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Old 06-26-2019, 05:36 PM   #1
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Dometic AC Problems with 2017Wildwood Lodge

This may have come up on here before, I have seen quite a few post online but none of the threads actually lead to a remedy, forgive me for the long explanation but this has been going on since we purchased the Camper brand new.

Ours is the model with the upstairs, we have 2 Dometic Rooftop units, the one that runs the upstairs and master bedroom is a 15,000 BTU Dometic (Blizzard) we also have 2 Dometic 3 button stats side by side, since day 1 the upstairs unit will run and blow nice cold air until the camper gets to temp and then shut off and it never comes back on without a complete shut down ( turn thermostat off for a couple min and back on again) then the unit will run great again until it gets to temp.

The dealer came to our campground and changed the controller and thought that would fix it, that did not, so they asked us to struggle through till the end of summer and they would come get it and bring it back to dealer to diagnose after camping season.

The dealer had it all winter and found the unit was freezing up and shutting down so they decided it was a airflow problem, they removed the whole ceiling in the rear of the camper and found 1 duct crushed between 2 ceiling joists and completely flat, they re routed it into the proper cavity and then they found the second duct that was by the bedroom door had so much extra duct coiled up in the cavity it would reach all the way to the front of the camper, the cut it to proper length put the unit back together and I must agree with them I would have assumed that fixed the problem, they delivered it back to us in the spring assuming the problem was fixed. the duct work is like dryer vent .

the first hot day we had the same problem again, they called the factory and they said it may still be a airflow problem and asked if they mailed me a new plenum if I would be willing to change it out to one with a dump gate on it and see if that helped. they mailed it I installed it sealed things up real good and hoped that cured it, well it was towards the end of summer again and we did not really have too many hot humid days and it seemed to work ok as long as the dump was wide open and that's kind of noisy when sleeping upstairs with the unit 1 foot above your head.

well here we are the third summer and its still doing the exact same thing, once to temp it shuts off and does not come back on until I cycle the system off and on.it is almost like the stat is not sending a signal to turn back on? it will pump cold air all day long and not shut off until evening and down to temp so I don't think its a freezing issue.

I am tired of waking up hot in the middle of the night because the rear unit wont turn on by itself.

any ideas?

sorry for so long but I wanted to me thorough in explaining.

thanks in advance Dave
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Old 06-26-2019, 06:01 PM   #2
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If it were a freezing issue, resetting the tstat wouldn't fix the problem, and you would not likely ever get to your desired temp. What type of tstats do you have? If the control box has already been replace I would suspect a problem with the tstat or some rogue wiring issue.
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Old 06-26-2019, 06:21 PM   #3
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they are both Dometic 3 Button Style Capacitive Touch
I have reset them both many times and that did not help
I am thinking about swapping them and see if the issues goes away
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Old 06-26-2019, 06:45 PM   #4
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You mentioned the tstats being side by side. Is there a remote sensor with one of them, or is it possible one is being cooled by the other a/c? Also are you running in auto mode? If so have you tried leaving the fan on low to see if the compressor would cycle back on that way?
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Old 06-26-2019, 06:56 PM   #5
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when it shuts of the temp quickly rises inside with only one unit running and I can check the actual temp the stat thinks by pushing a combination of buttons and can be as much as 15 Degrees higher than what it is set at and wont kick on.

if i leave the fan on high or low the compressor still shuts off but the fan keeps going but does not cool.

the front unit works fine on auto.
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Old 06-26-2019, 07:12 PM   #6
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You could try swapping the tstat with the one that's working right to test if that's the issue.
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Old 06-26-2019, 07:28 PM   #7
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I am going to try that this weekend
I am also bringing my extension ladder up to pull the cover off if it quits to confirm for myself it is not freezing
I found some documentation from Dometic showing what they feel is the required amount of vent(outlets) and minimum length of Ductwork and neither unit meets the specs
before I changed the plenum cover the unit only had 2 outlets because the plenum cover was seal with no dump vents
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Old 06-26-2019, 07:32 PM   #8
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Never hurts to be sure. Freeze up doesn't really fit the symptoms your describing, but nothing is impossible. Keep us posted with what you discover/solution.
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Old 06-26-2019, 07:45 PM   #9
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I sure will
like I said I see many other discussion in other areas on the web with identical problem and no resolution ever posted so I will be sure to follow up if I can figure it out.
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Old 06-26-2019, 09:44 PM   #10
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I see this possible answer... it is possible that it is icing and to reset the freeze sensor one must reset the controls...power down.



had the same problem - exact same symptoms. The sequence of events was - the AC runs until the coil freezes up. The freeze protection sensor cuts the unit off and won't allow it to cycle back on. It won't reset until the thermostat is manually cycled off then on again and the process repeats. If the ambient temp is low enough for the AC to keep up with the set point, the system works fine. But when the outside temp increases and the AC can't keep up, the coil freezes and the problem starts. This sequence doesn't happen when the fan is on (continuous fan) because the coil doesn't freeze.

One earlier poster commented that it may be low on freon. Low freon will cause a unit to freeze up, but so will low air flow. In my case the problem was an air dam between the input chamber and the output side had fallen out of place and allowed the output air to recirculate back to the input chamber. A couple of sheet metal screws and some aluminum tape fixed the problem. I think this is a common problem with Dometic units.

