-15 degrees and fridge just quit: UPDATE! - Page 2 - Montana Owners Club

jimcol · 12-13-2013, 12:09 PM

Carolyn, Curiosity is killing this cat. Any update on your fridge would be appreciated. Jim

Mudchief · 12-13-2013, 02:08 PM

Our unit quit when it got to -10 and nothing worked. RV tech told me that they don't work well on electric when it gets real cold. Switched the unit to propane and sealed all of the top vents except for about 3 inches on one vent then did the same on the bottom. That gives enough air for the burner. Slowly the unit came back alive and worked.

jimcol · 12-14-2013, 01:15 AM

That's interesting Dennis. When you said nothing worked do you mean interior light and lights on control panels as well as cooling functions? I can see where gas would be better as that electric heating element only heats the small part of the boiler it comes in direct contact with where the gas burner burner is putting heat on much more of the piping. Blocking those vents has to be a hugh help. Jim

Mudchief · 12-14-2013, 01:50 AM

Jim, I had no light in the unit but the control still worked. When it started cooling again the light inside worked again. I think the cold caused the circuit board to start acting up. The RV tech told me that if the control panel did not work to put a 40 watt bulb near the circuit board in the outside compartment. Blocking the vents makes a hugh difference in the winter.

Irlpguy · 12-14-2013, 06:30 AM

It would be very interesting to know if the problems encountered by others during cold weather are all Dometic or are any of them Norcold.

Electronic components have a fairly high temperature operating range, can't imagine what would fail because of these temperatures. Any limit switches would be switched off/on at high temp not low.

If the Dometic is basically the same electronically as the Norcold, then the interior light will not work unless the fridge is actually working. I believe the reason for that is so that if you want to defrost or leave doors open while not in use the light is not on all the time. Would be reasonable to operate on both fridge types I would think.

ols1932 · 12-14-2013, 01:00 PM

Try putting a 100-watt bulb near the rear of the fridge as close as you can to the cooling mechanism. I did this one winter in Iowa when the temps dropped below freezing. It fools the fridge and it doesn't cool. Putting the light bulb in there fooled the fridge the other way making it think it's warming up outside!

Orv

Irlpguy · 12-14-2013, 04:01 PM

Jumping back to the OP, it was indicated there was no lights in the fridge nor at the control panel. I think we can safely say the interior light works only when the fridge is operational. No display indicates there is no 12V to operate the fridge.

Like the Norcold the Dometic has a "Power Module" located at the rear of the fridge in the lower outside compartment. This module must have 12V power in order for the fridge to operate. While there may be power going to this module, if there is an interruption in that power at the module the display will not get power, nor will the fridge operate. There are two fuses in the module, one for the 120V and one for 12V. They should not burn out but could. My fridge also has a fuse on the main panel marked "liv" not fridge is the 4th in from the right.

Here is a picture of my Power Module with the cover off.

Bottom right = 12V and 5 am fuse, Bottom left = 120V and fuse, Top right = ignition source.

I believe if the fridges were being operated on propane during cold weather this problem might not occur. The pilot light produces some heat all the time, this might be sufficient to keep the coolant warm enough to operate when cooling is called for. There is a High limit switch located on the burner in the Norcold, not sure about the Dometic. My Norcold top vent has aluminum that covers half the opening and cannot be removed, the cooling fans are behind there.

I think the problem arises because the coolant when cold does not circulate easily, especially using electric and causes the high limit switch in the burner to trip. It will be most interesting to find out what is the real cause of the issue and what can be done to prevent this from happening.

kerry · 12-14-2013, 05:12 PM

-15 degrees, You guys really need to move south just a little, LOL

Kerry

Mudchief · 12-15-2013, 12:51 AM

Tripguy, Thanks for the pictures. Good to know about those fuses. You would think the shield at the top would come off. In summer you want all the air flow you can get. I have added extra fans to mine to make it work better in hot weather.

