Forum Discussion

acritzer's avatar
acritzer
Explorer II
Jul 31, 2015

Dometic Fridge Thermistor?

I feel pretty silly because I just started figuring out what this thing is. Apparently mine wasn't even attached to the clip, but was actually hanging down in the drain pan.

Soooo, 1) do these things actually adjust the temp? 2) what would having it hanging down do to the fridge? And 3) how do you get it attached to the clip. Mine barely sits in the groove. Should it be at the top of the clip? Middle?

Thanks!
  • acritzer wrote:
    dougrainer wrote:
    acritzer wrote:
    dougrainer wrote:
    NOT attached to the fins and just hanging will have the refer operate continuously. That may allow the lower section to get below freezing and freeze items in the lower section. Doug


    Hmm. Ours certainly never got that cold. I moved it into correct position a while ago and feel like it's actually gotten colder? I'll just keep playing around with it.


    The Evap fins will be 10 degrees COLDER than the items if the refer. So, If your refer is 36 degrees, then the fins are 26 degrees. The Thermister senses the Evap temp and NOT the temp of the refer. So, if NOT connected to the fins, the Thermister will NOT see that fin lower temp and continue to operate. As I stated, it MAY get to freezing or below, but it will allow the refer to run colder than the Auto preset of the Thermister. The ONLY way to test the temp in the refer is to put a cup of water in the shelf and test the temp of the water after 24 hours. Testing the air temp is no good. Doug



    Is "tricking" the fridge in this way inherently bad for it? Without knowing it I've been using ours this way for the past year. Say 10 different trips? It's never frozen up and it's sometimes struggled on hot days (to stay quite cold)


    NO. Running an Absorbsion refer 24/7 will not harm it. There are NO moving/mechanical parts to wear out. Doug
  • dougrainer wrote:
    acritzer wrote:
    dougrainer wrote:
    NOT attached to the fins and just hanging will have the refer operate continuously. That may allow the lower section to get below freezing and freeze items in the lower section. Doug


    Hmm. Ours certainly never got that cold. I moved it into correct position a while ago and feel like it's actually gotten colder? I'll just keep playing around with it.


    The Evap fins will be 10 degrees COLDER than the items if the refer. So, If your refer is 36 degrees, then the fins are 26 degrees. The Thermister senses the Evap temp and NOT the temp of the refer. So, if NOT connected to the fins, the Thermister will NOT see that fin lower temp and continue to operate. As I stated, it MAY get to freezing or below, but it will allow the refer to run colder than the Auto preset of the Thermister. The ONLY way to test the temp in the refer is to put a cup of water in the shelf and test the temp of the water after 24 hours. Testing the air temp is no good. Doug



    Is "tricking" the fridge in this way inherently bad for it? Without knowing it I've been using ours this way for the past year. Say 10 different trips? It's never frozen up and it's sometimes struggled on hot days (to stay quite cold)
  • acritzer wrote:
    dougrainer wrote:
    NOT attached to the fins and just hanging will have the refer operate continuously. That may allow the lower section to get below freezing and freeze items in the lower section. Doug


    Hmm. Ours certainly never got that cold. I moved it into correct position a while ago and feel like it's actually gotten colder? I'll just keep playing around with it.


    The Evap fins will be 10 degrees COLDER than the items if the refer. So, If your refer is 36 degrees, then the fins are 26 degrees. The Thermister senses the Evap temp and NOT the temp of the refer. So, if NOT connected to the fins, the Thermister will NOT see that fin lower temp and continue to operate. As I stated, it MAY get to freezing or below, but it will allow the refer to run colder than the Auto preset of the Thermister. The ONLY way to test the temp in the refer is to put a cup of water in the shelf and test the temp of the water after 24 hours. Testing the air temp is no good. Doug
  • dougrainer wrote:
    NOT attached to the fins and just hanging will have the refer operate continuously. That may allow the lower section to get below freezing and freeze items in the lower section. Doug


    Hmm. Ours certainly never got that cold. I moved it into correct position a while ago and feel like it's actually gotten colder? I'll just keep playing around with it.
  • dougrainer wrote:
    NOT attached to the fins and just hanging will have the refer operate continuously. That may allow the lower section to get below freezing and freeze items in the lower section. Doug


    Interesting, we do that in an effort to keep things below 40-50 degrees or so. Is there some debugging process that we can go through to see why we have to do this?
  • NOT attached to the fins and just hanging will have the refer operate continuously. That may allow the lower section to get below freezing and freeze items in the lower section. Doug
  • This is how & where it mounts.

    Also, remember that moving it up for cooler & down for warmer.

    Or, North - cold / South - Warm


  • You are basically changing what temperature the thermistor is sensing by moving it, so generally higher up will be in warmer air, so make the box cooler.

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