Longer term answer for Rust in fridge burner

[dhull]

Tired of removing the refrigerator LP burner office after it fill with rust particals from chimney and cleaning it.
Would like a longer term fix...
Norcold N51OUL
2 way
5.5 can
Thanks

[joshuajim]

Move to the desert. Nothing rusts here. :B

[dougrainer]

Fisherman wrote:

dougrainer wrote:

Ex-Tech wrote:
Cover the burner up and remove the roof vent to access the flue tube and use a wire brush with a long wire handle. (These are available at HVAC supply houses).
Push and pull the brush up and down a few hundred times to remove the rust. 😉

What do you do about the spiral baffle??????????????? Doug

Once the roof vent is off, lift up the spiral baffle and clean it off.

A LOT of work when you can just blow it out in 5 minutes. Lets see, you have to remove the cover. Then you have to remove the screen cover(about 30 screws) and remove it. JUST TO REMOVE A SPIRAL BAFFLE??????????????. Then you have to reinstall the screen cover and seal it to the roof and then reinstall the top cover. AND this is hoping that they centered the refer and roof vent in the cabinet and you can easily get to the Spiral baffle if it is not aligned with the rectangular roof cut out. Doug

[RLS7201]

When my burner gets covered with rust, I use a small hammer and tap on the flue to remove the loose rust that hasn't fell on the burner yet. Then I blow every thing off and all is well for a year or two.

Richard

[Fisherman]

dougrainer wrote:

Ex-Tech wrote:
Cover the burner up and remove the roof vent to access the flue tube and use a wire brush with a long wire handle. (These are available at HVAC supply houses).
Push and pull the brush up and down a few hundred times to remove the rust. 😉

What do you do about the spiral baffle??????????????? Doug

Once the roof vent is off, lift up the spiral baffle and clean it off.

[dougrainer]

Ex-Tech wrote:
Cover the burner up and remove the roof vent to access the flue tube and use a wire brush with a long wire handle. (These are available at HVAC supply houses).
Push and pull the brush up and down a few hundred times to remove the rust. 😉

What do you do about the spiral baffle??????????????? Doug

[Ex-Tech]

Cover the burner up and remove the roof vent to access the flue tube and use a wire brush with a long wire handle. (These are available at HVAC supply houses).
Push and pull the brush up and down a few hundred times to remove the rust. 😉

[rjstractor]

This may not be an option for you, and others may disagree, but during the 10 years I owned my motorhome I left it plugged in nearly all the time and left the fridge on. Keeping everything warm eliminates condensation and therefore rust. In 10 years I never had a single fridge issue. Maybe I could have bought a fridge or two for the cost of the power it used, but I never worried about it.

[Gjac]

dougrainer wrote:

dhull wrote:
Ok bad terminology
Rust falls into burner holes from above
Causes yellow flame and throws code
Blowing compressed air up flue would have to be done with burner/orifice assembly removed
I'm trying that next time I need to dump the rust particles out of it when it starts to burn yellow. I could not blow the rust particles out of the burner while still installed tried that. Had to remove and rinse out in alcohol.

Blowing compressed air into and up the flue does not mean you have to remove the burner orifice assbly. I use something similiar to this. I modified it by bending the end tip to about 45 to 60 degrees. More than enough to slide in and get up the flue tube. Doug

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milton-90-Maximum-PSI-Pistol-Grip-Blow-Gun-with-10-in-Extended-Reach-Saf...

I do something similar by bending a plastic tube up the flue and using compressed air once a year. I keep the plastic tube inside the refer compartment and whenever flakes fall down on the burner tube I just blow it off using the plastic tube like a straw.

[dougrainer]

dhull wrote:
Ok bad terminology
Rust falls into burner holes from above
Causes yellow flame and throws code
Blowing compressed air up flue would have to be done with burner/orifice assembly removed
I'm trying that next time I need to dump the rust particles out of it when it starts to burn yellow. I could not blow the rust particles out of the burner while still installed tried that. Had to remove and rinse out in alcohol.

Blowing compressed air into and up the flue does not mean you have to remove the burner orifice assbly. I use something similiar to this. I modified it by bending the end tip to about 45 to 60 degrees. More than enough to slide in and get up the flue tube. Doug

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milton-90-Maximum-PSI-Pistol-Grip-Blow-Gun-with-10-in-Extended-Reach-Saf...

[dhull]

Ok bad terminology
Rust falls into burner holes from above
Causes yellow flame and throws code
Blowing compressed air up flue would have to be done with burner/orifice assembly removed
I'm trying that next time I need to dump the rust particles out of it when it starts to burn yellow. I could not blow the rust particles out of the burner while still installed tried that. Had to remove and rinse out in alcohol.

[dougrainer]

In 42 years as an RV tech, I only had to remove the orifice for cleaning less than 10 times in thousands of refers I worked on. I use compressed air to blow out the burner and flue. It is EXTREMELY hard for any debris to get inside the orifice hole from the outside. Doug

[Ava]

On my older rig I just vacuum or blow the burner clean a couple times a year without having to remove anything more than a small cover.

[mnoeltne]

I HAVE NO IDEA IF THIS WOULD WORK! I'm just throwing it out there as something that occurred to me as I was reading this post.

What about ceramic coating like they do with automotive headers? Get a new chimney so it would be clean and full thickness (not rusted away) and get it coated.

[Gdetrailer]

Electric fridge = no more rust..

I do not know of any way to stop the chimney on propane fridges from rusting. The heat burns off the paint exposing the steel tubing to moisture in the air which creates iron oxide (IE rust).

I do not know if it is advisable to paint with a high temp paint as the paint can possibly interfere with heat transfer that is required making your fridge less efficient.

If one was to attempt to paint with a high temp paint, one needs to treat the rust, typically one would use a rust converter like Ospho which turns the rust into a black paintable surface.. However, I have never tried this on any high temperature surface like what is found on your fridge coils.