Thanks for the info John! Let me see if I can answer some of your quesions. The fridge is a Dometic 2652 that runs on 120v or GAS. It won't run on 12v power.
1. The night you were camping and the fridge was warm come morning, did you have the LP tanks turned on? The fridge if it was in AUTO, and the 120 VAC power to the fridge went out, it should of switched to gas all on it's own and the fridge still cool in the morning if the LP tanks were on and the fridge was not in fault mode. The tanks were both on. Even though the fridge was warm, it still had 120v power...the inside light would turn on when you opened the door, and I could hear the fan in the back of the fridge running non-stop. There was no FAULT/CHECK light lit up on the display
If the LP gas at the tanks was off or out of gas, and the AC power went out, it would of tried to light on gas, it would of failed to fire off as there was no gas and the fridge should of locked out on safety and the fault light would be on.
2. Was the fault light ever on when during any of this events, ever? and if so describe the events of the time. NO
3. The fans making noise, is this the power converter fans or an air circulation fan in the back of the fridge? Air circulation fan in the back of the fridge. Normally in the past I've always been able to hear the fan cycle on and off....but this time, it was constantly on..I've never heard it do that before.
GFI's do not reset themselves, so if one tripped on the fridge 120 VAC line, then you would of had to reset it. Did you ever reset one? NO, I didn't reset it...so I'm assuming it never tripped. The fridge still had 120v power the entire time that it wasn't cooling.
I have seen the electric elements burn out and nothing happens and it does not come back. The neutral wire in the element sleeve corrodes to ground tripping GFI's. But when the actual element fails, I have not had one come back to life. Once dead, they stay dead. You have reported 120 AC mode works and then does not. This does not point to the actual AC element.
If you are not getting a fault light on the control panel, and the fridge is not cooling, then this points to you are not loosing the 120 AC incoming power or it would of tried to run on gas, and if gas failed, it would of shut down on safety. Correct....I still have 120v power, no faults, but no cooling. When I manually switched it over to GAS, then it started cooling.
There may be an issue with the relay system that controls the 120 vac element on the PC board. If the PC board stops sending power to the element, then the LP gas will never fire off as there is no loss of incoming AC power. And the fridge will get warm, yet the fridge work ok when put on gas mode. And other times, the electric works. The relay system may be intermittent.
You also mentioned the flaky acting up of Auto light at the control console/panel, that points to a loose connection or the control panel acting up. That control panel tells the fridge control board to run. That control panel is at least suspect. If the fridge turned on and off when in Auto by itself, it will warm up. When forced into gas mode, the auto circuit is not in play and may run fine on gas. The actual PC control board may have issues too.
I agree, there may be a wire connection issue with corrosion on the back of the fridge or on the control panel. That is intermittent.
Cold temperatures makes things contract, electrical connections when it is warm outside may make contact when warm and not make contact when cold as the metal contracted. And a little dirt/corrosion mixed in.
There is not enough info yet to point to one specific issue.
If you never get a fault light from a gas failure while in auto or gas mode, then the 120 VAC incoming power to the fridge does not seem to be lost.
Hope all this helps and for sure, report back what it found. Learn something new all the time.
John
I will go through everything this weekend checking the connections, lose wires, etc, etc...maybe it's something as simple as that. I'm leaning towards the control board....thanks again for the help!
