Dometic Refrigerator - Page 2 - Montana Owners Club

pud2 · 08-05-2005, 03:34 PM

Bill you need to check your connection on the board. They will get a bit of corrsion on them even though it may not look like it. It does not take much for the electronics to lose it's voltage and it takes just about all on 12 volt system to work. Just pull them off one at a time and clean with emery cloth or srcape with knife. Electroincs are very sensitive in humdity.

thook · 08-10-2005, 11:25 AM

My Dometic refrigerator works great on AC. The freezer compartment is near zero degrees and the refrigerator is cooling from about 35 - 40. But when on propane, the freezer cools the same as on AC, but the refer compartment seldom goes below 55 degrees. I have slid the thermistor to the top of the fin but that seems to have no effect at all. I have checked the flame and all seems to be in order. The flu is clear, no debris. Anyone have a similar problem?

Montana_2785 · 08-10-2005, 11:40 AM

The fridge in our old TT would semi-plug up the gas orifice about twice a year. That would weaken the flame and resulted in less cooling. I could never tell the flame was smaller just by looking at it. The fix was to take the burner apart and remove the copper button the orifice was in and wash it out in alcohol (NEVER USE A PIN!!!!!) That would restore cooling capacity when running on gas.

The orifice for the small flame these refrigerators use is really REALLY tiny.

Perhaps this is the same problem???

Eric

keham · 08-10-2005, 12:11 PM

My 05 3475RL had the same trouble. Has the new 5 levels of temp setting on the top. freezer would stay 0 but the fridge would never go below 45. this happened after the fourth week of owner ship, (level 5 setting), also the freezer inside heavy frost. Well they replaced the circuit broad and now all is fine keeps it at 35 on second level setting with 94 outside and direct sun on that side. The frost problem was caused by the outside drain hose. It was a direct down and out to the out side. they put a bend in it to make a p trap effect to hold some water in it. Frost problem solved. Being straight it was allowing outside humid air to make its way to the inside of freezer.

Navigator · 09-08-2005, 11:25 AM

Hi everyone,

I just found this thread about Dometic refrigerators. I thought we were the only ones having problems like this!

We have a 2005 3400RL that has trouble keeping both the freezer and refrigerator cold. It's been back to the dealer several times who claims that if it can make ice cubes then it's OK! Most of the time it will make ice cubes if the tray is on the freezer floor but if it's on a shelf then it takes forever to freeze. The refrig. can barely keep the temp. below 50 degrees at time and it doesn't matter where I position the "white slider" on the fin.

We've camped in Nevada when the temps. were above 100 degrees and at the ocean in a fog bank with temps. in the 60's. An independent Dometic serviceman wired the exhast fan to run all the time but nothing has been able to keep the temps in the correct range.

Our last hope is another independent Dometic service center who is going to look at it Oct. 1st. I've printed out this entire topic to show them all of your responses and suggestions. Hopefully our Monty will have a correctly working refrigerator in time for the swap meets at Quartzsite in January.

thook · 09-08-2005, 12:20 PM

Navigator,
Please let us know the results of this next visit to the service center. Ours was back to the dealers this last week. Worked great for him, but wasn't working as well when we got it home. Not sure what our next step will be.

owenwetzel · 09-08-2005, 01:53 PM

WELL SINCE I STARTED ALL THIS, HERE IS MY UPDATE.

Finally put battery operated refrigerator fan it helped a lot. I bought a ladder a couple weeks ago and found the cooling fan that cools the coils. We have our fridg in slideout. Checked fan found it not working so am in process of replacing it.

Since the extreme heat has gone our fridg has been working alright.

Navigator · 09-09-2005, 08:56 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by thook

Navigator,
Please let us know the results of this next visit to the service center. Ours was back to the dealers this last week. Worked great for him, but wasn't working as well when we got it home. Not sure what our next step will be.

Isn't that strange how the refrigerator works just fine when it's at the dealer but not at home????

I'll give you all an update next month after it's checked again.

Navigator · 10-07-2005, 05:03 AM

Here's an update on our refrigerator problems....

Our Monty spent a long weekend at the Authorized Dometic repair shop and the frig. performed perfectly!! The freezer made a half gallon of ice that was as hard as a rock and the frig. kept water nice and cold.

The repairman suggested that we don't overload the frig. and try not to open the door too often because the temp. will drop 10 degrees with each opening. He also suggested that we use a battery operated fan inside the frig. to help lower the temp. faster. So we're going to give that a try.

