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Old 04-21-2018, 07:39 AM   #201
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonnniem10 View Post
In the booklet “Newbies guide to Airstreaming” provided with a new airstream it twice mentions to shut off the propane cylinders when traveling and also to turn off the refrigerator.
Hi

Did you read through all 15 pages of prior discussion on this? Probably not, it's pretty boring . Now we get to go through repeating all of everything over again ....

Bottom line - the risk is near zero ( not zero, but close) from the propane. The risk of food spoiling is finite with a "turned off" fridge. The simple answer to eliminate both risks would be to completely empty the fridge whenever you move the trailer. Anybody up for that? It's the *safe* way to do it.

Before you get into this and that about "turn it off is ok" ..... I *have* lost a lot of food in fridges that were off for < 3 hours. To hold temperature for the amount of time the manufacturer thinks is right, the fridge (and freezer) need to be packed full with heavy ( = lots of water in them) items. The outside temperature needs to be on the cool side. I have a lot of "time to toss it all out" data on this ....

Bob
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Old 04-21-2018, 08:06 AM   #202
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonnniem10 View Post
In the booklet “Newbies guide to Airstreaming” provided with a new airstream it twice mentions to shut off the propane cylinders when traveling and also to turn off the refrigerator.
This is an ever lasting thread that has been discussed to death. I do understand that as new members come on this is a question they really are interested in. If you read through the past posts you will find a good number of us who do run with the fridge on.

Rich Luhr has published many helpful how to manuals and is certainly a go to person for many things Airstream. I do not believe that he works for Airstream so what you read about this is his opinion. Check with the dealer and see what they say. I will agree that turning it off is "safer" than running with it on. The big question is how much safer? I say it is almost negligible. If you are really into mitigating risk, you should just camp at home. Traffic, animals jumping out in front of you, tires just ready to blow, rock slides in mountain passes, brakes giving out on descent, bad hitches, large semis passing, windy conditions.......

Congratulations on the new trailer. Enjoy using it as it was designed to be used.
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Old 04-21-2018, 08:47 AM   #203
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We had lousy cooling experiences and quality control in all three Airstream trailers we have owned with the stock Dometic ammonia based refrigerators.

We converted both current trailers to Vitrifrigo marine refrigerators that have a 12Vdc freon based compressor. Both trailers have solar panels, so operation of the refrigerator while moving is a non-issue and the food stays cold where ever we are.
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Old 04-22-2018, 05:51 AM   #204
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Originally Posted by uncle_bob View Post
Hi

Did you read through all 15 pages of prior discussion on this? Probably not, it's pretty boring . Now we get to go through repeating all of everything over again ....

Bottom line - the risk is near zero ( not zero, but close) from the propane. The risk of food spoiling is finite with a "turned off" fridge. The simple answer to eliminate both risks would be to completely empty the fridge whenever you move the trailer. Anybody up for that? It's the *safe* way to do it.

Before you get into this and that about "turn it off is ok" ..... I *have* lost a lot of food in fridges that were off for < 3 hours. To hold temperature for the amount of time the manufacturer thinks is right, the fridge (and freezer) need to be packed full with heavy ( = lots of water in them) items. The outside temperature needs to be on the cool side. I have a lot of "time to toss it all out" data on this ....

Bob
Uncle Bob, I did read through all 15 pages of the prior discussion before posting anything. Your assumption and comment “Now we get to go through repeating all of everything again” was incorrect.
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Old 04-22-2018, 08:15 AM   #205
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I still see signs at gas stations warning of "No cell phone usage while fueling" even though there's no case of a cell phone igniting fuel in the history of the world.
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Old 04-22-2018, 10:16 AM   #206
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I still see signs at gas stations warning of "No cell phone usage while fueling" even though there's no case of a cell phone igniting fuel in the history of the world.
Yea, and I still see evidence that most folks at those stations can't read because their on the phone!
But I digress... do what you feel comfortable doing with your travel situation....I always leave my propane on while traveling...heck, when I had a Class A MH, I even took a shower once while my wife was driving in the desert when we were younger...but I am not concerned about traveling with propane on to power my fridge. Not heard of a real incident from that...
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Old 04-22-2018, 12:39 PM   #207
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I still see signs at gas stations warning of "No cell phone usage while fueling" even though there's no case of a cell phone igniting fuel in the history of the world.
The risk of ignition may not be the only reason for these signs IMO, which you seem to have assumed.

Imagine a large gas station, with everyone filling up, while yacking on a cell phone . . .

No thanks!

Fuel up.

Leave.

Then yack all you want.

No distracted fueling please. [very fuelish?]

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Old 04-22-2018, 02:21 PM   #208
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To those of you understandably concerned about food spoilage while driving, have any of you actually tried our freezer pac method??? (Described multiple times above, Bob!)

Our fridge normally is pretty full, made more so by solidly frozen blue gel pacs that we re-freeze when stationary at night. Desert and southern campers might prefer to freeze sturdy water bottles as an emergency water supply.

