Yes, I did a search and there were no related previous posts. I read another posters thread about wondering if the light goes out or not and enjoyed some of the more humorous replies and tried to look past the snarky old usual posts from the usual snarky folks.Anyhoo - the light does not go out when we close the fridge door. I took earlier advice and used my phone to video the thing after the door is closed. Yup, STILL ON!! WTF???? The plunger thingy (tech term) seems to work in that it slides in and back, it just doesn't break the connection to power. I can't for the life of me figure out how to get this thing free from the top of the fridge as I can't see how it is held on up there. It almost seems as if it is glued up there. There is no way to pop the thing into two halves so I am flummoxed.Anybody in the collective here have any experience gutting and repairing these things? ThanksCheers!Mike

Look up everything you can find on your model of frig. Make sure there is not a delay function involved in it before you tear it all apart. In todays world you never know.

The fridge light was burnt out when we got this thing. Got a new lamp, one of those glass fuse looking things, and it draws about 1.6 amps. Found that with the fridge door closed it still did. Oops! > TrimetricSaves the Day Again

Some RV fridges have a switch of some sort that turns the light on all the time, using it as a little heater (for climate control or cold weather operation or some such, I can't recall precisely what at the moment). Maybe that's what's going on.

DrewE wrote:Some RV fridges have a switch of some sort that turns the light on all the time, using it as a little heater (for climate control or cold weather operation or some such, I can't recall precisely what at the moment).Never heard of anything like this nor would it make any sense at all. Yes, gas absorption fridges usually have a climate control heating element wrapped around the perimeter of the freezer door to help minimize frost build up. It's a 12 vdc heating element so when dry camping it's drawing down the battery, however manufacturers in recent years started deleting the switch used to turn this element on/off. This is irrelevant if you're camping on an electric site but if you're dry camping it's unnecessarily depleting the battery. The solution is to add your own switch, just as I've done ... however, this has nothing to do with the fact the fridge light is not being turned off when the fridge door is closed. In the OP's case it sounds like the switch is faulty, if so just replace it.

PaulJ2 wrote:Look up everything you can find on your model of frig. Make sure there is not a delay function involved in it before you tear it all apart. In todays world you never know.Correct! Even Yesterday's World: We have a Norcold N811 that was made in about 2002. Old enough that the door hinges aren't Plastic! Anyhow, the Light turns Off after several minutes when the Door is Open. You might try leaving the phone in there, say 05 minutes. It may well go dark.You didn't ask, but our model has a rudimentary "defrost" system where the Board shuts the Cooling Unit off for awhile about every 24 hours. When it's really hot out, we can't afford that time off. So, Doug here mentioned that turning the Fridge Off for more than 10 seconds, re-stats the Defrost Timer feature. So if we do that once a day, Cooling Unit will run as demanded, no time off.The "strips" are called Mullion Heaters, and they keep the Gasket Surfaces dry. And Yes, a power consumer...

No, Darnit, The Light Doesn't Go Out When I Close The Door!

DrewE
Explorer II
Feb 05, 2018
Harvey51 wrote:
Replace the incandescent bulb with an LED bulb to cut the electricity use and heating by a factor of 5 to 7. It won't matter much if it is on all the time.

If one is using the low temperature system that leaves the light on all the time for cold weather operation, this is somewhat counter-productive in that the LED bulb will also cut out the heat production by the same factor. Assuming nothing is defective or misadjusted, that's the usual reason the fridge light would be on all the time.
JohnG3
Explorer II
Feb 05, 2018
Unscrew the light bulb before you close the door.
Harvey51
Explorer
Feb 04, 2018
Replace the incandescent bulb with an LED bulb to cut the electricity use and heating by a factor of 5 to 7. It won't matter much if it is on all the time.
myredracer
Explorer II
Feb 04, 2018
NRALIFR wrote:
Sound(of his own voice)Guy :):)
wa8yxm
Explorer III
Feb 03, 2018
Hey, I can not speak for the others but I've read so many operation (And service) manuals I need a computer to keep 'em all sorted out... That computer is currently under my left elbow,, Displaying a service manual.
SaltiDawg
Explorer
Feb 03, 2018
Mike LeClair wrote:
...
Anyhoo - the light does not go out when we close the fridge door. I took earlier advice and used my phone to video the thing after the door is closed. Yup, STILL ON!! ...

Mike,

So the light actually went out when you shut the ice box door, but the video camera sensed the low light and turned on the camera light.

:S
Mike_LeClair
Explorer
Feb 03, 2018
Well, don't I look foolish! Face Palm X 50. I DO indeed have a LA switch and I turned it off. Glory Be - the darned light now turns off as needed when I manually trigger the switch at the light. WOW, do I ever feel stoopid!

Thank you all for your input and ideas - y'all ROCK!

Cheers!

Mike
pianotuna
Nomad III
Feb 03, 2018
Look to see if there is a humidity control switch. They often operate by turning on the fridge light.
SoundGuy
Explorer
Feb 03, 2018
NRALIFR wrote:
And yet, it still exists. And makes perfect sense.

In only some fridges, not mine.

Maybe you should redesign your add on switch.

:):)

Ergo, no reason to. :R
SoundGuy
Explorer
Feb 03, 2018
The OP hasn't provided any details about the make / model of fridge he has but on Page 18 of this Dometic RM Series Diagnostic Service Manual it states (in part) ...

5.11 Climate Control Heater & Switch

Not used on all units.

5.12 Low Ambient Switch

Not used on all units.

For a complete explanation click on the above link. I repeat, my particular DM2652 does not have any of these switches and does not offer any way of manually controlling these circuits despite what others may claim. It's entirely possible that the interior light in the OP's fridge is intended to be periodically turned on when the main fridge door is closed ... if continuity tests show any switches his particular fridge has are fine then perhaps he's trying to fix a problem that isn't. :R