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Old 10-09-2016, 11:55 PM   #1
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Dometic AC Freezing

We are on our second trip in our new Chaparral 390qsmb. I noticed our main Dometic AC was acting funny (shutting off for a second or so and them coming back on). I removed the filter and noticed ice on the coils. I turned the thermostat to fan only. We are in Destin, FL. The outside temps are not that hot (80's with lower humidity). With such a new RV (just purchased two weeks ago) is this normal?

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Old 10-10-2016, 06:13 AM   #2
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It's not uncommon for the evap coils to freeze up a little, but there should be a freeze coil attached to the fins about the bottom center that shuts the compressor off for a short while when the sensor senses freezing. You should be able to see it with the filter grill off. It may just look like a pair of wires sticking into the evaporator fins.

There have been a lot of reports of it just hanging in the return, and not connected to the fins.
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Old 10-10-2016, 09:16 AM   #3
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It appears the coil wire is inserted near the top of the coils (see pic).

I turned the AC back on this morning to see what happens today.
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Old 10-10-2016, 04:24 PM   #4
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You may want to move it down on the coils a little. Most of them are in the lower third of the coils. Ours is about a forth of the way from the bottom.
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Old 10-10-2016, 05:23 PM   #5
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Ok, I'll move it. I had the fan on low yesterday as well so maybe that contributed to the lack of air flow. The ice was melted this morning so I put the fan on high and turned it to cool. So far there's no ice buildup.
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Old 10-10-2016, 05:53 PM   #6
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Our 16 371 mbrb seems to always do it it's getting annoying. Dealer says nothing wrong with it sad part was it wasn't that humid or hot last time it did exactly what yours is doing. Everytime I goes to the dealer for something I'm going to complain till they do something about it/ or figure it out
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Old 10-11-2016, 10:55 AM   #7
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I've had the same problem....and noticed this:

Is that black wire supposed to be jammed into the fins??

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Old 10-11-2016, 11:55 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Taco93 View Post
Is that black wire supposed to be jammed into the fins??
Yes, yes it is!

There have been lots of reports of the same thing you're seeing. It's left just hanging loose.
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Old 10-11-2016, 12:03 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Taco93 View Post
I've had the same problem....and noticed this:

Is that black wire supposed to be jammed into the fins??

Attachment 122693
Yes!
It appears it may have been inserted where that damaged fin area is in the first photo. There have been several other reports of the sensor falling out.
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Old 10-17-2016, 02:38 PM   #10
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We had the same problem with our 360... no resolution really... dealer sealed up the ducting some and that may have helped but who knows
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Old 10-17-2016, 03:29 PM   #11
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Running your fan on low can contribute to icing. Keeping lots of airflow through the evaporator helps keep it from icing.

For manual control, turn the compressor on low and or turn the temp control down, but keep the fan on high.

For thermostat control, do whatever... but keep the fan on high.

It may be noisy and/or annoying, but the high airflow keeps the evaporator from icing up.
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Old 10-17-2016, 04:52 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 325BH View Post
Running your fan on low can contribute to icing. Keeping lots of airflow through the evaporator helps keep it from icing.

For manual control, turn the compressor on low and or turn the temp control down, but keep the fan on high.

For thermostat control, do whatever... but keep the fan on high.

It may be noisy and/or annoying, but the high airflow keeps the evaporator from icing up.
Good advice. I ran the fan on high after it froze up and didn't have another problem the rest of our trip. The temps in Florida got up into the 80s the the AC worked great.
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