The manual on my Dometic 'fridge in my RV says that it will malfunction if it's run out of level for a 'significant' amount of time, (or something to that effect; the manual is in my RV at the storage yard).My question is what is a significant amount of time? Five minutes? Five hours? A half hour?I parked my rig next to a nice wilderness trail up in the mountains recently, and went on a twenty minute or so hike with my wife and boxers. As the loop trail became longer to negotiate with my boxer pup, I started to worry about the 'fridge. There was no problem, but I sure was distracted from enjoying the hike. It would have ruined the whole trip to have the 'fridge go belly-up.So, I would sure like to know more about how much you can get away with when parking for a brief time out of level. Anyone have any idea?

Well first off out of level is relative. Here are the specs for my 2003 Norcold model N611 refrigerator. Refrigerator specs legal operation 3 degrees front to back (of trailer), 6 degrees side to side.Note 3 degrees would be 12” difference front to back on my 21’ trailer! Note 6 degrees would be 8.6” difference side to side at the tires!Note older fridges needed to be more level than this.When trailer is moving, no problem. When sitting I was told that it starts to degrade almost immediately, so I should turn fridge OFF if left unlevel per above, even if I was just stopping for lunch. They said degradation was progressive, so each time I did it fridge was damaged just a little more. True? Your guess, I just did it anyawy to be safe.Note rarely parked that unlevel anyway.

There is only one level then there are degrees of out of level… when it comes to level and your fridge the question becomes what is the level of risk you are willing to accept if it fails… you are completely on your own there…remember the mfgs. may say comfortably level but the same MFG also say operating out of level is not covered by the warranty and the warranty doesn’t use the comfortable description…The three important issues for adsorption fridges are level, good airflow, and precise heat…all three are necessary and important for proper operation and longevity…IMHO when you are parked the significant clock is ticking…Damage is usually slow but more important is that any damage done is cumulative and permanent… the damage is caused by overheating the fluid and with a constant heat source the fluids temp is regulated by the speed that it circulates… operating out of level slows circulation and overheats the fluid…The fluid is made up from water, ammonia, and rust inhibitors… when overheated the rust inhibitors chemically breakdown and crystalize, permanently… this causes the rust inhibitors to become less effective in the steel tubes and allow them to rust internally until rust through… if there is enough crystallization itself or combined with rust particles can plug the tube and block all circulation forever… Absorption fridges are completely dependent on gravity to function…These things are made to last a long time, the mfg. is only concerned with the first year or two…Following their instructions of comfortable will almost assuredly get you past their responsibility and just as assuredly shorten it’s useful life…There is just no way to measure the damage and no way to predict when it will fail…It may never be perfectly level but the more level it is the better it will work and the longer it will last…As expensive as they are I will take the time to level the best I can or turn it off if I can’t…Many here will disagree with my statements and opinions here… if I were you, instead of asking here, I would search the professionals that repair them and replace cooling units on a daily basses… I doubt you will find even one that recommends almost level, and chances are all will stress the importance of level operation……

Chuck&Gail wrote:Well first off out of level is relative. Here are the specs for my 2003 Norcold model N611 refrigerator. Refrigerator specs legal operation 3 degrees front to back (of trailer), 6 degrees side to side.Note 3 degrees would be 12” difference front to back on my 21’ trailer! Note 6 degrees would be 8.6” difference side to side at the tires!Note older fridges needed to be more level than this.When trailer is moving, no problem. When sitting I was told that it starts to degrade almost immediately, so I should turn fridge OFF if left unlevel per above, even if I was just stopping for lunch. They said degradation was progressive, so each time I did it fridge was damaged just a little more. True? Your guess, I just did it anyawy to be safe.Note rarely parked that unlevel anyway.Damage is progressive? Meaning it doesn't repair when you start moving the RV? I sure hope this is wrong.Extrapolating from the Dometic owner's manual, I concluded that even if you park for a few minutes or twenty, as soon as you started moving, and the 'jostling' from your road travel prevented the 'fridge problem from occurring, it would also clear up any build up accrued from your stop.Was I wrong?

A local rebuilder told me they did some experimentation and found that damage begins in as little as 15 minutes. The damage is cumulative. So it plugs up more and more as the unit is operated out of level over time. It NEVER fixes itself because the blockage is solid material, almost like a ceramic from what I've seen.Often the first the owner knows of damage is when they try to run it in a hot environment and it wont keep up.

Some claim when they quit working that removing the fridge and turning them upside down will get them to work again…IMO if that is true it won’t work for long anyway… the only real repair for this condition is to replace the cooling unit… that is an expensive proposition…From my observation and personal opinion, Just hope overheating from unleveled operation don’t cause cracking in the boiler area where a leak can cause a fire…Overheating and cracking in the boiler area is the reason for millions of recalled fridges that they don’t know how to fix… the fix they do have is to disable the fridge all together before it reaches a temp where it can catch fire..It’s funny but the recalls began when they redesigned the fridges to make them cool faster and be more tolerant to off level conditions…

RV refrigerators off level | Good Sam Community

31 Replies

mr__ed
Explorer
Jul 16, 2013
poppin_fresh wrote:
I recently parked my trailer with the fridge running on gas at work for the day in the parking lot which has a slight downhill pitch. I too had heard that running a fridge out of level would damage it so I asked Dometic about it.

Their response was...

