Something of interest for you all. Recently I went to my wholesale supplier and asked them if I could check ohms on all the replacement elements they had in stock before purchasing any. They had a quantity of 25 Dometic Part # 3850644422 elements in stock and handed me the entire box to inspect. Out of the 25 I checked, 2 were in the high 39 ohm range, 18 were in the 40 ohm range, and 5 were in the 41 ohm range. I ended up purchasing all 5 elements that tested above 41 ohms. The actual readings of these were 41.1 ohms, 41.2, 41.5, & (2) @ 41.6 ohms.
Imprinted on all of these elements is: 325W 120VAC. If you do the math, this works out to 44.3 ohms. If you take into acct that + or - 10% is acceptable, this leaves an acceptable range of 39.9 - 48.7 ohms. This means all but 1 or 2 were within specified limits, yet all were still slightly on the hot side.
Something else of interest, the statement I'm about to make can only be classified as rumor, but this is what I overheard one of the guys saying:
This whole thing started in the late 90's as an informal competition between Norcold and Dometic. Each were trying to claim bragging rights that their refers cooled faster then the other's
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Like I said, this is only a loose statement made by one of the guys, & ultimately means nothing, but it did get me thinking. It could explain why both companies experienced the same problem on directly competing models during the same time frame. Food for thought I guess. Tim
