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Older fridge cooling Better on 110 than propane

Buffblazer
Explorer
Explorer
Hello all, hoping for some help before my 4th of July trip

I took my 98 Lightcraft truck camper up the mountain this last Friday and when I left the house with the fridge on 110 the temp was 28 degrees.

Switched over to propane and drove an hour to my spot to find the fridge at 55 degrees. Could not get it to cool down.

Yesterday I ran it on 110 to verify it wasn’t the cooling unit. I had a tall blue flame but went ahead and cleaned the burner unit and blew out the area. Still the same height flame.

I adjusted my settings from hi-med-low and see very minimal flame height change and have never heard the propane “roar” that people talk about in the 2 years I have owned it. I did replace my regulator last year and have no issues with my stove or heater working.

Any suggestions? Not sure of the brand of fridge. It’s the old school 3 way with the turn knob in the back and the green 110 switch and red 12v

Thank you
55 REPLIES 55

ernie1
Explorer
Explorer
NRALIFR: Well after about 24 hrs of running my refer at about 12.2" I'm at 48.7 deg F. So I turned my fans on and the temp went up to 50 deg. F. I give up, I quit. Maybe a new compressor fridge is on the horizon. Don't know but I gave it the "college " try, reached out to others, got some good info, got some condescending info, been accused of highjacking a thread, but I do know this, I've had it. Thanks for your help.

Bobbo
Explorer II
Explorer II
Wrong thread
Bobbo and Lin
2017 F-150 XLT 4x4 SuperCab w/Max Tow Package 3.5l EcoBoost V6
2017 Airstream Flying Cloud 23FB

NRALIFR
Explorer
Explorer
Well, to be honest I don’t remember even looking at the static pressure. I would guess that it would be higher than 11.5”. I don’t really consider the static pressure to be significant unless you’re doing a leak check of the system. The regulator needs to have some load on it to regulate.

But, you’re in luck. I didn’t want to spend another day up on a ladder painting the house, so I gave myself the day off (I can do that since I’m the boss of just darn near everything around here, at least while SWMBO is at work). :B

It’s been almost a year since I replaced the LP regulator, and bought the digital manometer, so it was probably a good idea to check it again. As I said in the topic I linked to, the test port plug at the fridge is frozen and I can’t remove it. I twisted an Allen wrench into a pretzel last year trying to get it out and it never budged. After finding that the valve it’s part of cost $150, I quit trying to get it out.

This is the pressure with the fridge, furnace, water heater, and the generator running. I had the generator loaded about 50% using an electric heater. The pressure is about the same with the furnace off, and the AC loading the generator. The displayed pressure is actually bouncing around +/- .1 or so, but I tried to adjust the regulator so that most of the time it was above 11.5”.



And this is the pressure with nothing but the fridge running. Again, this is at the regulator. It might show slightly lower, and with less fluctuations if I could check it at the fridge. That’s less than one ounce per square inch difference between the two numbers.



Edit: Being an unapologetic OCD kind of guy, I started wondering if maybe I was checking and adjusting the LP pressure with too much load on the system. After all, the generator and furnace are both gas hogs compared to the other LP appliances. So, I rechecked things with the generator off, but all the other LP appliances running. The readings were virtually identical. In order to maintain 11.5” h2o with the furnace, WH, stove/oven and fridge going, the regulator had to be adjusted such that the pressure rose to about 12.7-12.9” h2o with just the fridge running. It is what it is, I guess.

:):)
2001 Lance 1121 on a 2016 F450 ‘Scuse me while I whinge.
And for all you Scooby-Doo and Yosemite Sam types………..Let’s Go Brandon!!!

ernie1
Explorer
Explorer
NRALIFR: Wow! This is exactly the info I needed especially because it's to the point where my problem stems from and I will follow through with the regulator adjustment. I was leaning towards doing something like this and was looking for confirmation from people who have experienced this problem but up to this point, no one would come forward with this info.. Well, you're the man! I will post the results when I can. I'm really curious as to where the black stinky liquid comes from and is it an issue that needs to be addressed. Seems other people have mentioned it in the past. Just curious, what was your propane pressure after your final adjustment and with no appliances drawing from the system?

NRALIFR
Explorer
Explorer
Yes, the LP pressure is too low. It should be adjusted to maintain 11.5” with most of the LP appliances going. In fact, I would try to adjust it for 11.5” with the furnace, water heater, and generator going. If it won’t adjust, you’ll need to replace the regulator.

Your regulator should be sized by the total btu’s of the LP appliances it’s supplying gas to.

Here’s a link to a topic of mine that is very similar to this one. You might find it helpful.

