How close must you be to true level to not harm refrigerator

Our Dometic Fridge's cooling unit died at about the 10 year mark. We had our rig parked in our driveway at a small nose up angle during a lengthy home renovation/remodel. Angle of rig was not uncomfortable, bubble level was somewhat off center. After replacing our Dometic fridge with a Norcold fridge, our mobile service guy advised us that when parked and fridge is run for extended time, fridge should be as near level as possible. The theory is that recent year cooling units, made in Asia, are not made as robust, use a different coolant mix, and are not as tolerant to running off level for extended times as older cooling units were. ??????

If on propane they are no problem slightly off level. We dry camp in the desert all the time, never truely level, but within reason.

Strabo wrote:
If on propane they are no problem slightly off level. We dry camp in the desert all the time, never truely level, but within reason.

propane is not more tolerate then electric.......cooling unit does NOT recognize source of heat.

Gravity flow is critical to proper function.
Overheating is a result of gravity flow being disrupted.
That is why 'reasonably' level is level enough as long as the gravity flow is not impacted.

Nothing to do with whether propane or electric is used.
If it did matter then logic would dictate electric cause it is typically 18*F lower than propane

MobileBasset wrote:
I just get the RV level enough that it is comfortable to be in without things rolling off the table or feeling like I am walking up an incline. That seems to be level enough for the fridge because it always works great.

x2

We have been Rving for 30 years and never had a fridge poop out on us. As long as we can comfortably use the RV, the fridge seems to work fine. No need to get too uptight about it.

Ive read 3 degrees front to back, 6 degrees side to side? My fridge is going on 13 years and I have been pretty careful about staying near level.

Hi Strobo,

Ok you are off by 3 degrees front to back and 6 degrees from side to side. Now does the flame burn straight up and down? I doubt it somehow. I'd far rather use electric where the heat transfer to the boiler should not be affected much at all.

Here is something for you to think about. How many of us leave the fridge running while traveling down the road? I know it can be dangerous, especially when stopping to refuel. But many of us do it, especially when making a long drive from one campground to another & it's in the summer when temps are hot. Is your fridge level then? Can't be for more than a second or two.

olcoon wrote:
Here is something for you to think about. How many of us leave the fridge running while traveling down the road? I know it can be dangerous, especially when stopping to refuel. But many of us do it, especially when making a long drive from one campground to another & it's in the summer when temps are hot. Is your fridge level then? Can't be for more than a second or two.

the sloshing around alleviates the problem of trap fluid or gas or ammonia or what ever the heck it is

dave17352 wrote:

olcoon wrote:
Here is something for you to think about. How many of us leave the fridge running while traveling down the road? I know it can be dangerous, especially when stopping to refuel. But many of us do it, especially when making a long drive from one campground to another & it's in the summer when temps are hot. Is your fridge level then? Can't be for more than a second or two.

the sloshing around alleviates the problem of trap fluid or gas or ammonia or what ever the heck it is

X2