You may remember that while we were away at Shell Island Voyagers fridge stopped working on Gas.

Big Disclaimer–   This is what I did to get it working again – it is not a recommendation that anyone else tries the same thing – in fact I suggest that any repairs to gas appliances be carried out by professionals.

As I spent my entire working life fixing things I did it myself.

The first thing I did was turn off the gas supply to the fridge which I found under the oven.

Then it was working out how the fridge was fixed. I found that there were four fixing screws through the side walls near the front.

With these removed (and that wasn’t easy – I don’t think that they have been removed since assembly ten years ago) and the gas pipe disconnected at the only accessible junction at the rear it was possible to start moving the fridge forward a bit.

I then had to free up the electrical cables that looped into the service area below the oven so there was enough slack to allow full removal from the cavity.

Conveniently both harnesses (one mains, one 12volt) had molar plugs I could disconnect so the fridge was totally free standing.

I had done a bit of research on the web (mostly YouTube) so had an idea what I would find under the covers. Basically there is a solenoid that allows gas through to the burner which is ignited electronically. Above the flame is a flue that passes through the heat exchanger and is vented at the top of the rear by the grill to the outside world.

Anyway when I got the cover off the burner box it was very apparent that a good de-coke was needed.

In fact I found that the flue was all but completely blocked. Two of the four burner slots were also blocked.

When I removed the burner it also looked bent so we decided to invest in a new one. Also a bottle brush from Wilcos to give the flue a good cleanout.

So a good clean out of all the soot and with a new burner fitted I reconnected the cables and connected the gas pipe with the fridge turned sideways. In this position I could see what was going on.

With the gas turned on I expected the burner to ignite when the gas got through. Unfortunately it didn’t.

Mary had had a Facebook chat with a work colleague of mine who mentioned he had previously had issues with corrosion on the solenoid contacts so I stripped down the control box and cleaned up all the contacts I found as well as replacing the fuses with new ones (they all appeared good but why not while there).

When I reassembled everything it burst into life – so thanks Pete for the info.

It was then just a case of reassembly. The foam used to cut down drafts around the fridge had seen better days so I replaced with new.

So hopefully (with annual cleaning of the flue) we will get many more years of reliable service for our now fully serviced fridge. Fingers crossed.