should reverse the fan rotation by reversing the two wires that power it. If there is no arrow, do either one, so that the fan ends up blowing downward. Either is easy.

Bill

[gjmaker95]

I just finished doing what Folkie described. I took 3 of the fuzziest pipe cleaners my kids had laying around, bundled them together and fastened each end to some wire. Took off the "T" attachment at the top of the pipe and threaded the wire down through to the bottom, grabbed it and pulled the pipe cleaners back and forth through the chimney three or four times. They came out just as clean as they went in. I then blew out the chimney with 100 psi of compressed air. Just for good measure, I took off the cover at the bottom so I could see the flame really well when I fired it up. Upon starting the fridge, flame was nice and blue with an occasional yellow flicker. After 15-20 minutes, I went inside and sure enough, I could still smell the exhaust smell, which was particularly noticeable coming from the stereo/cd player unit that's mounted between the top of the fridge and the countertop just above.

So, I removed the CD player/stereo (intended to do that someday anyway as it was very low quality) and put foil tape over the opening. Slid the fridge back into place, went back outside and sprayed soapy solution on the gas connections at the back of the fridge. No extra bubbling on any connections. I rearranged the insulation and the aluminum diverter, put everything back together and went to have a cold one. Came back 30 minutes later and....no odor. Came back 1 hour later with my wife and had her sniff around...nothing.

I am glad that the odor is seemingly gone from the cabin, but I am concerned that I only patched over the problem. Thoughts?