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Old 06-02-2019, 07:37 AM   #1
Vic B
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Refrigerator Problems

I am having problems with my dometic fridge heating up during hot weather and going as high as 50. I have been told by my dealer to obtain a small fan and install it in the lower vent to help drive the air up and out the top exhaust.
Has anyone had this problem and if the fan worked can you advise what size of fan as the space is quite limited in the lower vent. Tks
 
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Old 06-02-2019, 08:01 AM   #2
Dave W
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First of all, make sure that the fan(s) supplied by Dometic are working. Our last 5er the fans were seized solid. I added a couple 120mm computer fans at the outlet vent, controlled by a thermo switch from Home Depot and fixed my problem.


On that Dometic, the failed fans were left in place, disconnected as they could not be removed without pulling the fridge, Our current Norcold, their fans are accessible - well, kninda though I have add two more at the vent outlet but controlled by an adjustible snap thermo switch (I like the Home Depot switch better)
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Old 06-02-2019, 10:42 AM   #3
Our3231CK
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Dave I like your idea of the fans, do you have any photos of where you mounted them? I have a heat problem on ours, didn't know if putting them in the intake or the exhaust or both. Talked with an RV'er while camping last year he said the space behind wasn't adequate for the air flow? his analogy was putting 2lbs of crap in a 1lb sock. I haven't been on the roof yet to look at the exhaust area, CW did repairs on the fridge overheating in April this year. they replace a thermo couple??
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Old 06-02-2019, 11:38 AM   #4
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I put a regular small household fan in the back bottom pointing up to help move more air over the coils.

It’s a 120volt fan on a snapper set to turn on at 95 degrees.
Works well and has helped solved the lack of air flow.
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Old 06-02-2019, 12:00 PM   #5
Dave W
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Rick - I have a couple of the 2 added fans on the last 5er but not the current one with the Norcold. These worked pretty well for our needs on that unit but the fridge on that SOB was quite a bit smaller and only had one fan as OE. I will be taking some this week of the current 5er - and that installation is quite a bit cleaner. Both mods were made in the outlet.


If this is how you want to go, I'll dig up the parts info and post.
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Old 06-03-2019, 04:47 PM   #6
Vic B
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Dave thanks for the information. I will give it a try
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Old 04-18-2023, 03:29 PM   #7
Vic B
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I posted in 2017 about problems with my fridge heating up In March of this year I had a service tech look at the fridge and he asked two questions. Where is the board that should extend 12 inches above the upper opening and also where is the fireproof insulation around the fridge The unit had neither so I screwed on a 1/4 inch plywood over the opening and added insulation around the fridge. I have not had any further problems with the fridge even in 90 degree texas weather It seems these items were missing from the time the unit left the factory and after many suggestions the problem has now be resolved
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Old 04-18-2023, 03:57 PM   #8
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Glad you fixed the air circulation problem. Another thing to check if the factory fans on the back are not working is the thermal snap switch(es) that turn on those fans. I think on The Dometic you may have two, but that may be different on models. One switch could be on the top at the upper cooling fins and the other could be clamped to a pipe near the bottom. Our fans years ago on our Norcold had stopped working and I found the snap switch at the top had failed. Changed it and the inside temps came back down.
Another thing that is excellent to protect your fridge is the installation of an ARP Fridge Defend. We've had one installed since 2015 and the fridge still works great, and this is after having the cooling unit replaced the second time in less than a year. https://www.arprv.com/
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