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heebeha's avatar
heebeha
Explorer
Jun 24, 2016

1998 Dometic RM 2652 refrigerator corrosion on plates

I pulled out the bad Cooling unit the other day and discovered a lot of corrosion on the aluminum plates. The aluminum plates were pretty badly corroded, with a couple holes that go all the way through and deep crevices.

I bought a new cooling unit, its in route, I want to get the fridge ready to go back together today.

I took a bunch of photos before and after that you can see here http://zetal.com/98fleetwood/dometic-refrigerator.html

http://zetal.com/98fleetwood/dometic-refrigerator.html
  • Where would buy this artic silver? I cant find it anywhere, only France
  • I must have had 2,500 pounds of aluminum hard (black) anodized. The facility demands clean parts, free of oxidation and there will be a per minimum charge and usually a 2-3 day wait. The thermal transfer (especially radiation) increase is impressive. If the finned plate is clamped to a cold plate, use Arctic Silver as a thermal paste to increase BTU transfer. This comes from very early experiences with Kool A Tron ice chests. Refrigerator manufacturers are turning out Thousand Dollar Garbage because there is no real competition. I bet the boys at Norcold golf with the Dometic crew.
  • This is a PERFECT EXAMPLE of the greed of gas refrigerator manufacturers. For under TWO DOLLARS, they can have those plates ANODIZED BLACK which would improve performance. The evaporators in both 24 volt units and in my VIKING are black anodized. For a reason.
  • Yeah, I do use mastic to seal as well as transfer heat- I would fill the holes just for moisture- foil tape would be fine as well, get the corrosion off, and use enough mastic on the pipes themselves.
  • So, just fill the holes with mastic even though they wont touch the pipes, take off the aluminum tape in put over the crevices and holes?

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