dometic fridge intermittent

[labradorian70]

hello

im new to this forum and brand new to RVing. Bought a 2011 keystone Bullet Premier 28ft TT last fall and made my 3rd trip with in this past weekend.

The fridge is a Dometic and has only 2 buttons on the top, one ON/OFF button and one Auto/Gas button. We had it set to AUTO all weekend.

spend 3 days in it and noticed the fridge was acting funny......here's a little time line.

I hooked up the camper to the truck (friday) and turned on the fridge at the same time so it would be cold or well on it's way when we got to the camp ground 2 hrs later.
Got to camp ground, Set the fridge to AUTO, TT was plugged into 30A shore power, propane tanks were on and plenty of propane.

friday night fridge was cooling as it should, noticed saturday morning fridge was not cooling, check light was NOT on. I cycled the on/off button and auto/gas button and noticed the fridge did start getting cold again?

Put some ice cubes trays in freezer saturday afternoon with water, sunday evening the cubes were only Half frozen. Woke up monday morning(today) and cubes were completely melted, fridge was warm again. still no CHECK light

So in summary....
1. I checked breakers and fuses. all ok.
2. Fridge was set to auto.
3. Propane was on and full.
4. Shore power was connected
5. Water heater and furnace working fine on propane.
6. Everything else in trailer appears to be working.

What else should I be checking, fridge seems to start up and work but then seems to just stop and the "CHECK" light does not come on.

I know the CHECK lite works because when you first press the on button for the fridge all lights(AUTO AND CHECK) come on just for a second as a test.

I have contacted the RV Dealer with the issue today and waiting for a response but in the meanwhile and possibly save a 2hr drive to the dealer I thought I would check in here to get some ideas.

What else should I check, or does it sound like a bad fridge?

cheers and thanks.... I can get a model for the fridge if anyone needs it. It's 30min away at my mother in laws farm.

Glen

[labradorian70]

travel4family wrote:
Will be following this with interest.
Our 18 month old Dometic also seems a bit moody. Gets very cold then next time you wonder why things have some condensation. Not entirely a pattern with outside temp, although of course the spring break trip when it was 35 at night doesn't count 🙂 I put in a temp gauge and it does run high for a day then back down. Several threads pointed out not to overpack the fridge, it needs room for air to ciruclate. So we make sure we put things that air will flow around to the middle,etc. and we bought a little battery operated fridge fan from CW that is supposed tohelp circulate the air. It seems better, but I'm still not thrilled with the result. We're also careful not to open it more than necessary - drinks in a cooler and everything else foodwise in the fridge. But I feel like we've paid for it, it should be better.
One difference from your issue - the freezer works great all the time.

I will certainly keep you posted when I figure this out. We only had ice cube trays in the freezer and the fridge only had some eggs a couple bottles of pop, a a couple of other smaller items so it certainly was not close to full.

But thanks for mentioning the fan, I will keep that in mind.

cheeers

[labradorian70]

Son of Norway wrote:
I notice you are in Ontario? What was the temperature where you were at when the fridge was acting up?

Miles

it ranged from 21C(70F) during the day and 5C(41F) at night outside the trailer, I had the furnace maintain the inside temp at 71F.

When I woke up monday morning, the temp was about 15C and the fridge was not working. It was working the day before .

cheers

[travel4family]

Will be following this with interest.
Our 18 month old Dometic also seems a bit moody. Gets very cold then next time you wonder why things have some condensation. Not entirely a pattern with outside temp, although of course the spring break trip when it was 35 at night doesn't count 🙂 I put in a temp gauge and it does run high for a day then back down. Several threads pointed out not to overpack the fridge, it needs room for air to ciruclate. So we make sure we put things that air will flow around to the middle,etc. and we bought a little battery operated fridge fan from CW that is supposed tohelp circulate the air. It seems better, but I'm still not thrilled with the result. We're also careful not to open it more than necessary - drinks in a cooler and everything else foodwise in the fridge. But I feel like we've paid for it, it should be better.
One difference from your issue - the freezer works great all the time.

[Son_of_Norway]

I notice you are in Ontario? What was the temperature where you were at when the fridge was acting up?

Miles

[2oldman]

Not being able to fry an egg is what I consider 'uncomfortable.'

[labradorian70]

exactly what the tech told me at the RV dealer.

I also felt I was within comfortable living specs, my wife would of said something if we were not :B

thanks!

[2oldman]

labradorian70 wrote:
is it still an issue with the newer ones.

no. Within comfortable living specs is level enough.

[labradorian70]

I did use a level when I parked to get it level. How many degrees out of level will cause problems to a fridge. I didn't get it perfectly level but darn close. I know this was an issue with older fridges but is it still an issue with the newer ones.

Cheers

[ScottG]

Was it level when parked? This is the biggest killer of absorption fridges.