Ok, this may be my own doing, I don't know.Maybe 2 separate issues propane and/or Dometic 2652 refer:The past 2 nights my motor-home LP alarm was going off in the middle of the night.First night I went out and smelled for LP gas, nothing I was able to smell. So I reset the alarm, waited about 20 minutes, no re-occurrence, went back in the house.The next night alarm triggered, I went out, smelled ammonia, pretty strong outside and inside MH. Thought that the detector was picking up the ammonia. I reset alarm, let the coach air out a bit and, for whatever reason decided to check the LP tank valve, it was open, so I closed it and went back inside.Started thinking that the refrigerator was shot so I went out this morning to do some checks: no yellowish powder, no more smell of ammonia. I then decided to turn the refer on and see if it made any gurgling sound, nothing. I left it running on AC. Went back out to check just a bit ago and it was as cold as ever.Did I foul anything up leaving the propane on and the refer off?How can I further assess the condition of the refer with respect to the ammonia smell? I thought once you got that smell the refer was toast.Please help!OP Edit - I forgot to mention that towards the end of the season I covered the outside refrigerator access panel with steel screen to keep bugs out. Any bearing on my problem?

Ammonia smell means dead refer!

so, there can never be an ammonia smell and the refer be ok?

Gene_M wrote:so, there can never be an ammonia smell and the refer be ok?Not usually.. it's usually the smell of death. But, since there's no dripping or powder or obvious leaking, and it's working, you may be ok.

Thanks 2oldman, any thoughts on the other items in my post?

No.. the screen wouldn't affect anything unless you blocked air circulation and left the refer running. The worst thing for these refers is leaving them running when they're out of level.Propane on refer off is fine.

Possible refrigerator problem | Good Sam Community

Gene_M
Explorer
Nov 07, 2015
I had a thought that maybe something happened to my dsl-55 because I had to open up the load center to get at it and solder some wires to the board(it's an older unit that did not have the modular plug for quick attachment, Iota support helped me out with this). So I did some searching on the net to find out if a power supply could cause the smell, turns out that some blown capacitors can cause the smell.
I pulled the load center and cracked it open to look, but all capacitors were fine and the dls55 with iq4 is working fine.

Not sure how much further to look, just going to keep my eye on things and see if I get another occurrence.

btw, the refer is still working on ac

edit- ammonia smell
CavemanCharlie
Explorer III
Nov 07, 2015
Let us know what you find. I'm curious now.
Gene_M
Explorer
Nov 06, 2015
Thanks, the polarity is correct.
enblethen
Nomad
Nov 06, 2015
Verify the polarity on the battery connections.
Gene_M
Explorer
Nov 06, 2015
Ok, ran outside to check on the battery, it's warm and not boiling over. That said, it was in bad shape and maybe the IQ4 is working as designed to cycle the charge levels and the battery may be beginning to de-sulfate.

This brings me back to the post by Newman asking me if it was a rotten egg or ammonia smell, maybe my brain was thinking the refer went bad and "made" me smell ammonia, its a reach but late at night it could happen, maybe?
Gene_M
Explorer
Nov 06, 2015
Well, I never thought of that!
That brings me to a new situation, I recently installed an IQ4 on my iota DLS55 converter/charger which is supposed to make it a smart charger. Battery did seem warm the other day, I'd better go check it out. NOW!
CavemanCharlie
Explorer III
Nov 05, 2015
Ivylog wrote:
You have a bad house battery that's setting the alarm off and putting out a sour smell. It may be too late to add water to the battery but worth a try. Sounds like you have a single stage converter that's boiling the water out of your battery.

Say,,, this could be.

You said in your first post that you tested the fridge and it still worked. I was wondering how the fridge could still work if the refrigerant had leaked out. You would think that if you smell ammonia that it would not longer work.

It just might be a battery. Worth checking out.
Ivylog
Explorer III
Nov 05, 2015
You have a bad house battery that's setting the alarm off and putting out a sour smell. It may be too late to add water to the battery but worth a try. Sounds like you have a single stage converter that's boiling the water out of your battery.
Gene_M
Explorer
Nov 05, 2015
I was an ammonia smell.

OP Edit - (hmmm, no, I remember thinking to myself "did some animal just pee here?" it was ammonia.- strike that from the record, my sense of humor stinks)
newman_fulltime
Explorer II
Nov 05, 2015
Amonia or more a rotten egg smell?

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