ARP Refrigerator Protection

You can install the unit through the outside service door. I don't know where you want to install the 2 fans. If outside at the service door if you have the room you can. If at the top of the refrig. on the roof you do that after taking off the roof vent cap. If it's in a slide out you can install the fans at the top side air vent. So for just about all cases you can do it with out pulling the refrig. If you see him selling at a rally or Quartzite he will come out and install it for you.

I started out to buy it when I saw Pianatuna's recommendation but the $200 price stopped me. It just seems like a lot for a device that flips a switch off when the temperature rises too high. A $5 thermostat can accomplish that. It seems to me it should be possible to make an electronic device with $5 worth of parts that turns off upon sensing high temperature and does not turn it on again until cool AND level, or flashes a light to indicate a person needs to turn it on when ready. Must I make my own to get a reasonable price?

I don't blame the ARP guys; they probably have horrendous insurance and legal costs when fridges fail for whatever reason.

I am very careful about levelling and turning off the fridge when not level and live in the cool north.

Harvey51 wrote:
I started out to buy it when I saw Pianatuna's recommendation but the $200 price stopped me. It just seems like a lot for a device that flips a switch off when the temperature rises too high. A $5 thermostat can accomplish that. It seems to me it should be possible to make an electronic device with $5 worth of parts that turns off upon sensing high temperature and does not turn it on again until cool AND level, or flashes a light to indicate a person needs to turn it on when ready. Must I make my own to get a reasonable price?

I don't blame the ARP guys; they probably have horrendous insurance and legal costs when fridges fail for whatever reason.

I am very careful about levelling and turning off the fridge when not level and live in the cool north.

The ARP does MUCH, MUCH more than just turning the refer off due to temperature and one would pay multiples of its current cost to design and build one that does what it does IMO.

Larry

Harvey51 wrote:
I started out to buy it when I saw Pianatuna's recommendation but the $200 price stopped me. It just seems like a lot for a device that flips a switch off when the temperature rises too high. A $5 thermostat can accomplish that. It seems to me it should be possible to make an electronic device with $5 worth of parts that turns off upon sensing high temperature and does not turn it on again until cool AND level, or flashes a light to indicate a person needs to turn it on when ready. Must I make my own to get a reasonable price?

I don't blame the ARP guys; they probably have horrendous insurance and legal costs when fridges fail for whatever reason.

I am very careful about levelling and turning off the fridge when not level and live in the cool north.

As Larry said- the ARP does much, much more than that. If it were that simple, don't you think Dometic and Norcold would already be doing it, instead of trying to bypass the ARP patent (unsuccessfully, I should add).

The ARP uses a very high end temperature sensor and an algorithm that basically knows what is going on in the tubing. It adjusts the cutoff temperature after a shutdown.

Sounds like it has only one sensor (temperature). So all it knows is the temperature.

There is no mention of a level sensor in the docs. A couple of mercury switches would be the basis of an unlevel alarm, no electronics needed. I'm sure the manufacturers could add that feature without infringing any patents. Why have they not done so? My cynical side wonders if they sell more fridges without the safety devices.

No need to sense level, as running out of level for even a short time will dramatically raise boiler temperatures. And the temperature is much easier to measure than angle, as with angle you also have to account for acceleration, deceleration, bumps, etc.

At the Seminar Paul gave at an FMCA Convention, he had a test cooling unit set up with his control unit installed on it.

Up on the screen was a temperature monitor he had set up with probe on the refrigerator boiler. He raised one end of the test cooling unit on a 2X4 (so less than 2"). While he talked (less than 5 minutes) we all watched the screen and could see the temperature rising VERY quickly up to the point where the controller turned it off. Then once it cooled down, the controller re-started the cooling unit.

Level doesn't matter- circulation does. The discontinued Atwood had a level sensor- didn't help.

wolfe10 wrote:
No need to sense level, as running out of level for even a short time will dramatically raise boiler temperatures. And the temperature is much easier to measure than angle, as with angle you also have to account for acceleration, deceleration, bumps, etc.

At the Seminar Paul gave at an FMCA Convention, he had a test cooling unit set up with his control unit installed on it.

Up on the screen was a temperature monitor he had set up with probe on the refrigerator boiler. He raised one end of the test cooling unit on a 2X4 (so less than 2"). While he talked (less than 5 minutes) we all watched the screen and could see the temperature rising VERY quickly up to the point where the controller turned it off. Then once it cooled down, the controller re-started the cooling unit.

Funny, I installed mine carefully, tested it, followed all directions yet I have NEVER had an alarm for overheat, regardless of angle, etc.

I know nothing about an alarm. At least on the test unit, it QUIETLY turned off the cooling unit and then turned it back on.

Guess it could be wired to trigger an alarm, but not sure of the advantage.
Automatic is what most want, not an alarm.

Does yours turn the cooling unit (heat source) off if boiler temperature rises?

It makes sense to just measure temperature, which has the dangerous and damaging effects. I don't much like it turning back on while still unlevel, though.