This is a pretty easy fix (or just to check) if you are up for it. You'll have to pull off the faceplate from the AC unit - 4-5 screws , the filter and the knobs. Check the position of the air dam to make sure there are no leaks between the input chamber and output side. The air dam should not rattle or move when you push on it
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Old 06-27-2019, 04:23 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by Iwannacamp View Post
I see this possible answer... it is possible that it is icing and to reset the freeze sensor one must reset the controls...power down.



had the same problem - exact same symptoms. The sequence of events was - the AC runs until the coil freezes up. The freeze protection sensor cuts the unit off and won't allow it to cycle back on. It won't reset until the thermostat is manually cycled off then on again and the process repeats. If the ambient temp is low enough for the AC to keep up with the set point, the system works fine. But when the outside temp increases and the AC can't keep up, the coil freezes and the problem starts. This sequence doesn't happen when the fan is on (continuous fan) because the coil doesn't freeze.

One earlier poster commented that it may be low on freon. Low freon will cause a unit to freeze up, but so will low air flow. In my case the problem was an air dam between the input chamber and the output side had fallen out of place and allowed the output air to recirculate back to the input chamber. A couple of sheet metal screws and some aluminum tape fixed the problem. I think this is a common problem with Dometic units.

This is a pretty easy fix (or just to check) if you are up for it. You'll have to pull off the faceplate from the AC unit - 4-5 screws , the filter and the knobs. Check the position of the air dam to make sure there are no leaks between the input chamber and output side. The air dam should not rattle or move when you push on it


I can pull the faceplate off and double check , the original faceplate was not vented other than return air intake , that had me change it to one with the vent that opens to dump out more air .

I wonder if it is possible the upstairs is such tight quarters it sucking so much cold air back in that’s causing the freezing . It gets quite chilly up there when the unit does run properly.

Thank you for your input
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Old 06-27-2019, 12:05 PM   #12
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My bet is that when you swap the stats, you'll find your problem. I can't believe that the dealer replaced the control box and didn't replace the thermostat.

There have been many reports of the same issue and many of them have been fixed by replacing the T-stat. Of course, sounds like you had enough problems that it may be a good thing they didn't fix it right off.
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Old 06-27-2019, 05:34 PM   #13
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I stopped today and grabbed a new stat , I don’t want to be stuck the next week (holiday week to boot) with one AC Unit .i am also bringing my ladder to be able to climb up to see it’s frozen if it shuts down

I will let everyone know how it goes
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Old 06-28-2019, 10:12 PM   #14
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X2 on the air dam. I had the same problem..my aura dam was held in place by double sided foam tape and it had fallen off. A little duct tape fixed the problem.
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Old 06-29-2019, 07:11 AM   #15
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That’s been looked at when the cover was changed on the u it to one with the air dump in it. All was fine
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Old 06-29-2019, 07:14 AM   #16
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Ok so we get here at the lake yesterday 93° outside 107 inside the camper
Turning both AC units on they both run fine I kept doublechecking them throughout the evening they were both blowing air about 20° cooler than the outside temperature all evening long
The sun went down the camper got down to 72° and both units shut off within five minutes of each other then the front air-conditioner started cycling as it should and the back air-conditioner never did turn back on I lowered the temperature on the thermostat down to 67 and it still did not turn back on I did it completely shut down and turn it back on and it ran again until the camper got to temperature and then never ran again all night long the front air conditioner cycled several times
The sun is up now and the camper is already 74° the rear thermostat won’t kick on It is 7° warmer in here than what I have the thermostat set at so it’s not even the 5° variable problem looks like I’m going to crack open the box on this new thermostat and see if this cures the problem
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Old 06-29-2019, 10:49 AM   #17
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we have a 2019 Salem Villa Grand. it is the same model as the Wildwood Lodge

We have the same issue, but with both of our AC units. We can run them both on high fan and the compressor will cycle off and on and will freeze you out of the camper. But neither will operate in low or Auto. If in low or in Auto as soon as it gets to a certain point it will cut off and never cycle back on unless we manually turn the thermostat off let the light go off and then turn back on.

We have replaced both thermostats. And have replaced the control board on the main unit. Just to see if it fix that one. Nothing seems to work. We have had multiple conversations with Dometic. I have talked with seven different technicians. Have had several people look at our AC units. And no one can determine the problem. We feel like the airflow is good. The freon levels seem to be good because it is so cold. And it does not seem to be decreasing.

I have found one post on the internet that low fan windings could be bad or wrong. But none of the techs know anything about that.

We have gone through duct work and checked for obstructions. I do think it is relatrd to 'freezing up'. We have removed both freeze sensors and units will freeze up and not cut off. I am wondering now if possibly it has to do with location of the actual freeze sensor in the coils.

My bedroom tstat is even located on exterior wall, which I thought might be the culprit. We put some Styrofoam insulation between it and the wall when it was switched out.

This units are designed to run in auto (high speed when temp is 5 degrees or higher from set point and low speed when less than 4 degrees). I would like to either switch to an analog tstat that I can set to stay in high fan even when in auto or somehow change something on control board so that it always uses high fan and not low. Low fan speed is our issue.

It is like the olden days before we had remote controls, and you had to get up and change the channels yourself...I am the 'auto' for our ACs.

Please please please report your findings! (Solution)

Thanks, Julie
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Old 06-30-2019, 09:22 AM   #18
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Well it seems as though it was the thermostat. Best I can tell it was about 10 degrees off And when the camper was getting close to the low 70s it would shut off
If I turned it down to 65 it would shut down at 75 so that explains why it would shut off randomly.
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Old 07-08-2019, 06:09 AM   #19
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Well it seems as though it was the thermostat. Best I can tell it was about 10 degrees off And when the camper was getting close to the low 70s it would shut off
If I turned it down to 65 it would shut down at 75 so that explains why it would shut off randomly.


Spent 5 days in camper in 92 degree heat and the back AC unit never functioned so good in 3 seasons. New Stat did the trick !
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Old 07-08-2019, 08:03 AM   #20
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Thats great! Glad you got it fixed!
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