I guess we were used to a frig./freezer that cooled more rapidly that this Dometic. So it looks like we will have to change the way we use this frig..... like keeping all the soda in a cooler.

sreigle · 10-07-2005, 06:16 AM

I guess that's all good advice they gave you but we don't worry about any of that and our fridge and freezer do a good job. Being fulltimers our fridge and freezer are both pretty heavily loaded most of the time. We do try not to keep the door open as long as we did our house refrigerator.

When we were weekending and vacationing I found leaving the rig on shore power all summer so we could leave the fridge on all summer made a big difference in performance. I'm not sure why it makes a difference but always wondered if the reason had to do with the fridge walls and the insulation being consistently cold had anything to do with that. It performed better this way than it did when we just turned the fridge on the day before a trip. That approach works ok but didn't work as well for us as leaving the fridge on all season.

CountryGuy · 10-07-2005, 07:18 AM

We like Steve, travel with a WELL packed frig, you could not get another piece of lettuce in there when I get it packed up.

We do turn ours off when we return to Tipton, but ONLY if we know we will be in Tipton longer than 10 days. (as an example, we left Tipton on June 24, returned around 31st of July, left again August 7th, returned August 22, left again August 28 and returned September 12th. I turned off house frigs June 24th and did not turn them back on till September 12th)

Anything less, I leave the frig on in Montana, and the frig(s) OFF in the house. No sense running all of em, saves packing and unpacking, and I am just lazy enough to want to save the energy required to move stuff in and out of the house for a short time.

When we are home for an extended time, I take everything out of Montana, and put it all back in the house. Clean the frig and and turn it off.

Al and I do not go on weekends any more, if we go, it is gonna be for a minimum of 7 days, probably more like 14 and MORE! It is a personal choice of how we use Montana.

All that said, we turn the frig on a day or so before departure date, summer or winter, let it cool down, pack it full and off we go. We have not put a thermometer in there (where would I put it??), but the food keeps cold like it does in my house frig. Freezer is COLD.

I don't buy the warning, "Don't over load the frig". Sorry, to me that is bunk!

CountryGuy · 10-07-2005, 07:26 AM

Oh, I will add, that in the summer, when we go to the lake, we carry a small cooler/frig, one of those 12 volt ones, and leave it outside under the awning and pack it full of cold drinks, pop, water, a few beers. In the extreme heat when we have a lot of family and friends around, it makes it easier, keeps em from tracking all over Montana, we can pack more food in the frig and it probably does help keep the frig cooler. In high heat, it is best no matter how full that frig is to not leave the door open long and not open it unless ya need to. At least, that is our experience.

dsprik · 10-08-2005, 07:05 AM

Carol, you give your relatives beer??? Mine are bad enough sober!

Just kidding!

My relatives are great, plus none of them read this.

Actually, the reason for my post... I am assuming you also have a Dometic fridge that you're talking about, right?

CountryGuy · 10-08-2005, 12:35 PM

Dave,

Yes, it is a Dometic.

Now, this is the 3rd RV we have had, Al could tell you what brands we had in the other units. I simply do not remember.

My comments would hold true for ALL refers we have had in these 3 RV's.

One RV we had long enough that the refer died. The amonia all escaped and they told us it was not worth fixing. Whether that statement was true or not, we did not replace the unit with another RV frig. We used a small electric frig for a while, then found an apartment sized electric frig at Lowe's for about $250.00. It just fit in that opening, and it had 10 cubic feet of inside storage. OHhhhh, do we miss that frig! We could pack more than enough food for 2 weeks, and we never had any trouble with things getting warm while we were running. That said, we never ran in Arizona heat either, but, I think it would have gone 3 to 5 hours in that heat, as we could easily run 6 to 10 hours with no significant loss of cold"ness".

sreigle · 10-10-2005, 05:00 PM

Ours developed a crack in the freezer compartment but Dometic replaced it. In four fifthwheels we've had two Norcold and two Dometic refrigerators. We've been in 100 degree weather with humidity to match and the fridge and freezer always did a good job even when full. When we lived in NE Kansas I found if I left the rig plugged in all season and the fridge running it did a much better job than if I just turned it on a day or two before a trip. I assume the walls were colder and somehow held the cool better when the door is opened. That sounds odd but that's how it appeared. We are careful not to leave the door open too long. These absorption fridges take longer to cool than the house type.

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