Look, we don't want to get sick on spoiled food or have to throw it out, either. In 10 years of using our method, with a lot of extensive road trips and tens of thousands of miles, we've never had that happen-- let alone the beer warming up.
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Old 04-22-2018, 03:13 PM   #209
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This is funny, we camped for 13 years in our Sierra box style trailer and can’t even count the miles we drove running our fridge. Never heard about having to turn your fridge off and shut propane off while traveling. In fact, that was one of the benefits the dealer told us was the ability to run your fridge on lp while going down the road.
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Old 04-22-2018, 03:34 PM   #210
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Traveling while refrigerator is running on propane

Or, you could do the upgrade we did, which generates so much solar power while driving, along with a big battery bank, that we can keep our fridge running on AC power while on the road.

That’s not why we did the upgrade, but it’s a nice side effect.
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Old 04-22-2018, 04:34 PM   #211
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Originally Posted by Len n Jeanne View Post
. .
. . . have any of you actually tried our freezer pac method???
. . .
We always keep a few large blue ice packs in the freezer if possible for just this use. Back up blue ice is kept in the iced cooler in the TV van, pre-chilling, in case it is needed later. Redundancy is a good thing.

Having extra cold mass in the AS's freezer and fridge also evens out the cooling cycles, perhaps the primary benefit IMO.

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Old 04-22-2018, 04:41 PM   #212
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Mine is an older Dometic Royal with 3way function, all automatic. Runs on electric, gas, or DC/12volt. When driving it automatically switches to DC power off the coach batteries. At some point (like long rest stops), it will switch to gas operation. Once engine is started again, it goes back to DC power.

So far very efficient. I did have to replace the computer board last year as it stopped switching and only stayed on electric. Otherwise no problems.
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Old 04-23-2018, 07:32 AM   #213
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Len n Jeanne View Post
To those of you understandably concerned about food spoilage while driving, have any of you actually tried our freezer pac method??? (Described multiple times above, Bob!)

Our fridge normally is pretty full, made more so by solidly frozen blue gel pacs that we re-freeze when stationary at night. Desert and southern campers might prefer to freeze sturdy water bottles as an emergency water supply.

Look, we don't want to get sick on spoiled food or have to throw it out, either. In 10 years of using our method, with a lot of extensive road trips and tens of thousands of miles, we've never had that happen-- let alone the beer warming up.
Hi

Yes, we have tried the fridge with a normal load of "stuff" in it. It ran for about 2 hours before things started to melt / it got pretty warm ( > 45 degrees). It's not the only fridge I have seen do that.

Bob
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Old 04-23-2018, 08:21 AM   #214
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Originally Posted by OTRA15 View Post
The risk of ignition may not be the only reason for these signs IMO, which you seem to have assumed.
Correct!
Quote:
Imagine a large gas station, with everyone filling up, while yacking on a cell phone . . .
Okay
Quote:
No thanks!
No distracted fueling please. [very fuelish?]
I see what you did there. Distracted fueling? Maybe we should return to having attendants pumping fuel. "Check under the hood, mister?" (I'm showing my age now.)

How about we work on solving real problems first?

I have distain for cell phones and hate being behind some bozo texting while he's allegedly driving. My battery is usually dead anyway.
I'm just pointing out that the danger at gas stations is way overstated. "If I'm struck by lightning while my propane is open, OMG! It could wipe out a small city!"
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Old 04-23-2018, 10:08 AM   #215
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. . . please forgive me for jus' fuelin' around!



PS -- By the way, do you know how turtles talk to each other?

On their shell phones!

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Old 04-23-2018, 02:04 PM   #216
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Ha, ha, ha.....on their "shell phones"! Good one!

Back to the question; with 6 TT's and a Class A MH over past 20 years, I have never had a problem running with the propane "on" running my fridge. Don't know anyone who has...I don't want to pack extra weight of "blue ice" in my refer, where the storage is taken up by plastic ice containers instead of using the capabilities I paid for with my refer. But, that's just me.
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Old 04-23-2018, 11:48 PM   #217
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We do sacrifice on the ice cream.

But save on the propane.

I don't think our freezer pacs add much weight, though.
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Old 04-24-2018, 04:34 PM   #218
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Len n Jeanne View Post
We do sacrifice on the ice cream.

But save on the propane.

I don't think our freezer pacs add much weight, though.
Can't do without ice cream...propane lasts a long time...I keep ice cubes, frozen food, and ice cream in my freezer while traveling with refer running...all works out fine.
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Old 04-24-2018, 05:46 PM   #219
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16 pages. Read them all. Whew.

Add “operating propane fridge in gas station” topic to most passionate threads.


The others being:

“Is my heavy duty truck suspension damaging my Airstream?”

“LT or ST tires?”

and

“What hitch do I need?”
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Old 04-24-2018, 08:24 PM   #220
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The replacement Norcold installed by the po had very much trouble keeping things cool on hot days until I removed it and installed it properly. Now it does a tremendous job of cooling on hot days, especially when cruising down the highway Nothing like a cold adult beverage after the awning is deployed! Love that propane fridge.
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