We hate our RV refrigerator

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by dieseldodge

Scott....we own a lot we take the Flagstaff to for the summer up in Catron county. Yep we've had several 'two way' refers in the past and our current one is the worst. It (refer) is on a slide, so it has a lower and upper vent. Flagstaff put a few fans in the upper vent and we have yet to try out a battery fan we got for the inside. I wanted to get this timing (when to turn it on) thing dialed in so it wasn't working when it was the hottest out.

Nice. We have some family in Reserve, but we don't usually admit it
Working with my BIL, we found that a puller fan in the top vent, and a pusher fan in the bottom vent helped his refrigerator immensely. We actually took out the factory fan as it was rather weak.

[NMWildcat]

LOL with 5picker..... Great minds and all that

[dieseldodge]

As I said at the start, this IS our last two way refer. We are currently looking to get back into a motorhome (which we had before the Flagstaff) and it MUST have a residential refer.

What gets me about these two way refers is the need to put a fan in every available nook and cranny in order for them to function properly. You gotta love the part where the manufacturer tells you to not fill it too full and then not to open the door anymore than necessary.

[hilfikerkg]

We just got back from Kanab Utah area where the temp was 95 and our fridge set on warmest setting kept the food compartment at 37 degrees and the freezer at 10-14.

Last year it struggled. I ran solar cables down the fridge vent and found that Forrest River had put some foil tape over to seal an area in the vent cut out around the roof. The tape had come loose and partially blocked the vent.

So these fridges work well on propane and WITHOUT fans. Although it was windy and HOT.

[mnoland30]

The refers in my slide in camper and houseboat were barely adequate. We replaced the one in the houseboat and sold the slide in. Both newer refrigerators work great. At the lake, we use electric a lot, and it works very well even when it is over 100 degrees. We've camped at 9500' at Hopewell Lake and run on propane with no issues. I use an indoor/outdoor thermometer to monitor the temperature in the fridge. Typical temperature for a residential fridge is 40%.

[pmsherman]

TheDometic fridge in my 2011 Georgetown wouldn't cool at all when the rig was delivered if the fridge side of the rig was facing the sun. The dealer discovered that there was a lot of air space around and on top of the fridge and when the sun shone on that side of the rig, the fridge was operating inside of a box whose temperature was well over 100F. The dealer filled the spaces with fiberglass insulation which resolved this problem.


The fridge would not run on propane when I visited my brother who was living in Breckenrigde, Summit county, Colorado. When I contacted Dometic, they told me to take the rig to a repair center which would have cost me two days delay in the rest of my trip. I ended up disassembling the burner area of the fridge to see if I could determine why it wouldn't work at high altitudes. An examination of the burner assembly and a comparison of it to the burner assembly in my home propane grill yielded the cause of the problem and its solution. My fridge now works well on propane at any altitude.


Phil

[5picker]

Originally Posted by pmsherman

TheDometic fridge in my 2011 Georgetown wouldn't cool at all when the rig was delivered if the fridge side of the rig was facing the sun. The dealer discovered that there was a lot of air space around and on top of the fridge and when the sun shone on that side of the rig, the fridge was operating inside of a box whose temperature was well over 100F. The dealer filled the spaces with fiberglass insulation which resolved this problem.


The fridge would not run on propane when I visited my brother who was living in Breckenrigde, Summit county, Colorado. When I contacted Dometic, they told me to take the rig to a repair center which would have cost me two days delay in the rest of my trip. I ended up disassembling the burner area of the fridge to see if I could determine why it wouldn't work at high altitudes. An examination of the burner assembly and a comparison of it to the burner assembly in my home propane grill yielded the cause of the problem and its solution. My fridge now works well on propane at any altitude.


Phil

We can assume what you did but it would be nice if you told us for certain. Maybe others would benefit from your knowledge.

[dieseldodge]

I agree with 5picker....what was it that you found/did Phil.

[Jayhawker]

Originally Posted by dieseldodge

We are still unhappy with our Dometic refer in our 2019 Flagstaff. After trying and checking many things it (four door, 12 foot) stills struggles to keep our food cold. This WILL be our last 'RV' refer. Running on electric at 8,000 feet altitude.

I seem to remember that there was supposed to be a 'smart' time to turn them on, but cant remember when that was or for what reason. Any help?

This is what we did to solve our problem with the refrigerator not cooling properly. Installed computer fans in the refrigerator roof vent. Bought the ballbearing ones which are very quiet. Hooked up the four fans in parallel and installed a water proof switch mounted on the outside of the refrigerator access panel.

[pmsherman]

Originally Posted by 5picker

We can assume what you did but it would be nice if you told us for certain. Maybe others would benefit from your knowledge.

