Level RV Every Time I Park?

[careya123]

Should I level the RV every time I park? At the gas station, to pick up a few things at Walmart, to spend an hour at the mall?

I know it's important to be level so the fridge works, but isn't it unlevel for hours and hours while driving? So why doesn't that ruin the fridge?

Confused about leveling,
Carey

[jrnymn7]

careya123 wrote:
I didn't even know the fridge could be turned off. (The things I need to learn about RVing and my RV in particular could fill a set of encyclopedias.) Thank you everybody.

Your fridge should be turned off every time you refuel, especially when refilling your on-board propane tank(s). And make sure no fumes have accumulated under your rig, before reigniting.

[wintersun]

I have bubble levels on the rear corner on the driver's side. I can tell at a glance if the bubble is far enough off from travel to cause a problem with the fridge.

With the Norcold it should not be off level by more than 3 degrees measured side to side when facing the door. It can be off front to back by as much as 6 degrees.

[Old-Biscuit]

Cool Canuck wrote:
From Thetford's Site FQA

How level must the refrigerator be?

If you have a gas absorption refrigerator, normal leveling of the vehicle is sufficient. The refrigerator is made to operate within 3 degrees off level side-to-side and 6 degrees off level front-to-back (looking at the front of the refrigerator).

That would be Norcold's requirement.

Dometic is less specific BUT both make note of the importance of 'operating level'

Per Dometic:

LEVELING THE REFRIGERATOR
Leveling is one of the requirements for proper operation with absorption refrigerators.
To ensure proper leveling the vehicle needs to be leveled only so it is comfortable to live in (no noticeable sloping of floor or walls).

[Cool_Canuck]

From Thetford's Site FQA

How level must the refrigerator be?

If you have a gas absorption refrigerator, normal leveling of the vehicle is sufficient. The refrigerator is made to operate within 3 degrees off level side-to-side and 6 degrees off level front-to-back (looking at the front of the refrigerator).

[NC_Roamer]

ChooChooMan74 wrote:
If you are really out of level, then I would just shut off the fridge for the hour or so that you're doing something.

This is what I do as well. No problems so far.

[Old-Biscuit]

Non----worriers (or those that don't think being 'reasonably level' matters)

[pianotuna]

Hi K3WE,

Norcold added an auto shut off. Unfortunately it requires a tech to reset it, and it is set so high in temperature the anti corrosion material fails. I do not know if Dometic has such a system.

As I can not afford the 3 grand it would cost me in Canada for another absorption fridge, I'll do the ARP.

To some extent it reminds me of the whole "surge protecting" issue. Anyone who investigates it carefully, realizes that brown outs may be far more of an issue, damage wise. Bad neutral is a distant second and is much more of an issue for 50 amp rv's. Yet there are threads every month about surge.

[K3WE]

Another classic thread of the worriers verses the never had a problem bunch.

If it's really as bad as the worriers say, perhaps there needs to be an auto shutoff system on refrigerators?

I'm sure theres truth to the worries, but why not an over temp shut off ?

[careya123]

I didn't even know the fridge could be turned off. (The things I need to learn about RVing and my RV in particular could fill a set of encyclopedias.) Thank you everybody.

[Allworth]

YES!

[pianotuna]

Hi,

The ARP unit shuts down the fridge before the temperature can rise enough to cause the anti corrosion material (sodium chromate) to precipitate out of the solution.

From the RV Doctor site:

"Continued operation in an over-heated condition results in cooling unit blockage whereby the rust inhibitor becomes crystallized and blocks sections of the internal tubing in the boiler. Unfortunately, this process cannot be reversed."

wclement1248 wrote:
I think the only thing the ARP solution will do is shut down the unit if it overheats. There will still be damage to the unit if it is operated when it is not level.

[ScottG]

midnightsadie wrote:
follow downtheroads advice. we,ve had 7 rv,s never killed a frig.

Bad advice. It takes very little time to "kill a fridge" and the damage is cumulative so while it may not kill it immediatley, it will make it so it wont keep up in hot weather when it needs all it's capacity.

BTW, I HAVE killed a cooling unit by accidentally having it on and out of level. But some have to learn the hard way.

My current fridge has been carefully taken care of at every turn.
Because of that, mine still works fine on electric even at temps up to 107.

[midnightsadie]

follow downtheroads advice. we,ve had 7 rv,s never killed a frig.

[DrewE]

All I could afford wrote:
I have a related question as a fairly new guy here. Is it just as critical to be level when I am plugged in and running on the 120 V refrigerator? I understand why when running on the flame it is important. But to me it seems like running on electricity it won't be quite as critical especially if only slightly off level

Running on electricity is the same process as running on gas—you're just using an electric heating element instead of the gas flame. It may be very, very slightly less important because the electric element is typically less powerful than the flame, but running too far out of kilter on electric will cause damage in time just as doing so on gas will.