Fridge fan cycles on & off(drives us nuts at night!)

[capucine]

I am thinking of putting an inline switch that feed the fan . Like this I can shut off this fan at night for sleeping. I cannot understand that a big company like Dometic never found a cure for this fan. This is not a very quiet fan either and some fridgs bigger than the 2652 uses 2 fans instead. I look at the brochure skematic and I hope to find the right wire to splice and insert this switch. I hope by doing this that it will not damage the fridg. On the brochure it says that this fan is optional. And how many of us are frustated about this non stop cycling fan. Any of you have ideas in your mind to make us sleep at night?

[onetonford]

I wish they had come up with a system I was thinking of doing since this fan is only important for circulation during the heat of the day why not use a fan that has a external solar panel on the roof that way it would only run when the sun was out?

[mpolkki]

I've noticed my fan runs much louder than the norcold in my previous jayco dealer says it's normal

[Goomph]

I suffer from the same problem. On our last visit to the factory few weeks ago, I complained about it, and they checked it out. Unfortunately their reply was, "it is working as designed, sorry it is a tad loud and cuts in and out but that is what it is supposed to do"

The noise is very irritating to say the least, they could at least put a fan with a lower noise level. Hearing it kick on and off every minute is ticking me off ..... That was the only disappointing part of our trip .. I was sure they would be able to do something about it but it did not happen

[jimh]

Originally Posted by onetonford

I wish they had come up with a system I was thinking of doing since this fan is only important for circulation during the heat of the day why not use a fan that has a external solar panel on the roof that way it would only run when the sun was out?

Camco Norcold/Dometic Universal RV Refrigerator Vent Cover w/Sola..

they make one.

[MtnGuy]

Originally Posted by jimh

Camco Norcold/Dometic Universal RV Refrigerator Vent Cover w/Sola..

they make one.

Wow, who woulda thunk it. Great find.

[ilovecamping]

I noticed the same issue with ours right after we got it. DH called the dealer and they said it is normal so I just try to block it out when sitting near it. We run fans at night so I am guessing that covers it up.

[prof_fate]

I noticed the same thing when we camped the first time 2 weekends ago - I figured it was the fridge compressor coning on and off and figured that was way often, but seemed normal.

I'll look, i mean listen, more closely next weekend and see what I hear. Or hear what I see.

Pulling the fridge isn't someting I want to do but a 150 mile roundtrip to the dealer (or more if I have to leave it there) isn't on my want to do list so if this is a warranty fix it will have to wait to the end of the season (and if not then it will wait anyway). When we pull the camper home in September I can fix it or drop it off to be fixed.

Knowing there is a fix is encouraging though!

[dalemel5924]

Wow! Finding this thread today has calmed my rage! I was ready to beat everyone at the RV dealership where we purchased our 2011 LaCrosse 318BH last week.

We took delivery this past Friday, then headed straight for our brand new seasonal camp site at the lake on Saturday (some 150 miles from the dealership). But I'm jumping ahead. During delivery, the service guy who did our walk-thru o Friday was obviously in a hurry to get his weekend started, but we gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was covering everything we needed to know - being the travel trailer virgins that we are. And after all, I had watched the dealer RV'ing 101 video tape and he seemed to be hitting all the main points and satisfactorily answering my questions. He did briefly say something about the refrigrator "cycling" and it was "normal", but left it at that. And we never heard any noise (we know now because the AC was blasting away).

So there we were, all set up by late Saturday afternoon, kicking back, meeting all the neighbors and loving life... until we went to bed! Everything was fine until the AC cycled off at about midnight, then the "whirring" nightmare began. Every 3 to 5 seconds, on then off, on then off... ALL NIGHT! I did my best to catch naps when the AC would kick on, but that was about all the sleep my wife and I got!

I decided yesterday to go outside, pull the panel, and begin studying the wiring diagram... sure enough, there's the culprit pictured plain as day on the diagram - the 12V DC fan with an in-line fuse and a thermofuse. I don't have to tell you all - you've read all the posts before mine. Like so many others, I could see enough of the fan up behind the freezer area to tell that's what was cycling on and off. So I pulled the 3AMP fuse and sure enough it stopped.

Called the dealer today and was told "that's normal and by the way, the service tech told you it would cycle on and off". WHATEVER!!! All of my years of electrical and wiring experience from days of working on F-16s in the AF came pouring out of me in a suprisingly well articulated furious rant to this guy over the phone. I about reached through the phone when he admitted they had heard the same complaint from several other customers, but they had also told them that it was normal. Finally he relented to calling the manufacturer before I called the owner of the dealership. We'll see what he comes back with. Should be an interesting conversation considering what I've learned on this forum from all of you.

Knowing that the dealer will likely only move the thermofuse, I'll probably opt to install an inline switch for the time being... to ensure I don't void any warranty items. I may try to get the dealer to write a waiver so I can replace the fan myself, but am not holding my breath.

Thank you all for posting your comments and providing a very eye-opening education! It's somewhat comforting to know the problem wasn't something I caused on my very first travel trailer outing.

[jimh]

one other suggestion, for those that aren't dry camping, put the switch around the sensor so the fan doesn't cycle (would stay on all the time). flip the switch to off to return to original configuration. i would think it would be easier to sleep without that constant cycle. it would also keep the veneration.

[prof_fate]

how do you pull the fridge? What's holding it in there?

I pulled the outside panel off this past weekend and it's the fan, but there' no way to reach up in there.
I'll gladly pull the fridge and move the sensor!

[jimh]

the frig pulls from the inside. u undo the gas line and unplug the electrical. the mounting screws are located on flange that fits against the cabinet on the inside of the trailer. take them out and pull into the trailer.
depending on where that sensor is, it may be easier to take the vent off and reach down in there. in other words, i don't know where it is but assume it would be near the ceiling.
oh i didn't account for the vent fan wire...that will most likely have to be disconnected also.
i would probably locate that sensor (switch) before i pulled the frig.

[capucine]

dalemel 5924: I have found the perfect cure for this fridg that cycle on and off. Get a evaporator fridg home motor and install it inside the fridg. I have done that on all my 13 trailers that I had over the years. I had to find a cure for this anoying on and off affair specially at night when you try to sleep. These motors usually comes with the fan and bracket. In this case I mounted a l bracket and this fits perfectly without any drilling on the fridg side. I installed a switch ( rocker ) to turn it on and off as needed. These motors are almost silent when they runs. Your fridg cools perfectly and gess what: the 12 voltbuilt in motor in the fridg dont even start at all. See my pictures. I know that with your knowledge in electrical it will be a piece of cake to install. Try it. See my pictures included

[polkatronron]

I beg to differ. If you go to the website for the fridge you will see that there are 2 fans mounted at the top of the fridge at the back to cool the condensor.

[onetonford]

I have on fan and was mounted away from the sensor so I moved it so it is directly under the sensor made no difference still runs when sun is on that side of the trailer it also runs when you first cool the fridge down even in the shade runs almost all day untill the refer is cold and cycles on and off when fridge is on.

[greenliner]

Well our T21FBS has been in Lazy Days for warranty work, and when I put it in, I printed some of this thread and brought the subject with the dealer. They took it up with Dometic and the result, problem fixed without any effort.
Thanks to all who contributed to this thread -- it solved my problem very easily.

[Rhime]

That's awesome!