Dometic freezer cold but fridge barely gets to 60 over night

[arcsum68]

Hey all,

My wifes family owns a classic houseboat and the fridge has been driving us nuts trying to figure out why it will not work correctly. I believe its an RM3600 series and the thing works great when it goes into the shop, but in real life it is worthless. It also works much better when plugged into the generator, but that is not really sustainable. Being in a HB it only gets turned on when we get there and off when we leave. It will pretty quickly get the freezer cold and that will definitely freeze water bottles, but the fridge part is not even close to food safe. I have added fans, gone through all the maintenance including buying the specialized brush, and even bypassed the propane line so its on a dedicated tank.

Is this thing a dud or is there hope? Any suggestions? I have seen rebuilt cooling units out there, but I am not sure that is the issue since the freezer does work so well.

[wolfe10]

Sure, it could be a cooling unit. But it would not have been exposed to the #1 killer of absorption cooling units-- being run out of level.

At least we hope on a houseboat (not a sailboat) that it has been level when it is on!

Assume you have confirmed propane pressure (11" W.C). Low pressure results in low flame= poor cooling.

[arcsum68]

Its been VERY well tuned up, multiple times. It has been pulled multiple times and brought to a shop, no small feat when you are on a lake and have to move it to a ski boat. It's had all the recall work done to it. Every person that goes out there with any mechanical background has done it, including me. At this point it must be the cleanest burner ever because it never gets used, not worth the effort most of the time.

We stopped even trying to use ice packs to get it cool because it does not hold and we are just wasting our time. It can be on for 5 days and the freezer is still the only thing worth anything, at BEST it will get to the 48 degrees if the weather is just right and the genny is on a lot.

The Norcold in my Nash would freeze the fridge out if we had it turned up all the way.

I honestly do not think its a burner/chimney issue. I have fiddled with the adjuster on the fins in the refer section and even put a fan in there to circulate the air. Could it be anything else or does it all boil down to the cooling unit?

[wolfe10]

Two things:

Do not expect any absorption refrigerator to cool quickly.

If you want safe temperatures in an hour or two after turning it on, you will need bring ice bottles/dry ice/etc.

Also, when was the last time you did a BURNER AREA TUNE-UP? That will help cooling while on propane.

Could it be a bad cooling unit-- sure. But having reasonable expectations and having it tuned up is a good inexpensive start.

Good luck.

[arcsum68]

Hmmm, found this, it suggests that the cooling unit is bad. Interesting because nobody else has told us that and its been into the shop a few times and was worked on by a mobile mechanic working on the engine but used to be a Dometic service tech.

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/25830100/gotomsg/25830869.cfm#25830869