RV Refrigerator and good news

[lap527]

As most of you know I have posted about our refrigerator. We have had it at dealership time and time again and still same problem. They said all checked out good. It has been one of the most frustrating aggravating thing in our TC. I can't tell you how many bad words have been hurled at it until today. We called a mobile RV guy and he diagnosed the problem before he even opened the side vents. He put a pressure gauge on it and then tried to adjust the regulator but could only get 8 out of it. He likes it to be 12 of whatever. He then said I bet it's a faulty Chinese made regulator, he was correct. He changed it out to an American made and when he left at 2 PM it was 39.9 and at 8 PM it was 31.1 and we had to turn the fridge down to 4. He also checked the pressure from the back of the fridge instead of at the stove. A lot of this technical stuff I am not sure about but I can tell you right now our fridge is cranking. He said there was enough pressure there to burn and not throw a code but not enough to heat the back of the unit. We always felt it was an air flow problem he feels assured that this will fix our headache. It might not be the answer to all refrigerator problems but it appears to have fixed ours. I guess the dealership techs need to take a few lessons from our new guy. I also know that several people here on the forum have a unit like ours and are experiencing similar problems. I am keeping my fingers crossed...

[djg]

I have the same camper as lap527 and we have been private messaging for a while now but you might be right but I can fix the problem by blocking some vents with duct tape and I would have to spend money on a tech to turn it up anyway so may be be better to get rid of the Chinese junk and just buy a new gauge

[lap527]

djg wrote:
lap527 have you tried to drive with it to see if it still heats up, my fridge was tested when I first got the camper and the tag on the fridge says the pressure was 9, so probably too low, going to look for a new regulator now

No, but it gets so much colder now than it did. We are going to take the TC next week when we go to visit my folks, they live about 1.5 hours from me and it will stay on propane for much of the day. Like I said still got my fingers crossed but will know for sure by Wednesday. Will keep you posted. If it doesn't improve I will be one disappointed heifer. Lol!

[Super_Dave]

djg wrote:
lap527 have you tried to drive with it to see if it still heats up, my fridge was tested when I first got the camper and the tag on the fridge says the pressure was 9, so probably too low, going to look for a new regulator now

Sounds like you should try to turn it up first before replacing?

[djg]

lap527 have you tried to drive with it to see if it still heats up, my fridge was tested when I first got the camper and the tag on the fridge says the pressure was 9, so probably too low, going to look for a new regulator now

[lap527]

lap527 wrote:

Super_Dave wrote:
lap, you didn't notice how your tech adjusted the pressure by any chance did you?

He had a gauge and put it on propane connection in back of fridge. I helped out by adjusting the regulator, using a Phillips screwdriver with an extension, on the opposite side of TC. The gauge only went to 8 and then there was no more adjustment on regulator. Our guy likes to set it at 12, I have no idea why or the technical stuff involved.

Here is pic of where I was adjusting while he was watching pressure gauge. This is the faulty Chinese one though. Man, propane sure makes me nervous. LOL! Yall be careful with that stuff.

[lap527]

Super_Dave wrote:
lap, you didn't notice how your tech adjusted the pressure by any chance did you?

He had a gauge and put it on propane connection in back of fridge. I helped out by adjusting the regulator, using a Phillips screwdriver with an extension, on the opposite side of TC. The gauge only went to 8 and then there was no more adjustment on regulator. Our guy likes to set it at 12, I have no idea why or the technical stuff involved.

[lap527]

Stars101 wrote:
I am so glad I read this post. We have the same issue and installed the external computer fan to try and provide a better vent. In all the times we had it looked at no one ever put a flipping gauge on the propane line! But I am not surprised if any of you have followed my "Travel Lite" threads...

It's been hard to say if the fan has helped b/c our camping has been so sporadic this year I haven't been able to be able to say the issue is fixed yet.

I don't remember this even being suggested as a possible cause in any of the refrigerator threads in the archives. Seems like this should be mentioned in every fridge thread before jumping into adding fans and additional insulation. And I know that some people still had issues after adding fans....

I'm showing this to my DH. If it's our regulator he's gonna blow a gasket - you have NO IDEA how much time it took to fit that computer fan into our exterior refrigerator compartment (not to mention the hours online looking for a certain size 12v fan!) Grrr.

Propane is the one system he hasn't had to deal with a lot so it never occurred to either of us to check incoming pressure.

Just make sure the gauge is placed on backside of fridge and NOT on stove. As it was explained to me you can still lose pressure between stove and back side of fridge. I can just jump up and down right now. LOL! It has been so frustrating...Good Luck and please post your results.

[Super_Dave]

lap, you didn't notice how your tech adjusted the pressure by any chance did you?

[Stars101]

I am so glad I read this post. We have the same issue and installed the external computer fan to try and provide a better vent. In all the times we had it looked at no one ever put a flipping gauge on the propane line! But I am not surprised if any of you have followed my "Travel Lite" threads...

It's been hard to say if the fan has helped b/c our camping has been so sporadic this year I haven't been able to be able to say the issue is fixed yet.

I don't remember this even being suggested as a possible cause in any of the refrigerator threads in the archives. Seems like this should be mentioned in every fridge thread before jumping into adding fans and additional insulation. And I know that some people still had issues after adding fans....

I'm showing this to my DH. If it's our regulator he's gonna blow a gasket - you have NO IDEA how much time it took to fit that computer fan into our exterior refrigerator compartment (not to mention the hours online looking for a certain size 12v fan!) Grrr.

Propane is the one system he hasn't had to deal with a lot so it never occurred to either of us to check incoming pressure.

[D_E_Bishop]

I'm glad you found your problem so quickly and so cheaply. It has taken me 4 years and several bucks to get mine fixed for exactly the same thing you ran into, the EXPERTS don't listen to end users suggestions. I actually found the solution to my problem here in the archives of the forums.

Once again congrats of fixing everything and finding a competent tech.

[luv2skyski]

I've had issue with the regulator adjustment but it didn't affect our fridge just the furnace.
link
Happy camping, Dave.

[dakonthemountai]

Yay! Glad it all worked out for you and you are "back in the chill"! 🙂

Dak

[lap527]

Super_Dave, everytime we would travel the temps would go up in the TC fridge. In the very beginning we had one fridge to go bad and Dometic replaced it. As long as we were parked all was fine. DH felt like there was an air flow problem because it worked while parked. We had taken it to a dealership, not the selling because the selling one cut our torklift mounts trying to get them to work, bunch of stooges! Anyway, long story short, the dealership kept telling us nothing was wrong. They said all checked out, including propane pressure. We actually found this guy through Torklift. I am posting a pic of the new regulator, made in MI and it says Marshall Excelsior on it. I have been communicating via private message with another forum member that has same camper and same problem. A 2 year problem...geeze. Then again, when a dealership tells you that it's fine, what can we do but look at other options. I am keeping fingers crossed but it's looking good...

[gregchambers]

I am shopping for a new regulator as my current one switches over but the indicator does not. Lots of posts on what not to buy, anyone have a recommendation or better yet, a picture of what is good a good automatic regulator?