No power to upper control board of fridge

[terry21va]

Recently purchased a 2003 Forest River Flagstaff camper with a Dometic RM2652 fridge. Started preparing this past Saturday to leave for this Memorial Day weekend (first time taking it out) and noticed that no lights will come on on the upper control panel of the fridge. I am pretty certain the lights came on at least once when we bought it back in December. We have already replaced the lower control board and there has been no change. Any suggestions? NOTE: We have already checked fuses inside and out. The only "crazy" thing is we are measuring 120ishVs at the main terminal block when, according to the manual we should be measuring 6Vs AC or less at the DC terminal block. Also, according to the manual, we should not have any other electrical equipment or lighting connected to the refrigerator circuit. The camper was already wired (by previous owner?)to include the fridge and the interior lights on the same breaker. Your help would be greatly appreciated considering we are supposed to be pulling out tomorrow morning!

[terry21va]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
You are confused.......
That 6v AC measurement on DC is a test of maximum AC Ripple
(AC voltage induced on 12V DC system by converter)
IT is not what you need to be testing.

You need 12V DC voltage to operate fridge controls (upper panel is all 12V DC)

120V AC power operates the electric heat element only. Has a 5a Fuse on lower board to protect element circuit.

The 12V DC comes from your battery/converter DC Dist Panel (FUSE)
If 3A fuse on lower board is bad....no 12V DC to operate fridge

Here is a link to service manual that includes your model. Pg. 13 Section 5.8 & 5.9----DC tests LINK

Could be blown 3A fuse
Could be bad lower board
Could be bad harness between lower/upper boards

You need 12V DC for fridge to work whether it is on 120V AC heat element of on propane

Plan 'B"........large ice chest

Old-Biscuit, thank you for your response! We are no electricians that is for sure! We are hoping that when we get to where we are going, one of the three electricians in the family will be able to point us in the right direction (but that may lead to a "too many cooks in the kitchen" scenario that will be the focus of our weekend). We are pretty positive it is not the fuse (that is the first thing we did...replace ALL fuses. We already purchased and replaced the lower board with no results. We are starting to consider the wiring harness between the lower/upper boards. We started to pull the fridge out last night and then realized it was after midnight. The little bit we did I was able to pull a few pine needles out from underneath and one looked burned/scorched.

Also, after running out quick to take a few pictures, I noticed that one of the red wires from the thermofuse was connected to J4 (which is where the +12v is supposed to be connected on the board). Something tells me this isn't right!? When we installed the new lower board, we connected the wires tit for tat (had before pictures to go by).

Already on to Plan B! Got the cooler out and cleaned....oh well! Maybe next time we will have an operational fridge. Thank you for your response!

[terry21va]

sharker6 wrote:
The Dometic RM2652 fridge has a recall. You can go here to see if yours is included click. I don't think it's an electrical recall though.

Sharker6, we discovered the recall when troubleshooting this issue. I am not sure what a "Dometic SBH Kit" is thought. We will definitely be checking into this when we return from this weekend's trip. Maybe it is a good thing the fridge isn't working!!!

[Old-Biscuit]

You are confused.......
That 6v AC measurement on DC is a test of maximum AC Ripple
(AC voltage induced on 12V DC system by converter)
IT is not what you need to be testing.

You need 12V DC voltage to operate fridge controls (upper panel is all 12V DC)

120V AC power operates the electric heat element only. Has a 5a Fuse on lower board to protect element circuit.

The 12V DC comes from your battery/converter DC Dist Panel (FUSE)
If 3A fuse on lower board is bad....no 12V DC to operate fridge

Here is a link to service manual that includes your model. Pg. 13 Section 5.8 & 5.9----DC tests LINK

Could be blown 3A fuse
Could be bad lower board
Could be bad harness between lower/upper boards

You need 12V DC for fridge to work whether it is on 120V AC heat element of on propane

Plan 'B"........large ice chest

[sharker6]

The Dometic RM2652 fridge has a recall. You can go here to see if yours is included click. I don't think it's an electrical recall though.