69 replies to this topic

[RJones]

Thanks for this mod Patrick. It's great to come back from a days hike and still find your refrig cold. Or wake up in the morning after a breezy night in the desert and all is still cold.

Great Mod!

[ScottBailey]

So will this thing work on a Norcold too?

Chnlisle,

Probably.

I'm supposing the push button part is pretty much the same from one unit to the next (i.e. Norcold, Dometic, misc BBQ grills, etc.).

The potential issue is wire length. So, maybe you'd need to extend the wire a bit. It's worth a try. Looks like Stan will let us know soon...!

And while we're talking propane....I was telling a friend that I fire up the fridge before I leave home and run it on propane full time while driving. He thinks that that is a dangerous practice because of fire danger if there's a collision or other mishap.

Any of you have thoughts on this?

This is a risk. One that LOTS of RVers take everyday. I haven't read about any disasters, but I haven't looked.

Put your unit in a big, American truck, and you should be OK.

Thanks Patrick & Scott for the helpful write ups !

Stan,

It was my pleasure.

For the larger Norcold, you could probably put the Atwood re-lighter inside the camper... I'll let someone else figure this out and post it.

An even better fix would be to split the factory lead and keep both the Atwood and push button, but I think you'd need a diode to ensure the push button didn't kill the Atwood... Don't know if this would work. Again, I'll leave this for someone else.

I did not think about using the existing probe as a thermocupler. As lond as it is in the flame and the striker will not spark, and when it cools it will spark then it is a go.

Patrick,

It took me awhile to get there myself. Ultimately, I'm probably just lazier than you are. I'm slow going mechanically, and it would have taken me another 2 hours to figure out how to mod/mount the Atwood electrode!

Anyway, to add to your comment: you can hear the re-lighter clicking when it sparks. So it's easy to test an install does what it should without disassembling the unit.

[chnlisle]

Thanks Pat I felt the same as you but it never hurts to get a 2nd opinion.

Stan I have the same size Norcold so take pix of your install.

Scott my guess is a Ram diesel with no gas fumes wont be a problem.

[camelracer]

I've been thinking of doing this mod to initially get the frig started. Sometimes it fires right off and at other times it takes forever pushing the igniter button no matter how long I purge the propane. With the Norcold controls inside the camper, using a lighter to manually start it is a 2 man operation.

What I'm wondering is how the Atwood unit knows when the flame goes out. It looks like the igniter wire has a single conductor so it can't be a thermocouple and it has to react faster than the gas valve interlock. Inquiring minds need to know.

[ScottBailey]

I've been thinking of doing this mod to initially get the frig started. Sometimes it fires right off and at other times it takes forever pushing the igniter button no matter how long I purge the propane. With the Norcold controls inside the camper, using a lighter to manually start it is a 2 man operation.

What I'm wondering is how the Atwood unit knows when the flame goes out. It looks like the igniter wire has a single conductor so it can't be a thermocouple and it has to react faster than the gas valve interlock. Inquiring minds need to know.

I initial decided on this mod to simplify the starting process; however, ensuring the refer stays lit while traveling--the one time I tried traveling with refer on propane before the relighter it blew out--further justifies the update.

I don't know how it works, but I know it does AND I've recently field tested it and am thoroughly satisfied with the update. I'll see if I can find an EE where I work also knows about RVs...

The proof is in this delicious breakfast at Roosevelt Lake:

[chnlisle]

Stan where are the pix and discription of the igniter mod on the Norcold.

[Kokopelli]

Has anyone done Scott's 20 minute mod on a norcold? Just got my Eagle last week and went to do it, but the setup is different than Scott's. Looks very difficult to get the push botton wire off due to access. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[Jack]

Pat,
Nice pix. I love bridges that scare my wife. I think she would opt to walk accross both. She not good with heights. She actually walked up the road to Mokee Dugweep.

\
For some of us, the phrase is "the more firma, the less terra".

[pods8]

From the outside, this looks like a potentially hard and possibly unsafe mod. It's not. I did it in 2 hours, but now you can do this in 20 minutes! What's more, you aren't going to fiddle with the fuel delivery system, so the mod becomes far less risky.

Scott, I just got my relighter and tried it this route first before going full blown if it was unneeded. However on my domestic fridge the stock sparker does not sense the heat and thus the relighter just keeps clicking once the flame is going (I double checked this by turning off the relighter and letting the flame run for a minute and then when I turned it on it just started clicking away even though there had been a flame for a minute already).

I'll work on pvstoy's method when I get a few more minutes.

[ScottBailey]

Scott, I just got my relighter and tried it this route first before going full blown if it was unneeded. However on my domestic fridge the stock sparker does not sense the heat and thus the relighter just keeps clicking once the flame is going (I double checked this by turning off the relighter and letting the flame run for a minute and then when I turned it on it just started clicking away even though there had been a flame for a minute already).

I'll work on pvstoy's method when I get a few more minutes.

That sucks. Clearly this isn't so simple?! I usually have a few seconds of clicking -- maybe 5? -- while it warms up. Longer on low or medium, but I think my valve needs adjusting as high is the only setting for a reasonable temp.