Irlpguy · 12-15-2013, 04:04 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Mudchief

Tripguy, Thanks for the pictures. Good to know about those fuses. You would think the shield at the top would come off. In summer you want all the air flow you can get. I have added extra fans to mine to make it work better in hot weather.

I really have no idea why the top vent is partially closed in that way, the aluminum is glued in between the insulation and the inside paneling. Another one of Keystone's engineering marvel's that is yet to be explained. There are two fans in mine, appear to be about 4" approx.

So far I have not had any problem with the fridge cooling in hot weather, these fans blow up onto a cooling fin with a limit switch on it that controls when the fans come on. My fridge also had a warranty replaced component associated with the High Limit Switch, it clips onto one of the coils at the bottom of the fridge.

Wayne and Carolyn Mathews · 12-15-2013, 06:36 AM

Tripguy, thanks so much for the photo of the power module. All that stuff is more than a little intimidating when amateurs are trying to do some troubleshooting, and your photo and explanation of fuse placement should help my husband and neighbors when they make another attempt to get to the bottom of the problem we have (no lights, no noise, nothing coming from fridge).

Dometic referred us to two Dometic techs in Dillon--shock--but neither is willing to come out and work on an RV in this weather. In fact, one of them won't even return our calls. The other one's wife took our message, but she said her husband doesn't work in cold weather. Great. So, we have a dorm fridge sitting in the walkway to the kitchen. Makes for some interesting navigating when we're trying to get to the sink or table.

Carolyn

Irlpguy · 12-15-2013, 07:28 AM

The Power Module on the Dometic will not look exactly the same as the one in my picture Carolyn, although they both have the two fuses they may be located in a different spot on the board.

Would it be possible to post the model number of the fridge, that would be helpful although each of the Dometic's I have researched seems to be very similar to one another.

Hope it warms up for you soon, last weekend we were at 20 degrees, today it is 50 but I am not living in my RV. I have problems with my furnace in my S&B and I am trying to avoid calling an expensive repair person to solve it.

bncinwv · 12-19-2013, 01:48 AM

Carolyn,
I assume when it started working again, the temperatures had risen somewhat. If so, and the lower temperatures are predicted again, you may get some benefit from having some sort of safe heat source (incandescent bulbs, etc.) ready to place behind the refrigerator. I believe there are some members who have successfully used this approach.
Bingo

mhs4771 · 12-19-2013, 03:17 AM

Here's my take on the semi-closed top vent. With the cover off you should be able to see some cooling fins at the very top, thus you want the air flow to pass over those fins before exiting, without the panel blocking the lower portion of the cover the air would exit there and never reach those fins. In a non-slide fridge with the roof vent it's a non issue as the air flow goes straight up and pass those fins. I think everyone is too cheap to make a new cover for the upper vent that would be smaller. Just my opinion and info that I've read.

TYR · 01-25-2014, 02:57 AM

For whatever it's worth, we're in NW New Jersey and our fridge stopped working day before yesterday, even on propane. Fridge is "working," it's just not cooling. We experienced this once before when in similar harsh winter conditions.

This morning I just turned the sucker off to give it a rest. Seems I remember we did that before.

Here we've had subzero temps and wind chills down to -25 or so. We have about 7 inches of snow on the ground and more coming down right now.

We also have frozen pipes somewhere in the basement. You can see that story under the "Brrr . . . Winter Camping" section of the forum.

Looks like our first chance to thaw out will be around Feb. 5-8, when we will have above freezing temps for a few days in a row.

We're warm, safe, have plenty of food, bottled water and actually water from the taps in the office trailer next to our rig.

This is an unusually harsh winter all over. Hang in there!

TYR · 01-26-2014, 03:23 AM

Update on our fridge status:

I remembered something a tech told me during our Missouri winter, which is to turn off the fridge and give it a rest/reset it.

Turned ours off yesterday morning and then back on in the afternoon.

Voila! Working fridge! It's on propane.

It's not above freezing outside and we will dip back into subzero and single digits for highs this week, but just thought I'd pass this along in case anyone wants to give it a try.

Good luck!

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