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Quadna71's avatar
Quadna71
Explorer
Aug 15, 2014

Refrigerator won't cool down

We bought this travel trailer about a month ago, this weekend was to be our first trip trying it out. It's a Crossroads Slingshot 23CK and has a refrigerator with a separate freezer door. It was working great up until last week. I had unplugged from the house and then plugged it in last night and now it doesn't work. The battery had been a little bit low so I disconnected everything and hooked up my regular automotive battery charger to the deep cycle until it was charged using the two amp setting.

Here's where I'm at:
The battery is fully charged up, connected, and the camper is plugged in to our power in the garage. All the lights and the power and the air conditioning in the camper work great, except the refrigerator will not seem to cool down. The light inside turns on when you open the door, and I think I have the switches on top of the refrigerator in the correct positions. First button is pushed in so the refrigerator is turned On and the second button's pushed in so that the refrigerator is in Auto - not gas.

The camper is perfectly level, I have two full bottles of propane, and they are connected but both valve turned off. Am I missing something???

16 Replies

  • Wow, thanks for all the fast replies - this forum is awesome!

    I am at work now and hope it will keep cooling down throughout the day. I guess I may have been expecting it to cool faster but it's good to know that it may take longer than my house fridge. I do have the thermistor up about 75-80% of the way up that last fin and will adjust accordingly once things cool down.

    Thanks again for all the fast replies and I'll post up once I have a chance to check the temps again.
  • If fridge doesn't cool after leaving it on for 12 hours then check to see if fuses are OK. Depending of fridge/rig there s/b fuses in a black box located on fridge control board - find exterior access fridge access panel on side of RV. Might be fridge fuse on rigs DC distribution panel as well. Also - check to see if fridge operates on propane.
  • We too start ours the day or so before we leave on a trip, the luxery of having it at home. also in hot weather, your fridge should use extra air flow across the back of the unit. We have a thermostat 12 volt fan mounted in ours to move air. you can get them for about $25 bucks and install it yourself. And like the others, make sure your tab on the fins inside is not laying down and mounted towards the top. Good Luck & Be Safe ! ! !
  • switch to propane ,see if that helps ,it does take 12hrs to cool down to a useable temp. light stove to bleed gas line, then frig.
  • There should be a white clip on one of the cooling fins inside the refridgerator. This is the thermistor, and it controls the temp. Try moving it up to make the fridge colder. I plug into shore power the day before departing and my fridge gets cold overnight.
  • They are slow to cool down- much more so than a house fridge due to evaporative cooling.
    I jump start ours by placing a few ice blocks in the freezer and fridge section. Also, we don't put hot items in the fridge either. Even with the blocks it takes quite a while to cool down.