I plugged the camper in about 4 days before we went on our first trip over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. waited overnight for the temp to cool off. Fine. Fridge got cold. Our trip went great and everything worked fine except for the electric awning but that is getting fixed next week. We went out to the camper to check on things and noticed that the fridge had the check light on.
I shut the unit off, waited a few minutes and then turned it back on. I heard the igniter trying to fire the gas. It went through its process and after trying to fire 3 times, the check light came on again. Ok. I turned the gas on and then turned the fridge on. The gas lighted on the second try. after about an hour,of letting the fridge run on gas, the temp started cooling.
Ok.... this tells me that the gas is working but the electric is not cooling. I turned the gas off and then tried to get it to revert back to electric and it set itself back to trying to fire the gas system.
Is it possible that a fuse is blown? We had a power outage within the past week and a half. Could the fridge have possibly tried to run on the battery and then switch back and then ultimately blown a fuse? If a fuse is blown, does it void the warranty if I remove the cover plate to check the fuses?
The breakers / fuses was the first thing that I checked. Nothing was tripped, nothing was blown. When I look at the schematic in the manual, it refers to a 3 amp, a 5 amp, and a 30 amp fuse. When you take the protective cover off outside, there is a black dust cover on the lower left. It appears that there is 1 screw holding this cover on. I would imagine that there are fuses behind this cover. Im afraid that if this is tapered with, it would void the warranty and if there is a bigger problem within, dometic would probably not cover it.
The breakers / fuses was the first thing that I checked. Nothing was tripped, nothing was blown. When I look at the schematic in the manual, it refers to a 3 amp, a 5 amp, and a 30 amp fuse. When you take the protective cover off outside, there is a black dust cover on the lower left. It appears that there is 1 screw holding this cover on. I would imagine that there are fuses behind this cover. Im afraid that if this is tapered with, it would void the warranty and if there is a bigger problem within, dometic would probably not cover it.
I would say that if there is a label/tape over the screw that you have to damage/remove to get the screw out, then doing so might void the warranty. In this case, I'm quite sure there is no such label, so there is no problem with removing the cover to look at fuses.
How old is your fridge? I get the impression, from recent experience, that 10 or 11 years is about when they die.
We were getting ready for a 3-week expedition down the Oregon coast and I turned the fridge on a couple of days before departure. The evening before we were due to leave. I checked the fridge temp and it was still in the high 60's.
A poster on RV.net identified a symptom. If there's a deposit of a yellow flour-like powder (sulfur) around the base of the flue, the cooling unit has died. Took the cover off and yeah, sulfur powder.
We went on the planned trip anyway, relying on insulated coolers and frequent purchases of ice. What a PITA!
After we got home, I had a new fridge installed (approx $1800!). This time, we got one with an adjustable temperature setting. I can't believe that Dometic has the effrontery to say "we know how cold your food should be, so we aren't allowing you to change it."
We're hoping there won't be any more $1800 disasters for the next couple of seasons.
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Frank and Eileen
No longer RVers or FR owners
Problem found and fixed. Upon extensive research, I found that my extension cord that is providing shore power, had shorted out and the cord nearly blew apart. I didnt take the time to test other appliances until then. I grabbed my wall socket tester and started poking around and found that the wall sockets in the camper were not testing right. I then tried to turn on a tv but it wouldnt come on. I then realized that i was on 12 volt power. I traced the cord and found that it was broken. Replaced the cord and now everything seems to be back to where it was. My wife and I were racking our brains trying to figure out what was the problem. Thank goodness we found and fixed it. I think what i may do is put a 30 amp service off the side of my house so i can run everything if i need to.
Problem found and fixed. Upon extensive research, I found that my extension cord that is providing shore power, had shorted out and the cord nearly blew apart. I didnt take the time to test other appliances until then. I grabbed my wall socket tester and started poking around and found that the wall sockets in the camper were not testing right. I then tried to turn on a tv but it wouldnt come on. I then realized that i was on 12 volt power. I traced the cord and found that it was broken. Replaced the cord and now everything seems to be back to where it was. My wife and I were racking our brains trying to figure out what was the problem. Thank goodness we found and fixed it. I think what i may do is put a 30 amp service off the side of my house so i can run everything if i need to.
Love to see a photo of the cord.
It would be a great addition to the library.
Herk
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Lou & Freya the wonder dog
2008 GMC Sierra 3000HD Allison Duramax
2019 Flagstaff 8529FL
You are very lucky you did not have a fire at your camper. That cord is a lawn tool sized extension cord - 14 Gauge (6 - 8 amps maximum in a 100 foot cord - like a hedge trimmer).
Did you plug that cord into a 20 amp circuit? If so, the wire was "undersized" for the circuit and failed due to having too much current drawn through it.
Additionally, like any extension cord, the voltage drops as it is "consumed" by the wire's length (resistance loss) when current flows through it. This actually increases as the length of run increases.
The loss becomes heat and the wire's resistance goes up as it gets hotter. A vicious cycle that results in eventual failure.
The cure is the correct sized cord for your anticipated current load and length of run.
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Lou & Freya the wonder dog
2008 GMC Sierra 3000HD Allison Duramax
2019 Flagstaff 8529FL
Update:..... I have done away with the extension cord all together. I branched off of a 15 amp circuit in my garage that is rarely used, drilled a hole through the wall and then ran weatherproof conduit to the corner of the garage. I wired a GFI and an weatherproof receptacle cover so i can now plug the camper supply line directly to the plug. Back in business.
Update:..... I have done away with the extension cord all together. I branched off of a 15 amp circuit in my garage that is rarely used, drilled a hole through the wall and then ran weatherproof conduit to the corner of the garage. I wired a GFI and an weatherproof receptacle cover so i can now plug the camper supply line directly to the plug. Back in business.
This should work fine for keeping the battery charged and the fridge cold. You might get tired of running back and forth resetting tripped breakers if anyone used that "rarely used" circuit or tries the air conditioner while loading.
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Lou & Freya the wonder dog
2008 GMC Sierra 3000HD Allison Duramax
2019 Flagstaff 8529FL
Keeping the fridge cold is the main thing. When loading, I pull the camper out from the back side of the garage and position it in front of the garage door. From there, I pull the ramp down (toy hauler) and we load everything from the back in about 20 minutes. (clothes, food, then golf cart, fire wood, kids bikes, etc. etc.) We prep nearly everything that needs to be loaded and then we get the assembly line going. Kids bring us stuff and we put it away and then off we go. Same with unloading. Stuff comes out of the camper, into the garage and then the camper gets parked and plugged in. The wife and I are starting to get our process streamlined. If i needed to run the A/C, I would bring the generator out and run it off of that to cool it down.
Problem found and fixed. Upon extensive research, I found that my extension cord that is providing shore power, had shorted out and the cord nearly blew apart. I didnt take the time to test other appliances until then. I grabbed my wall socket tester and started poking around and found that the wall sockets in the camper were not testing right. I then tried to turn on a tv but it wouldnt come on. I then realized that i was on 12 volt power. I traced the cord and found that it was broken. Replaced the cord and now everything seems to be back to where it was. My wife and I were racking our brains trying to figure out what was the problem. Thank goodness we found and fixed it. I think what i may do is put a 30 amp service off the side of my house so i can run everything if i need to.
Finding that damaged cord may have saved a fire at some point in the future.
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Ed (N4RWU) & Becky Taylor
Mistie (Walks 4-down)
Greensboro, NC
Youroo!!
Linear Mode