"You will not create any damage over that short period of time but you may not get the performance you expect until the refrigerator is leveled out again."

Jon

It's my understanding that damage can be cumulative by running off level, especially all day as you mentioned. I'm surprised Dometic says it's OK. As for me, I'd be sure to level my RV if I was going to run the fridge all day. Why take a chance?
Rmack1
Explorer
Jul 16, 2013
JJBIRISH wrote:
Rmack1 wrote:
Chuck&Gail wrote:
Well first off out of level is relative.

Here are the specs for my 2003 Norcold model N611 refrigerator.
Refrigerator specs legal operation 3 degrees front to back (of trailer), 6 degrees side to side.

Note 3 degrees would be 12” difference front to back on my 21’ trailer! Note 6 degrees would be 8.6” difference side to side at the tires!

Note older fridges needed to be more level than this.

When trailer is moving, no problem. When sitting I was told that it starts to degrade almost immediately, so I should turn fridge OFF if left unlevel per above, even if I was just stopping for lunch. They said degradation was progressive, so each time I did it fridge was damaged just a little more. True? Your guess, I just did it anyawy to be safe.

Note rarely parked that unlevel anyway.

OK, so I should turn off the 'fridge every time I stop for more than, what? Five minutes?

This is pretty much what I've been doing. And the return to travel, which for me results in a WHOLE lotta 'jostling' as I'm going up and down some fairly big mountains.

I'm just trying to determine what my safe time is.

Are you saying that the amount of 'off-level' has an effect on how long you can park at that configuration?

My wife, my two boxers and I parked today on a SoCal mountain to have lunch before pulling home. It was significantly out of level. Not so much that we couldn't use the table, but enough that you could tell you were not sitting level. We hung out for about a half hour before leaving. I only noticed that our 'fridge had iced up in the freezer part when we got home. I've not noticed that before, but it was unusually humid.

there is no correct answer to the question you are asking…
any amount of unleveled operation is bad while stationary, the more out of level the higher the risk… there is no such thing as a safe amount of time to operate it out of level… the longer it is operated that way the shorter its life will be…

they can out last the RV used properly, there is no way what so ever to gage the damage done until it’s too late to save it…

so as Clint Eastwood would answer your question…
DO YOU FEEL LUCKY TODAY… WELL DO YA!!!

Hehe, thanks.
poppin_fresh
Explorer
Jul 15, 2013
I recently parked my trailer with the fridge running on gas at work for the day in the parking lot which has a slight downhill pitch. I too had heard that running a fridge out of level would damage it so I asked Dometic about it.

Their response was...

"You will not create any damage over that short period of time but you may not get the performance you expect until the refrigerator is leveled out again."

Jon
noe-place
Explorer
Jul 15, 2013
I always run the fridge (land line in garage) at least half a day before DW loads it up for a trip. Just before leaving the house I'll switch to gas.
DiskDoctr
Explorer
Jul 15, 2013
We run our fridge on electric for a day or so before a trip, then while packing and hooking up, we turn on the propane tanks, light the stove to clear the lines, then switch the fridge over to propane.

We check it before leaving (about 20 mins or so) to make sure it is working properly.

As for the level, unlevel, etc...I don't worry about it too much unless we are parking it for a while. We level in the back yard when storing at home and leave the fridge run on electric almost full time.
Wishbone51
Explorer
Jul 15, 2013
cm11599ps wrote:
Say I load my fridge up at home in the driveway when it's level. When I go to hook up to the truck, should I turn the fridge off since I'm going to be raising and lowering the TT a few times before leaving? Then when I'm leaving, flip the fridge on again?

Probably won't make a difference, but I'm paranoid. I get everything in position, WDH bars ready, sway control in place, then wait for everyone to get in the car. Turn off the fridge, finish hooking everything up, flip on the fridge, switch to LP, verify a flame and go.
longislandcampe
Explorer
Jul 15, 2013
Say I load my fridge up at home in the driveway when it's level. When I go to hook up to the truck, should I turn the fridge off since I'm going to be raising and lowering the TT a few times before leaving? Then when I'm leaving, flip the fridge on again?
DiskDoctr
Explorer
Jul 14, 2013
et2 wrote:
I made sure it was getting gas as I ran the stove, and it did light for about a minute or slightly less. This happened about 5 times and it alarmed out. I never had a problem before but then it dawned on me I always leveled it. So I went to the bubble level on the side and it was high, whatever it took to get it off the truck. I centered the bubble and the fridge worked fine after that. So maybe there is a safety built into some?:h

Seems more likely the out of level had the flame not contacting your thermocouple properly (flame goes up). Most likely if you check, you can bend the end of the thermocouple slightly to place it closer and/or directly above the flame orifice opening and it would solve your problem.

Similar situation occurs when it is a bit windy, if the placement of the TC isn't correct.

Hope this helps.
mr__ed
Explorer
Jul 14, 2013
The instructions for my Dometic states that as long as the RV is comfortable enough to live in (i.e., no noticeably sloping floor or walls) then the fridge will be OK. The newer fridges are not as sensitive to off level operation as older models were. Even so, I always level my fiver so the bubble level in the freezer shows as close to level as possible. I'm taking no chances!

When stopping for short periods I always turn the fridge off. It will stay cold for quite some time, especially if you don't open it.
Wishbone51
Explorer
Jul 14, 2013
I turn it off every time I stop for any period of time.

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RV refrigerators off level

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