Norcold N611 won't light on gas consistently

Our two year old Norcold N611 will often not relight and very often is off in the morning.  We wake up to a blinking (Check Gas light). I usually can just switch it off and relight it, and it will run all day.  On a recent trip, it would not even attempt to relight.  I must have timed something out trying to relight it?  I finally had a roving RV Repairman spend two hours going over everything on the fridge and gas system.  He cleaned the burner, checked the voltage, checked the gas pressure, blew out lines and connections; all the usual checks.  Of course it worked fine when we left him, but all the same symptoms quickly returned the next morning after we had driven away from the area.  All other gas appliances work as they should.  After re-contacting him by phone, he is thinking it is a problem with the gas regulator and/or pigtails.  Why would all the other gas appliances work just fine?  Something peculiar to gas fridges?

The other issue is that when you go to relight it, often you can hear the first inside fridge click and then when it tries to light the burner, often you hear a click/whoomp. Sometime it will light, but most times during these episodes it doesn't.  It is like it is getting gas and spark, but is blowing itself out.  Sometimes it immediately lights right up like it is supposed to.  I hate to spend another $2-300.00+ on such an intermittent issue at a dealer. I am afraid when I take it in it will work just fine.  Ideas?  More info needed? 

Grizfan said:

Our two year old Norcold N611 will often not relight and very often is off in the morning.  We wake up to a blinking (Check Gas light). I usually can just switch it off and relight it, and it will run all day.

The other issue is that when you go to relight it, often you can hear the first inside fridge click and then when it tries to light the burner, often you hear a click/whoomp. Sometime it will light, but most times during these episodes it doesn't. 

Click to expand...

Grizfan
I suspect that the $30 spark/sense electrode: http://thenorcoldguy.com/norcold-spark-sense-electrode-61692222-fits-most-models/, needs cleaning, adjusting or has gone bad.

Mel S thanks for the quick reply.  I checked the manual and it does not say how to clean it or what the gap is.  Can I just pull it and use steel wool?  Do you just play with the gap until it lights everytime, or do you need a feeler gauge?

Grizfan said:

Mel S thanks for the quick reply.  I checked the manual and it does not say how to clean it or what the gap is.  Can I just pull it and use steel wool?  Do you just play with the gap until it lights everytime, or do you need a feeler gauge?

Click to expand...

Grizfan
I tried cleaning my electrode with steel wool 6 years ago but it didn't help...however I got a new spark/sense electrode at a RV dealer and simply replaced the original.... (the fridge has been working correctly on LP, with no gap adjustment, since).

Success, so far at least.  I took the burner assembly all apart and removed the ignitor, and to my eye it looked fine, but I took a bit of steel wool and cleaned it anyway.  Hooked it all back up, and it ignited first time, every time for next 8-10 starts!!  I'll keep testing it for the next few days.  It has played this game before; lighting-not lighting for months.  Maybe just taking it apart and reinstalling it got the gap just right, there does not appear to be any adjusting it accept by bending it.  Who knows, but it is working now.  I may order a backup ignitor, and keep it on hand.  I can't believe the worries, hassles, and $$ the last few months over a simple bit of steel wool cleaning.  I watched the RV repairman, and the one thing he did not do, is clean the ignitor.  But again, it looked okay.  Thanks.

Glad you are having better luck. Here?s a valuable resource for us Norcold owners:
bryantrv.com/docs2/docs/ncoldnnewnseries.pdf

Another place to check and clean is the connection of that igniter/detector at the circuit board. Since the voltage produced by the detector portion is quite small, any resistance from corrosion at that point will cause this kind of problem. A new one and a clean connection will prevent many of these problems.

Update; it stayed lit all night.  First time in forever, and it relit easily, although there was still just a bit of the whoomping.  Do your fridges, or water heaters for that matter, do that on gas?  Or do I still have an issue?  Not lately, but sometimes it is so loud I am afraid I am scaring neighbors.

Good tip, Alpha.  I did not think of that for some reason.  Boomer, thanks for the link, that is a much more thorough manual than what came with the trailer.

The water heater on my old '89 used to really whoomp when it lit off.  I've been having a similar problem to yours with the fridge, but it only happens when we're camped at high altitude(currently at around 7400').  I saw on here somewhere that a lot of fridges have problems above 5000', and true to this, we don't seem to have problems with it at lower altitudes.

I have heard that too, and it did seem to mess up more at higher elevations.  But I am at 3200' now, and we spend the spring in TX, AZ, NM, UT, and/or CA, and few of those camp spots were very high elevation.  Cleaning the ignitor seems to have done the trick.  I am guessing the whomping is the gas coming on before the spark, or the spark is too weak to ignite?  Just guesses.