Dometic freezer cold but fridge barely gets to 60 over night

listen to doug he knows his stuff. .

If it has been to the "shop" and they state it is good, WHAT ARE THE TEMPS THE SHOP REPORTED? The ONLY test for the lower section is a glass of water after 24 hours with the 120 element wired direct to 120 volts. THIS will tell you the condition of the cooling unit. The FREEZER will get extremely cold within a few hours but the lower section will take 24 hours. 24 hours is the required time. NO SHORTCUTS. If you have had the refer in the shop and told them about the failures, they should have told you the water temp after 24 hours hot wired. The Freezer should be 0 to 10 degrees after 24 hours. The lower section the water in the glass should be at least below 36 degrees. 36 to 40 is marginal and indicates a partially block Cooling unit. Anything above 40 degrees the cooling unit is blocked enough to prevent adequate cooling. Make sure the AC line voltage is above 115 volts. Doug

Always thought that RV fridges are pretty much the same. One cooling unit where cooling starts in freezer and works it's way down. Threads that indicate that freezer is working but fridge doesn't tend to be resolved with time/patience. Maybe houseboat use puts more pressure on fridge than RV where you can allow everything to cool down on driveway b4 taking rig out?

wolfe10 wrote:
Sure, it could be a cooling unit. But it would not have been exposed to the #1 killer of absorption cooling units-- being run out of level.

At least we hope on a houseboat (not a sailboat) that it has been level when it is on!

Assume you have confirmed propane pressure (11" W.C). Low pressure results in low flame= poor cooling.

LOL, yes it has always been level, as a 52' HB tends to be. I actually built a manometer to check for pressure and just to be absolutely sure that was not the issue I installed a BBQ style regulator and have an extra tank within a foot of the fridge. It's getting very good pressure.

Sure, it could be a cooling unit. But it would not have been exposed to the #1 killer of absorption cooling units-- being run out of level.

At least we hope on a houseboat (not a sailboat) that it has been level when it is on!

Assume you have confirmed propane pressure (11" W.C). Low pressure results in low flame= poor cooling.

Its been VERY well tuned up, multiple times. It has been pulled multiple times and brought to a shop, no small feat when you are on a lake and have to move it to a ski boat. It's had all the recall work done to it. Every person that goes out there with any mechanical background has done it, including me. At this point it must be the cleanest burner ever because it never gets used, not worth the effort most of the time.

We stopped even trying to use ice packs to get it cool because it does not hold and we are just wasting our time. It can be on for 5 days and the freezer is still the only thing worth anything, at BEST it will get to the 48 degrees if the weather is just right and the genny is on a lot.

The Norcold in my Nash would freeze the fridge out if we had it turned up all the way.

I honestly do not think its a burner/chimney issue. I have fiddled with the adjuster on the fins in the refer section and even put a fan in there to circulate the air. Could it be anything else or does it all boil down to the cooling unit?

Two things:

Do not expect any absorption refrigerator to cool quickly.

If you want safe temperatures in an hour or two after turning it on, you will need bring ice bottles/dry ice/etc.

Also, when was the last time you did a BURNER AREA TUNE-UP? That will help cooling while on propane.

Could it be a bad cooling unit-- sure. But having reasonable expectations and having it tuned up is a good inexpensive start.

Good luck.

Hmmm, found this, it suggests that the cooling unit is bad. Interesting because nobody else has told us that and its been into the shop a few times and was worked on by a mobile mechanic working on the engine but used to be a Dometic service tech.

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/25830100/gotomsg/25830869.cfm#25830869