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Rmack1's avatar
Rmack1
Explorer
Jul 13, 2013

RV refrigerators off level

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?
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  • Chuck_Gail's avatar
    Chuck_Gail
    Explorer
    Jul 13, 2013
    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.

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