Community Forums

geewizgeewiz · 08-08-2014, 06:37 AM

Hello,
I met Paul Unmack at the Atlanta Good Sam rally last October and was very impressed with his ARP controller. I installed one and really like the protection it provides.

One thing Paul and i talked about was flu air stagnation. This phenomena occurs when parked in the right place in the right dirextion such the given the right breeze the flu stops working and the boiler begin to overheat.

I have seen this demonstrated next to my garage several times. The ARP protects my refer boiler and won't let it over heat. I saw it a couple times last week when afternoon storms were brewing. Once i saw it had the boiler cut off with an 8 minute countdown and twice with two LEDs flashing, meaning it was restarting in the overshoot period.

Each time i checked the boiler temp and it was 192-194 which is normal.
Had i not had the ARP, the boiler may have destructively overheated.

So this is a condition that can happen to any absorption refrigerator.
So i open this thread as a discussion of the Arp device.

Bill G

MSHappyCampers · 08-08-2014, 07:55 AM

Bill, I bought one of the devices when he first introduced them. I have not installed it yet, but will be doing that in the next week or so.

Glad to hear that it's working for you!

Good luck, happy trails, and God bless!

geewizgeewiz · 08-08-2014, 08:29 AM

Joe,

Re stagnation. Its even better than i indicated. If you have stagnation such that the flu stops cooling , just for a few minutes, when that boiler temp rises, the cooling process stops and heat is actually conducted into the refer during this time.

The arp shuts down the heat source before it quits cooling and its just for a few minutes so there is no real start back up time really needed and the process resumed , the cooling never having stopped.

This could be one of the reasons cu's ultimately crap out. Why Norcold or Dometic do not embrace of have a better control system is beyond me.

Anyway, i feel a lot safer knowing the cu temp cannot depart but a few degrees from normal before action is taken, not a catestrophic 400df rise which cuts off the heat source after the boiler is destroyed.

Bill G

Quote:

Originally Posted by MSHappyCampers

Bill, I bought one of the devices when he first introduced them. I have not installed it yet, but will be doing that in the next week or so.

Glad to hear that it's working for you!

Good luck, happy trails, and God bless!

Gary RVRoamer · 08-09-2014, 08:05 AM

I've had an ARP on mine for a year now and it works as advertised. I've also used an optional data collection package to monitor boiler temperatures via the ARP temp sensor and can see how quickly the boiler shoots up when seemingly minor things occur, like a brief stop that is not so level or the effect of stop & go traffic in a town.

We literally sleep a lot more comfortably at night knowing that ARP is watching for potential overheating.

MSHappyCampers · 08-09-2014, 08:41 AM

Gary, I now level the coach any time we stop for more than a minute or so!

abrasv · 08-09-2014, 05:49 PM

I installed mine a few weeks ago and just returned today from a 1500 mile trip. Had the ARP on and apparently it worked because no issues with the boiler at all. However, my problem is the Norcold itself. We had constantly high fridge temps while driving with it on LP. (as high as 58F) Not real good for perishables. At night on shore power it would drop to 38F.
I don't want to start a conversation on the good/bad of the Norcold so I will leave it at that and simply state that the ARP was doing what it was intended to do. Very happy with it.
At this time we have made the decision to put a residential unit in replacing the Norcold in the near future.

MSHappyCampers · 08-10-2014, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abrasv

I installed mine a few weeks ago and just returned today from a 1500 mile trip. Had the ARP on and apparently it worked because no issues with the boiler at all. However, my problem is the Norcold itself. We had constantly high fridge temps while driving with it on LP. (as high as 58F) Not real good for perishables. At night on shore power it would drop to 38F.
I don't want to start a conversation on the good/bad of the Norcold so I will leave it at that and simply state that the ARP was doing what it was intended to do. Very happy with it.
At this time we have made the decision to put a residential unit in replacing the Norcold in the near future.

Jim, it sounds like you have a problem with the fridge operating on LPG, having nothing to do with the ARP.

I had the same problem. I was getting what I thought was a good flame, but my friend David Force with RV Cooling Unit Warehouse told me to remove the tube with the orifice, soak it in alcohol for a couple of hours, then blow it out with an air hose & nozzle. You would not believe the crud that came out! Now it works the same on LPG as on AC!

Good luck, happy trails, and God bless!

abrasv · 08-10-2014, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MSHappyCampers

Jim, it sounds like you have a problem with the fridge operating on LPG, having nothing to do with the ARP.

I had the same problem. I was getting what I thought was a good flame, but my friend David Force with RV Cooling Unit Warehouse told me to remove the tube with the orifice, soak it in alcohol for a couple of hours, then blow it out with an air hose & nozzle. You would not believe the crud that came out! Now it works the same on LPG as on AC!

Good luck, happy trails, and God bless!

Thanks Joe. I had not heard about soaking it and blowing it out. I will try that before putting out the $$ for a res.

MSHappyCampers · 08-10-2014, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abrasv

Thanks Joe. I had not heard about soaking it and blowing it out. I will try that before putting out the $$ for a res.

One other suggestion Jim. Use the "high grade" alcohol. I got a bottle from Walgreens "Isopropyl Alcohol 91%". That will do a much better job of loosening all the crud! We had another bottle in the house that was only 70% alcohol.

Gary RVRoamer · 08-11-2014, 08:17 AM

If your fridge never works well on propane, do the cleaning trick. If it's only while driving that LP doesn't do much, I suspect you have an air flow problem in the fridge "chimney", with turbulent winds over the roof actually pushing down into the fridge roof vent. This can dramatically reduce cooling. It's hard to correct for this, since the turbulence is caused by other things on the roof. Raising or lowering the roof vent cover might help, so might adding or removing a nearby fan vent cover or even installing an air dam by the fridge vent. It's kind of trial & error.

If you suspect you ahve the in-motion problem but aren't sure, run with the genset on so the fridge is in AC mode rather than LP. If it still doesn't cool well, the LP burner is not the issue.