Refrigerator & High Altitude
I've got a Dometic 2852RBX that works ok most of the time, but when I had it at 9,750' last year it kept going out and wouldn't relight. It would try, but I'd come back after being gone for awhile, or...
Forum Discussion
d-mac1 wrote:
I've got a Dometic 2852RBX that works ok most of the time, but when I had it at 9,750' last year it kept going out and wouldn't relight. It would try, but I'd come back after being gone for awhile, or awaken in the morning, and the check light would be on.
My dealer said its the orifice size that needs to be changed for high altitude and said to talk to Dometic technical support. I called and was not happy with the level of 'support' I was provided. Among some curt responses, I was told they aren't guaranteed to run at over 5,000'...NO further help! I live near Denver....EVERYTHING is above 5,000'!!
I continued to try to get some information on what size orifice would make it work at altitude to no avail. Finally the unhelpful phone rep went to ask 'the boss' if it can even be changed on my fridge and when she came back on the phone she told me NO...I can't change the orifice in my unit. I just looked and yes it can be changed. It has a 53 in it now.
Since the problem occurs at high altitude, less air pressure, I'm guessing (if this works like a carburetor) means I need less propane, thus a smaller orifice (or jet if you will).
Does anyone know if I'm on the right track so that I can keep my fridge running next trip up there? If I could get the right sized orifice, my thoughts are to take it along on a trip and if problems, put it in until returning to lower altitude.
In case you are wondering, I was at my dealer because I was guessing the problem was a faulty regulator, but they said thats not the problem if it works fine otherwise.
Thanks.
Dads trailer did the same thing as you described. His fix was to adjust the the electrode (the spark thingie) This unit uses the electrode for spark and to sence if the unit is lit. In his case the unit would spark and it would light then it would go out. He widened the spark gap and this solved the problem. He made the gap a bit larger then the 3/16 gap the Manuel says. So increasing it's resistance a bit allowed the controller to see that it was lit. Easy and cheap to try. :)