Dometic located the propane orafice around 1" from the mixing pipe that goes into the combustion chamber. From my high school and college physics classes, I know that the dispersion of the propane while travelling across that gap is dependent on the surrounding air pressure. At high altitudes there's less air pressure which allows a greater dispersion of the propane causing only a small quantity to enter the mixing pipe. The propane that doesn't go into the mixing pipe usually ends up in the combustion chamber and when its concentration reaches a critical level, the spark igniter causes it to explode. The explosion is normally contained to the combustion chamber by the shields around the mixing pipe and the chimney.

My propane grill at home has around a 1.5" gap between the propane orafice and the mixing pipe. The grill, however, does not have an air gap similar to the Dometic fridge. That gap, in the grill, has a double walled cylinder with a small section of both cylinders removed to allow adjusting the fuel/air mixture. The grill uses many times the propane that the fridge uses and allows a much smaller area than the fridge for air to join the stream of propane gas.

Once I realized this, the solution was obvious. I needed to install a tubular shield between the fridge's propane orafice and the mixing pipe. I had some 1" wide thin brass stock in my toolkit which I used to make 70% of a tube with a flange on it that I used a nearby screw to hold it in place between the gas line orafice and the burner tube. Now almost all of the propane enters the burner tube and the fridge works perfectly at high altitudes. This also has no effect on the fridge's burner assembly at low altitudes. The fridge uses a very tiny amount of propane and I suspect that a tube with only 10% of it cut away would provide enough air to have the propane burn with the nice blue flame it should have.

************ WARNING WARNING WARNING ************


Modifying the burner assembly of your fridge will most likely void its warranty. Making any modifications to anything that burns propane may have unanticipated side effects that could produce carbon monoxide (the silent killer) or create a fire hazard.



The only reason I tackled this problem was my prior experience installing natural gas lines and rebuilding the burner assembly of a propane grill.




Phil

[dieseldodge]

Phil...thanks for the explanation. I had a mobile RV repairman do essentially the same thing (with a hose clamp) years back on a refer of ours, more or less as a "why not" kind a deal.

My question has always been why doesn't the factory do that in the first place, or for that matter stick fans everywhere if that's what it takes for these things to function well.

[Rob-Pursuit29SS]

I’m really new to RVs. Apparently all the new RVs are using 12V refrigerators. We have a 10 cubic ft 12V and love it. Don’t have to worry about it running poorly when parked on an incline. I can leave it on all the time even when parked at home using the 100watt solor panel to keep the batteries charged. When we first fill the fridge with room temperature food the temp drops about 10 degrees but is back down to temp within 15 minutes.

[reevesfamily]

Originally Posted by dieseldodge

We are still unhappy with our Dometic refer in our 2019 Flagstaff. After trying and checking many things it (four door, 12 foot) stills struggles to keep our food cold. This WILL be our last 'RV' refer. Running on electric at 8,000 feet altitude.

I seem to remember that there was supposed to be a 'smart' time to turn them on, but cant remember when that was or for what reason. Any help?

No problems with ours. In a 2020 Flagstaff Classic 832IKSB. Turn it on electric (we’re always connected to shore power at the house) about 12-18 hours before a trip and its cold (32-34) and the freezer is around 10 degrees by the time we need to leave. Unplug from electric and it switches to gas for the trip and then back on electric at the campsite. Never did any of that frozen bottles monkey business. I did install another auxiliary fan on the back of the unit (2 fans on thermostat) that I can turn on if the day is particularly hot or humid, but the single fan works fine most of the time. Refrigerator always holds a high of 36 degrees while camping, usually holds around 32, and the freezer holds and freezes all ice cream bars, etc. altitude is probably your gremlin.

[Jodiwer]

My husband and I just returned to Phoenix from the Mogollon Rim at 7500 ft where we camped with our new rig. Our Dometic refrigerator was going off and beeping about every 6 to 14 hours. After reading entries on this forum, we took the outside panel off and thought we had solved the problem when it didn't quit for nearly 60 hours. But then it started doing it again.

Since we are boondockers and unwilling to run a generator all the time, running on electric is not an option as the Dometic manual states at over 5500 feet. We would like to resolve this but are concerned about voiding our warranty. And not sure we know how to do what Phil did. Any suggestions?

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by Jodiwer

My husband and I just returned to Phoenix from the Mogollon Rim at 7500 ft where we camped with our new rig. Our Dometic refrigerator was going off and beeping about every 6 to 14 hours. After reading entries on this forum, we took the outside panel off and thought we had solved the problem when it didn't quit for nearly 60 hours. But then it started doing it again.



