Dometic refrigerator at higher altitudes

[hshea]

We purchased a new Keystone TT last year at the RV show here in Denver to replace our 10 yr old Forest River that never had an issue in its life. Now Denver is at 5280 feet and we camp in Colorado at National Forest campgrounds that usually do not have hook ups are all above 5280 ft. The Dometic fridge hardly works on propane it tries to ignite and fails to ignite 99% of the time, we have been to 5 dealers and spent nearly $800 of our own money and it still doesn't work. Now Dometic is telling us that their new fridges will not work above 5,000 feet. Why are dealers in Denver selling a TT with a fridge that only works at sea level?

We are so frustrated and sad we sold our old Forest River - needless to say Keystone doesn't give a darn and Dometic say there are no fixes for altitude so we have a $30k travel trailer and have to use a cooler?

Has anyone else had this issue and found a work around?

[JAC1982]

Wondering if you could ignite it yourself? Sort of like how if the igniter on a BBQ grill doesn't work right, you could get it to light anyway by turning on the gas and lighting it with a lighter?

This could also be total BS since I don't really have much knowledge about how these refrigerators work 🙂

[tempforce]

carry a small inverter generator, unplug the refrigerator from the outlet at the back of the refrigerator and plug it into the small generator. be sure to chain the generator down, if in a campground or it may go to someone who thinks they need it more..
run the fridge a hour at a time, after each meal. unless you are in hot weather conditions. then you may have to cool the fridge down more often..

[JAC1982]

We have a Norcold and haven't experienced issues with this, we're right around 5300' where we are, and have boondocked at higher elevations.

[braindead0]

Wow, my dometic works great above 5000' on propane. Must be the larger models, ours is rather small.

[SoundGuy]

Picked at random here's a Norcold Fridge Owner's Manual that says essentially the same thing as Dometic ...

"Effects of High Altitude on Propane Gas Operation

When you operate the refrigerator on propane gas at altitudes higher than 5500 feet above sea level:
- You may experience reduced cooling performance of the
refrigerator.
- You may experience burner outages.

To avoid these possible problems, Norcold recommends that you operate the refrigerator on AC when at altitudes higher than 5500 feet above sea level."

Since Dometic and Norcold are the two major players in recreational vehicle gas absorption fridges it would seem there's no magic to this. :W

[SoundGuy]

deleted

[pconroy328]

We had a Dometic in the 2008 Coachmen and a Norcold in the new Greyhawk. We haven't had any of these issues and we usually boondock at 8000' or better.

Spent a whole weekend at 10,200'.
Maybe we got a defective fridge (twice) and ours work???

[GizmosMom]

So I was telling my husband that you experienced the same problem that we did. We started wondering if there actually IS a solution. Then I did a Google search. Apparently Norcold has the same problem.

I found a thread on another RV forum about this and on page 2 of this post the original poster found a solution. (I hope that it is okay to post a link from another RV forum)

We will try this the next time we are at higher elevations.

From my Google search I found that the problem is a bit more widespread than originally thought.

I hope this may help you.

[SoundGuy]

GizmosMom wrote:
We camped in the Grand Mesa at 10,000 feet. Our 2016 Forest River Sunseeker Dometic refrigerator did the same thing. We dug out the manual and it said that when camping above 5,000 feet we should have electrical hookups!

Reading the owner's manual ... imagine that! :W

Our dealer said that the manufacturers are "making different products" these days.

Well that's certainly an informative response from your dealer. :S

[SoundGuy]

humblerb wrote:
P.S. - You have a guy who is 10' above sea-level trying to help solve your problem!
LOL

LOL indeed ... first, my location is officially listed as ~ 243' above sea level, not 10', and secondly I'm not trying to solve anyone's problem. :R Rather, I merely pointed out how misdirected it is to blame the dealer or even the trailer manufacturer for lack of fridge performance at elevation as neither has any control over fridge design and therefore neither bears any responsibility. :S Furthermore, Dometic itself makes it quite clear for anyone who bothers to read the owner's manual that a gas absorption fridge which doesn't perform at elevation doesn't mean the fridge itself is faulty but rather that it is only capable of working within certain parameters, high elevation not being one of them. What's so difficult about any of this to understand? :R

[GizmosMom]

We camped in the Grand Mesa at 10,000 feet. Our 2016 Forest River Sunseeker Dometic refrigerator did the same thing. We dug out the manual and it said that when camping above 5,000 feet we should have electrical hookups!

This is our 4th RV and we had previously camped on the Mesa and other places in Colorado at 10,000 feet and never experienced this.

Our dealer said that the manufacturers are "making different products" these days.

This was also very disappointing to us.

The propane refrigerator did come back on but would frequently go back out. We have a "Check light" feature on it and had to keep an eye on it.

[sch911]

In this post Airstream owners talk about how to adjust the propane regulator to get it to work.

[humblerb]

Assume you used your Forest River above 5,280', also.
Apparently, you didn't experience issues with it?
Do you know what refrigerator you had in it?

P.S. - You have a guy who is 10' above sea-level trying to help solve your problem!
LOL

[SoundGuy]

hshea wrote:
Why are dealers in Denver selling a TT with a fridge that only works at sea level?

Dealers don't choose the fridge installed in any trailer, the manufacturer does. Further to that the manufacturer can only install what is available to them so if you want to question anyone it should be to the fridge manufacturer. :R

You haven't mentioned just which model fridge you have but Dometic does address the issue of operation at altitude in this Dometic Owner's Manual ...

"OPERATING REFRIGERATOR AT HIGH ALTITUDE

All gas appliances experience lowered efficiency (or rating) at high altitude. This is a direct result of lower atmospheric pressure and oxygen levels, and is not a defect of the refrigerator.
Reduced cooling performance and burner outage may occur at altitudes higher than 5500 feet above sea level (while operating on LP gas). Always operate refrigerator on electric power at altitudes higher than 5500 feet."