LP System Questions Topic

:):)
2001 Lance 1121 on a 2016 F450 ‘Scuse me while I whinge.
And for all you Scooby-Doo and Yosemite Sam types………..Let’s Go Brandon!!!

ernie1
Explorer
Explorer
Okay so I tested my pressures. 11' with no draw from appliances. With the generator on it was 10". With the furnace on also it dropped to 9". With the refer on also there was no noticeable drop. I also tested the draw across the gas solenoid and it was 108.5 ohms. What say any of you guys in the know? Is there a problem? Also there is about a 1/2" clearance between the condensor and the wall. I know, it's excessive and I will take care of that but, again the unit works fine on ac and 12v.

ernie1
Explorer
Explorer
Everyone and Doug, thanks for your help and I will at this point check the lp pressure from the regulator to the refer at the gas valve and dismantle the chimney looking for any irregularities along with a thorough cleaning of this area.

maillemaker
Explorer
Explorer
If your refer is working fine on 110 then there is nothing wrong with the cooling system. Something is wrong with the LP burner system.

Most likely, something is gunked/rusted up.

Possibly, there's something wrong with the gas supply.

Steve
1990 Winnebago Warrior. "She may not look like much but she's got it where it counts!"

dougrainer
Nomad
Nomad
ernie1 wrote:
I want to state this again and for the last time. The refer works fine and as it should on ac and as expected on 12v. BUT not very well on propane at all. So my thought is that the installation is proper otherwise it would not cool properly on ac. It is just the propane setting that won't cool properly. Again, my 2 friends have an identical refer and one also has a Dometic but a smaller model and we have the identical problem. So something is wrong that is common to these Dometics. Also I might as well say it loud and clear now, Dometic as a manufacturer is not worth a darn and has failed to correct this problem. Dougrainer, with your 40+ years of experience I feel you can do better than tell me that the chances of the wrong sized jets being installed on all three of these refrigerators aren't logical and that Dometic is blameless. What I expected from you was what the problem with these refers are. If the refers work fine on ac and 12v but not well on propane why is it a faulty installation? These are brand new units and Dometic via repair shops has been diddling with them to a point where they gave up and told the owners that the refers were operating as expected. Come on Doug you can do better.


I can do better? Remember, you are getting what you are paying for. There are 2 things that would make LP not operate as well as 120 volt. I am not getting into jet orifice sizes. LP pressure---after all these posts, have you VERIFIED the actual LP pressure AT the refer? The other is the condition of and IF installed the LP flame baffle. If it is missing and has been burnt/corroded, it will not disburse the flame correctly to heat the flue correctly to the right BTU. Sorry, I have a life other than these forums, and I do not go back and read ALL the previous responses. I missed the fact that the refer operated on 120 correctly but not LP. No I did NOT, I TOLD you to verify the LP pressure before doing anything else. NOW, I go back and found you hijacked the original thread. CHECK THE LP PRESSURE WITH A MANOMETER. THEN POST THE RESULTS;. I AM THRU WITH YOU. Doug

red31
Explorer
Explorer
ernie1 my thinking goes like this!, usually the propane BTU on high is more than the 120v watts. if natual convection is enough for 120v it may not be for propane and causing areas that do not need heat getting heat!

What is your pressure? How far away from the wall is the condenser (baffeled?)

NRALIFR
Explorer
Explorer
ernie1 wrote:
NRALIFR My refer has two side vents and I've installed two 12v fans behind the top vent and when the fans are running I've actually noticed the refer losing ground and the inside warm up a degree or two so now I've quit running the fans totally. You're right about reading the installation manual and I will but I'm still saying if the installation was not proper, why does the unit run fine on ac and 12v BUT not propane. Also, My two friends with Dometics of the same vintage complain about the same issue. Logic is clear to me in this case that there is something not right with the propane part of these refers. I'm tired of hearing about how blameless Dometic is and when I reach out for help to their tech people they are clueless, rude and condescending. At this point I think I'm beating a dead horse in trying to find a solution and getting wound up in company loyalty issues etc rather than dealing with facts.


Your logic is correct. I know you’ve mentioned that it works fine on AC more than once but I forgot that when I made my last post. I would check the LP pressure before doing anything else.

All I can say regarding fans is that on my current unit, I have one fan in back, and it’s mounted about halfway up in an area where there’s a lot of room between the tubing. It’s pointing up, blowing through the condenser fins at the top, and the roof vent above it. It’s actually a fairly slow speed, quiet fan. You can hardly hear it. I don’t think high speed fans are necessary back there.