Since we are boondockers and unwilling to run a generator all the time, running on electric is not an option as the Dometic manual states at over 5500 feet. We would like to resolve this but are concerned about voiding our warranty. And not sure we know how to do what Phil did. Any suggestions?

If the manual says that about elevation, then that is different than any RV fridge I've ever owned or worked on. And as stated previously, most of our boondocking is well above 5500' with never any problems.
Call Dometic and tell them that the 5500' propane mode restriction is ridiculous and ask them for a fix. Maybe they will have one!

[Azdigs]

Originally Posted by dieseldodge

I can understand the altitude affect on gas, but cant see how it (altitude) would affect running on electric.

Have your jets in the burner set up for a higher altitude. We had a gas fireplace installed in our cabin which was at 7800’ and it didn’t work right. Had a tech come out and do a calibration on it and it worked flawlessly after that. Just pick an altitude higher than what is set right now. It was more than likely set for the altitude the coach was built at. Hope this helps.

[richardbrucewinquestjr]

Originally Posted by dieseldodge

Scott....both Dometic and Norcold recommend running the refer on electric (not gas) when above 5,000 feet (it might be 5,500 feet).

I have camped at just under 8000 feet and over 5000 ft many times and never had any problems with running my refrigerator on gas. The problem with running gas appliances over 5000 feet is due to the air being very thin and the refrigerator leaving soot deposits due to the lack of good combustion. You periodically inspect the heating elements in the fridge and clean if necessary using long handled flexible brushes and clean them after using.

[stephensatt]

Originally Posted by dieseldodge

We are still unhappy with our Dometic refer in our 2019 Flagstaff. After trying and checking many things it (four door, 12 foot) stills struggles to keep our food cold. This WILL be our last 'RV' refer. Running on electric at 8,000 feet altitude.

I seem to remember that there was supposed to be a 'smart' time to turn them on, but cant remember when that was or for what reason. Any help?

So the main problem with all these refrigerators for RV is the design itself doesn't cool great, just good enough, and its VERY dependent on outside ambient temperature to "pull" the heat out of the refrigerator coils.



All you need to do is provide better cooling to the coils on the back of the unit. This is the side with the vent covers on the outside. The easiest trick I have done is go buy 12v computer fans from Amazon and put those inside the housing where the coils are and direct the air flow over the coils, and you can mount them in the vents and pull air out. This gets the heat out of the box its in. That will help immediately and is the first goto to try. Most of the modern Dometics now have computer fans built in that kick on when the outside temp gets hot.


Ok, second, these Ammonia Propane refrigerators really don't work well above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. If you are in hot environment, so we are in Texas, always park the trailer where the back of the refrigerator is in the shade, so sunny side of the RV always needs to be the side that doesn't have the refrigerator on it. Also you can put out your awning. '


You need to look at this like a car, and that even though it may be 85 degrees, that clear sky is causing the surface of a vehicle to heat up over 100 degrees, so you touch the hood of a car, it can burn you. This is also happening to the fridge coils. They are up against the skin of the RV thats well into 120 on its surface so the coils are sitting in over 90 degree air.


So first go with fans. Even put a regular box fan outside of it and let that go for a few days just to test it out, and it will bring the refrigerator temp down. Its all been cooling in the end.



Also I think Propane works better than electricity on them, seems to get colder. I believe its because Propane gets the Ammonia hotter than electricity does. You will have to watch a video on how it works but its a chemical reaction caused by heating Ammonia, totally different than a home refrigerator.

[nic7320]

I stopped running my propane 'fridge for several reasons:
1. Convenience, I had to get propane every 2-3 weeks.
2. Doesn't work well on a slope.
3. Safety, since absorption refrigerators are responsible for a lot of RV fires
4. Electric compressors are more eco friendly.
5. I needed more pantry space, and the fridge works quite well as rodent proof storage.

I now use a Whynter chest for a fridge, sitting between the two front seats, and a Iceco chest behind the passenger seat as a freezer. Turns out single zone chests are more efficient than dual zone units, and I do use all the space.

The only downside to chest chillers is accessing things at the bottom requires some Testris skills.

With 800 watts of solar and 5 kWh of lithium batteries, I can go about four days without sunshine or electrical hookups.

[billgb]

Is this a RM1350 model? We had one in 2019 Jayco - constant battle to keep things cool with ambient temps at 90F or above. Ours was in a slide which meant that it had cooling fans to assist in rejecting heat out of the upper vent. I bought an additional booster fan located in the lower vent that help with heat rejection. I also added an interior bank of fans that snapped onto the interior coils - natural circulation is not very good if you have much food in fridge. We learned that we rarely could keep ice cream.