four-door Dometic problem

[Virginia Young]

Hope someone here can give us suggestions. We have the four-door Dometic IN A SLIDE. It will work great for a week or two. Keeping temps around 34-35. Then - Temp will raise. sometimes up to 48. We have tried sitting a box fan outside the bottom vent to move air thru the back of the fridge, up and out the top vent. This didn't help at all. If we turn it off/on a few times, it normally starts working again. I turned it from the highest 5 setting to 4 and that made it work - for awhile.

It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the outside temp. It has worked great when it was 100 outside and then there are days where it is 80 outside and the fridge won't cool.

I am soooo getting tired of this thing. If the slide didn't come into the island, there would be a residential in here by now. I just haven't been able to find one that isn't too deep.

I called an RV service center, but they told me they wouldn't be able to find the problem if it wasn't doing it at the time they came out. Since it takes two weeks or more to get an appointment, there is no way of knowing if it will be working or not when they get here.

This unit is 14 months old (of course). I am sooooo tired of the problems with this thing.

[Drifty1]

While at the rally in Goshen there was a Dometic rep there. One of his comments had to do with the fact that the new models have a defrost cycle that will go in defrost every 60 hour and last for 5 hours I believe. During this time it will bring the temp up to allow the frost off the fins.. This could be what is going on..

[tomd]

Our Dometic was doing the same way. Local Shop found the wires that connect to the auxiliary fans were loose.

[Fire5er]

We have the same rig (2014 BS382RL)...do you hear the external auxiliary fans come on and run for an extended time?

Our 2007 3400RL never had this sound and I found that the fan was inop so I had to replace the fan. I put two 4"x4" computer fans with rocker switches on the fridge inside so I could turn them on when we saw temps going up.

So when we got the Big Sky and I heard the fans come on I was happy because I knew they were working, and when I don't hear them I know they are off. So if you have not heard the fans outside then that could be your problem.

[WeBeFulltime]

If you really want a residential, a "counter depth" residential should work. That is my plan for when the Norcold quits.

[tomd]

We were told at the pdi we would hear the fans come on. That didn't happen until the wires were connected properly.

[Virginia Young]

I have never noticed any frost on the fins and this warm-up lasts a day or two when it happens. Yesterday, it gradually warmed up all day until it got to 47. It started at 34. Today, is better. It managed to keep at 39 all day. We do hear the fans running a lot of the time so that can't be it. Keep the suggestions coming. Eventually, we will get to the bottom of this.

I've measured the counter depth residential fridges at about 28-29 inches. Our cabinet is only 24". Tomorrow I will bring the slide in and see just how much room I have. I'm afraid it will be too deep . . . If it will fit, this stupid Dometic may end up in a scrap yard.

[Bigboomer]

Virginia,

This is exactly what was happening to our frig until if finally quit and the frig would not get below 50. Last week we replaced the Dumetic with a Samsung RF18HFENBBC and live is now grand!

Here is the link to the install.

http://s962.photobucket.com/user/myb...Frig%20Install

There is reason all the manufacturers are all starting to put in residential frigs....they are tired of dealing with the failures of both Dometic and Norcold and having to replace them or fix them under warranty.

Our new residential frig has a 1 year parts and labor warranty, 5 years parts on all frig components and 10 years parts on the digital compressor.

[Virginia Young]

Thanks so much, Bigboomer! I have hope. There may soon be a new fridge installed in this Big Sky. Did you do the batteries and converter, or just running on shore power?

[Bigboomer]

Virginia,

We already have full battery and solar charging set up in place so we can boondock with the residential. IMO with the residential you will need a minimum of 220 amps at 12 volts to boondock overnight between campgrounds without a dedicated recharging source such as solar or a generator.

[mazboy]

contact dometic.

http://www.dometic.com/USA/Support/Contact-Us/

[Virginia Young]

Thanks, mazboy. Just sent them a message. Will see what they say.

[DarMar]

Unfortunately you seem to be headed down the same path of discomfort that many of us have. After a year of more service calls than we can count we have had a cooling unit replaced, extra fan installed, lots of extra flashing to improve air flow and finally a whole new fridge. We are better off but still not convinced ours is working properly. It just seems to be all over the map some days even on the coldest setting.

With the digital temp read out we may have just become obsessed with it, not sure!!!

Our next move come spring will probably be the same as Bigboomer. Good luck and keep us posted.

[Fire5er]

Nice work Bigboomer. Thanks for the pictures.

[winter texan]

Virginia, We had the same problem on our 2015 Dometic. Had to have a new cooling unit. Not sure if it's totally fixed as we left it in FL for the summer and only used it a couple days after the repair. What we do to have the defrost cycle working in the wee hours of morning is to turn fridge on about noon and 60 hours later it's 12am when the defrost starts and the door is not opened during the time it takes to defrost.

[1retired06]

Our domestic is the four door 1350. Manual says the first cycle is 60 hours but then goes to 48 hour cycle and recommends restarting the frig between 4 and 10 PM.

[bigskyjimmy]

Like Drifty1 said ours every 3-4 days temps will raise to about high 30's low 40's for a while and the fins do defrost then it comes back down again to 34-36 every since we bought it 1 year ago, at first it worried me but that is just how it works, I like it better that our old 2012 Norcold that never did defrost the fins and had to do it with a hair dryer every 2 weeks

[Virginia Young]

I could live with high 30's-low 40's for a few hours every 48 hours. I feel that 47-48 for a day to day and a half is not good. I don't think that's a safe temperature for eggs, milk, meat, etc. I'm wondering if ours is getting stuck in the defrost phase. Yesterday and today, it has been great. 34-35 degrees consistently. I'm in correspondence with Dometic via e-mail. They requested the model and mfg numbers, so we will see what they come up with.

[Virginia Young]

Okay - Dometic told me to take the fridge in for service, but the service center told me they could only diagnose the problem if it was actually doing it at the time. Since I have no idea when it will act up there is no way to schedule ahead of time and we all know how long it takes to get an appointment when you call.

At this point, the fridge has been working perfectly for 11 days. I guess we will just keep dealing with it until we have had enough and just change it out for a residential.

[OCBMS]

I have a 2010 Norcold that has a problem occasionally that seems to be related to when the sun shines on the unit. Early afternoon noon hitting the of the refrig seems to shut the operation down ( maybe my thermistor is to sensitive). This time of the year seems to be worse with lower sun angle and clearer skies. If I park in the shade or refrig north/east no problems.
My worse problem was traveling a steep rough road with the refrig running. I would not cool but now I turn it off 10-15 minutes before climbing 9% hills
Clay