One thing that is different about running in LP mode versus AC mode, is the waste heat from the flame coming out of the chimney. There are more btu’s of heat to exhaust out the top vent when the fridge is running in LP mode than when it’s in AC mode. The baffle at the very top of the fridge should direct all of the heat coming off the cooling unit tubes and fins AND coming out of the chimney to the top vent, and not let any of it enter the dead air space that’s typically left on top of the fridge. If there’s even a small gap at the sides of the top baffle, heat will enter the area behind it. I’ve found that it’s best to fill that area with insulation to prevent that.

The heat produced by the flame doesn’t all go into the boiler perk tube of the cooling unit like it does when running in AC mode. The chimney should have a twisted strip of metal hanging down close to the bottom called a baffle. It’s supposed to concentrate the heat in the proper area so the solution inside the perk tube will boil. If that baffle isn’t there, the heat just flows up the chimney and the boiler doesn’t get hot enough. Even with the baffle though, there’s a lot of heat flowing out of the chimney. Enough to burn you when the flame is on. So, make sure the baffle is there, and that the end closest to the flame isn’t burnt off. Make sure there’s nothing obstructing the flow of heat coming out the chimney. Also make sure the chimney is clean of rust. A 10 gauge shotgun wire brush can be used to clean it. Of course you have to pull the baffle out for that.

Here’s an image of a cooling unit I like to refer to. You can see a representation of the baffle in the lower right. It looks like a figure eight.



:):)
2001 Lance 1121 on a 2016 F450 ‘Scuse me while I whinge.
And for all you Scooby-Doo and Yosemite Sam types………..Let’s Go Brandon!!!

ernie1
Explorer
Explorer
NRALIFR My refer has two side vents and I've installed two 12v fans behind the top vent and when the fans are running I've actually noticed the refer losing ground and the inside warm up a degree or two so now I've quit running the fans totally. You're right about reading the installation manual and I will but I'm still saying if the installation was not proper, why does the unit run fine on ac and 12v BUT not propane. Also, My two friends with Dometics of the same vintage complain about the same issue. Logic is clear to me in this case that there is something not right with the propane part of these refers. I'm tired of hearing about how blameless Dometic is and when I reach out for help to their tech people they are clueless, rude and condescending. At this point I think I'm beating a dead horse in trying to find a solution and getting wound up in company loyalty issues etc rather than dealing with facts.

ernie1
Explorer
Explorer
I want to state this again and for the last time. The refer works fine and as it should on ac and as expected on 12v. BUT not very well on propane at all. So my thought is that the installation is proper otherwise it would not cool properly on ac. It is just the propane setting that won't cool properly. Again, my 2 friends have an identical refer and one also has a Dometic but a smaller model and we have the identical problem. So something is wrong that is common to these Dometics. Also I might as well say it loud and clear now, Dometic as a manufacturer is not worth a darn and has failed to correct this problem. Dougrainer, with your 40+ years of experience I feel you can do better than tell me that the chances of the wrong sized jets being installed on all three of these refrigerators aren't logical and that Dometic is blameless. What I expected from you was what the problem with these refers are. If the refers work fine on ac and 12v but not well on propane why is it a faulty installation? These are brand new units and Dometic via repair shops has been diddling with them to a point where they gave up and told the owners that the refers were operating as expected. Come on Doug you can do better.

JRscooby
Explorer II
Explorer II
dougrainer wrote:
JRscooby wrote:
dougrainer wrote:

Also, Are any of you or your friends refer installed in a slide room? THAT is also a different situation that usually calls for a separate exhaust fan blowing out the top door. Doug


I can not disagree with this, but just for my understanding, could you tell me why this is true?


Simple. The normal install for a RV refer is to have the cold air come in thru the bottom outside door and convection the air thru the condenser and up and out the roof vent. Normal convection air gets this done. Larger RV refers need an addition fan to help blow the air up and out, which the refer maker installs if needed. Now, when you have the refer in a slide out, the air flow IS going up, but must make a 90 degree turn and out the upper vent door since you do not have a roof vent in a slide room. Most OEM's do a poor job of making the upper wood cabinet with the required wood baffles to help turn that air and out the upper door. So, a lot of the hot air stays caught behind the upper refer and allows poor ventilation and cooling. Sooo, what I do is modify the upper back of the cabinet to seal off any place that can trap air. I then add just 1 12 volt refer fan just inside that upper door blowing out to force the hot air out the upper door. Also, when you remove that upper door and you can see most ofthe condenser fins, that is also a problem. That is why it is critical to make sure you have a wood baffle as close to the back side of those fins to make sure the cooling air goes thru the condenser instead bypassing between the sidewall and the condenser. THIS is the most common OEM error on baffling the refer cabinet. Doug


Thank you. Have the same issue with popup. But with the baffles I put in I only need to run the fan when the outside temp is over 100...