Dometic Fridge RM 2610 help-gas works, won't get cold

It's always good to take your RV frig for a bumpy ride down a washboard road while it's running...The refer is the scariest part of buying a used RV...Kinda like rolling the dice if the previous owner kept it fairly level setup ...

I only have had to replace one cooling unit,knock on wood.

Yep, I’ve done that as well with an old RV fridge. Like Bob, I figured I had nothing to lose. It worked, and I continued to use the fridge until I got rid of the camper.

It’s funny, there are many other types of equipment that can have a problem like this, and that obstruction inside the cooling unit would be called a “clinker”, and you’d use whatever mechanical means necessary to dislodge it, and continue using the equipment. You wouldn’t just throw it away if a little time and effort on your part could get it working again. But for some reason, it’s become accepted to say that at the first sign of internal problems like this you should just give up and buy a new fridge, or at least a new cooling unit.

You might as well accept the fact that an RV absorption fridge is going to experience some pretty rough handling at times, and if the environment is rough enough to shake the fillings out of my teeth, it’s probably going to knock some of that internal plating off the cooling unit. If a large enough chunk ends up blocking one of the smaller orifices inside the unit, the cooling process is going to slow or stop. With a blockage like that, if you can get it to move into an area where it won’t cause a problem, you’ve saved yourself some money. This won’t work for an internal blockage caused by running the fridge out of level. Those tend to be immovable, and they won’t dissolve back to liquid either.

I would only replace a fridge or cooling unit after trying this at least once.

:):)

A few years ago my 2610 did the same thing. I was FT and stationary for a while so I bought a small bar fridge. That did me for a while.

Come spring I tried everything I could to get the reefer going again. Nothing. Same symptoms you mentioned. Everything ran but it wouldn't cool.

I pulled the unit out, carried it outside to the parking lot and took it for a walk, end over end about 10 full 360s. Every flip I paused a couple minutes. And I flipped it in the same direction every time. Piece of cardboard under it so I wouldn't scape it up on the pavement.

Took it back in, reinstalled it and it has been working perfect ever since.

Horseshoe luck? Maybe, but the other option was to cough up about 1700 bucks for a new one in a 97 trailer.

I know you said you don't have time, but it only took me a couple hours from the time I broke out the tools to start to the time I put them away. Maybe 3 hours tops, dont recall for sure.

Pulling the fridge out is very easy. I did it by myself, its not that heavy, but having an extra pair of arms helps.
I removed the door for the operation.

Worth a try, you never know. Time? Your call there.

Seeing that everything is working on electric and gas seems like it is a blocked tube or you had a leak and the ammonia is low. Does the fridge have a strange smell?

If there was no flame on gas or the electric was not making it hot there are other options but that end of things are working.

You could try taking some ice in the freezer.

Long term try rolling it but more than likely you will be replacing the cooling unit or the fridge.

These things always happen at the worst time, a rule for RV's!!

At the age of the fridge, sounds to me like it has a blocked tube inside. Time to remove it and flip it and it that don't work, time for a new one. They do wear out.

WARM? SHOULD GET SO HOT YOU CAN,T TOUCH IT. LOOK AT THE FLAME SHOULD BE NICE BLUE COLOR ABOUT A ONE INCH LONG .IF NOT PULL BURNER AND CLEAN. do not POKE ANYTHING THREW THE ORFICE HOLE ,AIR IS JUST FINE.

If you have flame and no cooling not too much to check.

Maybe you have a build up of soot in the exhaust tube or that twisted rod that hangs down inside the tube has broken off. Try giving the burner tube a good rap

Other than that it appears that the fluid isn't moving right and your suggestion of flipping it might be the only way out.


Ron W.