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Old 01-10-2021, 01:49 PM   #1
Mocron
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Refrigerator Maintenance and Replace

Our last trip out we experienced ice buildup in the freezer compartment of our fridge. Buildup was at the back and top. Fridge is original to the 2012 3400 RL. Is there maintenance we can perform or are we needing to replace. If replacing, what recommendation do you have? Inclined not to go residential but could/would if persuaded. Thanks in advance.
 
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Old 01-10-2021, 02:53 PM   #2
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Check and make sure your door seals are good and the door is closing all the way. That said, we have had to occasionally defrost every RV fridge we've ever had.
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Old 01-10-2021, 03:03 PM   #3
DadsHemi
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We defrost ours freezer about every 6 month or so
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Old 01-10-2021, 05:24 PM   #4
Mocron
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Issue happened near Midland/Odessa this fall. DW says temps vary but tend toward the cold side. Typicality we're out 3-4 weeks at a time so defrosting regularly is not an issue. Liquids in the bottom sometime get a little thick. Will check the seals and report back. Always appreciate your insights.
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Old 01-10-2021, 06:12 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by Mocron View Post
Issue happened near Midland/Odessa this fall. DW says temps vary but tend toward the cold side. Typicality we're out 3-4 weeks at a time so defrosting regularly is not an issue. Liquids in the bottom sometime get a little thick. Will check the seals and report back. Always appreciate your insights.
I've not tried it, but on another forum someone suggested they put those really thin flexible plastic cutting boards up against the freezer walls. Once the ice builds up, apparently they just pull the boards out and ice comes with and scoop the ice out.

If you think it's worth trying I'd be curious how well it works.

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Old 01-10-2021, 06:58 PM   #6
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Brad, that's intriguing. If we continue to have the issue I'll give it a shot and let you know.
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Old 01-10-2021, 08:55 PM   #7
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We've done the plastic sheet cutting boards and it does work. When the frost builds up on them you just remove them, rinse them off, dry them and put them back in the freezer. Also DQDick had the idea also. You take a dollar bill and place it over the seal and close the door. Then try and pull that bill out. If it pulls out easy you either have to replace the seals on the frig OR adjust the closing/latching mechanism of the doors to make them close/latch tighter. If you call the manufacturer of the frig you might ask them if there is some way to correct this problem also. Some units have Dometic and some have Norcold so I can't give you the specific Customer Service to contact. Good luck and let us know what you come up with. Look for this thread and add to it when you come up with a solution.
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Old 01-10-2021, 09:01 PM   #8
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Rondo, etc al, You all are exactly why I'm thankful for this group. Great suggestions. As soon as I can try these I'll report back. Thanks
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Old 01-11-2021, 12:25 PM   #9
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Check out this video

https://changinglanesrv.com/rv-maint...refrigeration/
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Old 01-11-2021, 04:25 PM   #10
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That video had several great suggestions. I appreciated that they had an NRVIA ceritified tech sharing some of the information. Thanks for sharing!
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Old 01-27-2021, 02:28 PM   #11
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Samsung Refrigerator Ice build up

I had the same problem with my Samsung refrigerator. The culprit is a frozen drain line. Samsung places this really cheap piece of metal that connects to a heated tube and then extended into the drain area to keep it from freezing. It fails so much that there is a class action lawsuit against Samsung. Fortunately there is an easy fix and etrailer sells a replacement part. There are many videos on Youtube that address the problem Here's a link to one of them
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Old 01-27-2021, 03:17 PM   #12
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Frost

I put in a small 12 volt fan in the refer section that blows a small amount of air across the fins which seems to keep the frost from none to very little. Keeping air circulation is the key and not packing the fridge too full to allow air circulation.
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Old 01-27-2021, 03:58 PM   #13
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Originally Posted by Mocron View Post
Our last trip out we experienced ice buildup in the freezer compartment of our fridge. Buildup was at the back and top. Fridge is original to the 2012 3400 RL. Is there maintenance we can perform or are we needing to replace. If replacing, what recommendation do you have? Inclined not to go residential but could/would if persuaded. Thanks in advance.
I had the same issues and I went and bought a small plastic basket, trimmed to fit the bottom of freezer. Place all my frozen food in it. Apparently the slots in the freezer are for circulation in the freezer and when you have food blocking that it would freeze and ice would form on the walls. The basket helped no more ice. Just keep the sides of the bottom part of freezer open.
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Old 01-27-2021, 04:34 PM   #14
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The dollar bill in the door seal does not work any more. You will need to use $5. Prices are going up.
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Old 01-28-2021, 12:27 PM   #15
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Touche 3500SWR!
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Old 01-28-2021, 12:42 PM   #16
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You can call Leon Hershberger at National RV Refrigeration in Shipshewanna, IN. He rebuilt our old refrigerator with better than OEM parts and warranteed the unit for 6 years. It cost half of what a new unit would have been.
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Old 01-28-2021, 03:34 PM   #17
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There are generally two ways to go depending on how you travel. If you absolutely have to have a RV refrigerator look into having it rebuilt like NCFischers said, rather than buying a new one with he same cheep parts. The other option (if you don't have the space for a residential) is to convert yours to a sort of residential. There are videos on YouTube about taking the back propane setup off and replacing it with a compressor setup built specifically for it, I would replace all seals at that time also.
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Old 04-07-2021, 02:44 PM   #18
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Finally got to investigate why the freezer on our NORCOLD N811 was frosting up and the main compartment wasn't holding temps. Dollar bill test indicated the seals weren't great (2021 model...) so called PPL for parts. They said that model was out of production but they had complete new doors available. Then the parts guy suggested I replace the Thermistor. So we ordered that, installed it and now, almost 48 hours later the fridge is ginning pretty good. We've set it on 4 and the lower box temp is 29 with no frost in the freezer. I'll update if there's news, but thanks to all for the assist!
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Old 04-07-2021, 03:03 PM   #19
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Glad to hear you got it fixed.

When we first got our Montana fifth wheel, the freezer frosted up real bad, and fast. It's a Samsung residential. The fridge is French doors with the slider freezer drawer in the bottom.

I limped the freezer compartment along for several months, very discouraged at how quickly it froze up. Then one day, it simply quit doing that!

I think 2 things happened that changed everything. First, the rubber seals were brand new and stiff. They had not formed to make a good seal where they hit the freezer drawer frame (Magnetized). Second, I cleaned the drawer out of all the frost, and when I did, I also cleaned the rubber seals. I washed them down and actually dried them with a towel. I think, between them simply being stiff from being new, and getting them washed, .... removing all the factory crud off of them, and presto! It sealed good. Air intake is about the only thing that causes frost inside a freezer. Stop the air intake, and no frost. We've not had frost any more. I make sure the seals get cleaned off ever now and then too.
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Old 02-17-2023, 05:58 PM   #20
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I use them and it woks great, as long as they are tight to the wall.
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