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davonelson's avatar
davonelson
Explorer
Jul 11, 2016

Refrigerator problems

My Dometic two way frig will cool on gas but not on 110. How do I test to determine the problem? Thanks. DAN
  • You should check power going into the circuit board and power out to the heating element as well. I recently had the same thing happen but only intermittently. I have reason to believe that relay is sticking. I always have 120V power into the circuit board but none out when the element doesn't work. Then, spontaneously, it will work again. If it keeps up or gets more frequent, I will have to replace the lower (outside) control board.
  • Check the obvious first. Does the outlet that the refrigerator is plugged into have power?
  • Old-Biscuit wrote:
    How long is a piece of rope?


    I know the answer to this....Twice the distance from the center to one end.

    Ron
  • To answer your question: With a VOM meter and some knowledge of electricity. Good luck.
  • davonelson wrote:
    My meter reads the exact same 43.7 as yours. Does that mean the heater element is bad? DAN


    I would say the one in the picture is good. At 43.7 ohms and using Ohms Law that would be a 329.5w heating element. IIRC there are 2 350w so that could be close. At least on my Norcold.

    On Ohms scale 0 is a dead short. No reading is open.

    Go to AC Volt scale and very carefully check the voltage on those 2 wires with it turned on. The should be ~120v AC there, if not figure out why.
  • Sorry the picture is one from the web, not mine, picture was for where the element and curcuit board are located
    My element read 0 ohm meaning it was open or it had a break in it, the one pictured is reading good.
    To be safe it is best to have the fridge unplugged when testing the system for conuity .
  • How long is a piece of rope?


    What does that question have to do with anything you might ask......

    Well w/o more info on which Model of Dometic you have is same as asking my initial question.

    Know that you have a Dometic 2-way fridge that doesn't work on AC power but like my question not much more.

    Some models....44 ohms is good
    Some models....80 ohms is good

    Sometimes element can ohm good and be bad
  • My meter reads the exact same 43.7 as yours. Does that mean the heater element is bad? DAN
  • Mine was doing the same thing, I looked on the web and checked almost everything
    What I found was when I tested the heater element for the 110 volt it tested open
    I think when it failed it also blew a fuse in the print cucuit board
    this all sits behind the outside panel that can be removed.
    Something like this