At  6/4/2008 10:21 AM, Jonathan Poole wrote:
>There has been good discussion on the fridge "drain" and blowing out but it
>seemed to me that a little clarification would be helpful.
>
>Over the years I have regularly used the "drain" on my fridge.  What comes
>out is never water or moisture but instead ash chunks.  I guess that
>critters or trash go into the intake from time to time and then get burned.
>Every few months I remove the cap and lightly tap on the tube which allows
>the crud to fall out.  Every now and then when I am vacuuming I will remove
>the cap and put the vacuum hose up to it to suck crud out.  Also I have
>attached a shop vac to the exhaust on the side of the van which moves a lot
>of air through the combustion chamber when doing this I usually walk around
>and open the little drain cap to suck the crud out of the tube.  Anyway I
>since my experiences have been different and over a long period of time I
>thought they were worth mentioning.
>
>Also over the years when I have seen fridges blow out I have always (my
>experience here) been able to fix the problem by removing the flue pieces
>and seal from the side of the van and then cleaning and sealing them lightly
>with silicone.  I seal the rubber to the body (probably most helpful for
>keeping water out of the inside of the van) then the flue to the rubber and
>even put a bit of silicone on the intake/exhaust divider plate.  After doing
>this the fridge has always stayed lit for me.  I believe though that if this
>doesn't fix the problem you should try resealing the combustion chamber next
>and inspecting for damaged or cracked pipes.
>
>Jonathan Poole
>'83 AC Westy

I have an '84 westy and just this morning took the fridge out to
clean the drain. I could not blow through it or even put something
into it one inch.
The combustion box at the back had a fair amount of fine rust in it,
maybe .25" covering the whole bottom. The drain was clogged with that
fine rust.
I used a coat hanger, the shop vac and compressed air to clear out
the whole 14" of drain line.
On mine I can now pull the drain plug and insert 14" of coat hanger
into the drain line.

Rob
becida@comcast.net
In western WA with an '84 Westy and a summer before me.