Atwood Refrigerator not working.

[boggs]

Originally Posted by Greysquirrel

boggs:
Just talked to my dealer service manager and he said he is going to order not only the igniter but also the power board just to be on the safe side. I also told him the interior light is not working and it is on the same board as the igniter, this may or may not be a hint to if it is the board or not. So if you take it to your dealer tell him you want a new board also if you need the new style igniter.
The only problem is that they have to order everything from Atwood and this is a new style fridge and I am leaving on a trip in a couple of weeks but he thinks he can get it done. If I get it fixed I will post of the success or failure of this fix.

Thanks Greysquirrel! I hope you get to the bottom of it. I will be dry camping this weekend at the Richmond Nascar race so I'll see if I can keep it running. I suspect it will run OK as I have it on AC power right now. I'm pretty sure when I shut it off in the gas mode, it will malfunction again. I do not want to try and duplicate this until I am done with this trip! I have $500 of tailgating food in that frig right now! Please do keep me updated as I plan on putting it in for service when I get back.
Almost forgot to mention, my interior light is working fine (I'm pretty sure but will double check when I go outside). However, that is right now, I do not know if it was working when the gas light was flashing.

[Greysquirrel]

Originally Posted by boggs

Thanks Greysquirrel! I hope you get to the bottom of it. I will be dry camping this weekend at the Richmond Nascar race so I'll see if I can keep it running. I suspect it will run OK as I have it on AC power right now. I'm pretty sure when I shut it off in the gas mode, it will malfunction again. I do not want to try and duplicate this until I am done with this trip! I have $500 of tailgating food in that frig right now! Please do keep me updated as I plan on putting it in for service when I get back.
Almost forgot to mention, my interior light is working fine (I'm pretty sure but will double check when I go outside). However, that is right now, I do not know if it was working when the gas light was flashing.

If you have trouble having it go to gas but have AC your ahead of me, when the gremlins hit it won't go on to any mod but after being plugged in a couple of hours it sometime works OK. Mine did not work this morning but when the dealer called and said that Atwood wants the to have the trailer and do some tests that want done before they will send any parts I checked it and it was working.

If you have a supermarket that sells dry Ice go buy some, I had to twice, once after I got it the fridge worked the second time I loaded the freezer with some and the fridge, it cooled off quite fast and just before we were to leave we hit the power button and everything worked. I was in CW today, there is one 10 mins. from me but I have to travel an hour to get to my dealer, anyway I mentioned my problem to one of the service guys and he said they have had some problems with the Helium fridges but did not offer any advice on how to fix or find the problem or what problems they were having. Can't fault them on that as I did not buy from them or get service from them either.
I understand there is a problem trying to fix a problem when it's not alway there, I hope the Atwood has some kind of troubleshooting guide to search out the guilty part or parts.

[boggs]

Well, there is at least two of us with the same exact problem. There must be more. I've been able to make it work every time so far but yesterday really tested me, it took the whole day of trial and error to get it to work and then it was just a freak thing when I changed the battery. I will see what happens when I get back. I'm not sure about whether shutting it off in gas is what causes it, or I should say, not shutting it off but just shutting off the gas, I think that is one possible trigger or pulling power with it in the gas mode. I'll let you know after this trip.

[trikerbob]

Guys, I'm watching your thread very closely as I might have a suspect Atwood, also. Now mine hasn't done what yours is doing, but I don't think mine is cooling like it should. I'll give it this, it's hotter than, well, you know, here, with 100+ days, but it still seems a little lacking. I'm waiting for Ford's refrigeration video on the Atwood that should be coming out soon. He's been doing some testing at his shop comparing the Atwoods to Dometic and Norcold. We'll see what happens, but I'm keeping an eye on y'alls thread.

Take care, travel safe.

Robert

[boggs]

Originally Posted by trikerbob

Guys, I'm watching your thread very closely as I might have a suspect Atwood, also. Now mine hasn't done what yours is doing, but I don't think mine is cooling like it should. I'll give it this, it's hotter than, well, you know, here, with 100+ days, but it still seems a little lacking. I'm waiting for Ford's refrigeration video on the Atwood that should be coming out soon. He's been doing some testing at his shop comparing the Atwoods to Dometic and Norcold. We'll see what happens, but I'm keeping an eye on y'alls thread.

Take care, travel safe.

Robert

This Atwood HeLium fridge has no trouble keeping its cool. When it is working, anyway. I Haven't had any 100 plus days but it has been 90 a good bit and both the freezer and fridge work fine. The problem is that when that gas light is flashing, we can't get it to work at all until we can get it reset. I just went on a trip this weekend and it worked great on gas the whole weekend but it was a chore to get it to work the first day. Good luck! But if yours is covered under warranty, I would definitley get it back to the dealer.

[trikerbob]

Thanks for the note, boggs, and for the heads-up on what your fridge is doing. I think a lot of the problem with mine was with the cheap-a## electronic thermometer. I put an old fashioned mercury thermometer in there, and it's getting cold all right. Plus I did this cause I heard someone else did it. I took the thermistor ,that is clipped on the fins, and clipped it on the top rack instead. That seemed to really make a lot of difference, too. I cut it back from 5 to 3 today, and it was still down in the 35-37 range, and it was probably 97 in the trailer. I'll settle for that. Just for an extra, I'm putting a fan on the outside coils to help the circulation. Oh, and you're right--if it does act up, back to the dealer she goes for warranty repairs.

Take care, Robert

[Greysquirrel]

Originally Posted by boggs

This Atwood HeLium fridge has no trouble keeping its cool. When it is working, anyway. I Haven't had any 100 plus days but it has been 90 a good bit and both the freezer and fridge work fine. The problem is that when that gas light is flashing, we can't get it to work at all until we can get it reset. I just went on a trip this weekend and it worked great on gas the whole weekend but it was a chore to get it to work the first day. Good luck! But if yours is covered under warranty, I would definitley get it back to the dealer.

It defiantly sounds like you have the same problem I'm having, it will take a while to get it to go onto AC when the gas light is flashing but once it starts to work it will change back to gas when we leave home and change back to AC at the campground and back to gas when we are ready to leave.. The gas light is supposed to flash 40 seconds after you try to light it if there is no ignition, mine flashes as soon as you press the power button.
I took mine to the dealer last Wed. but have not heard anything from them yet, will wait till this Wed. and phone them and see what is happening with it.
Regardless of wether it is fixed or not I need it by the 20th of the month as we are going on a trip. If it is not working I will figure some way to keep things cool, dry ice in fridge and cooler and whatever else I can carry and put ice in.
Glad to hear you had a good trip and Beast kept things cool for you.

[Greysquirrel]

OK, the latest in the Great Helium Fridge Saga.
Talked to my dealer and they have ordered a power board from Keystone, seems that they cannot order parts from Atwood during the first year of warranty as Atwood has worked out a deal with Keystone to supply parts the first year.
Of course they could not tell me when the parts would be to their shop or if Keystone had them or had to order them from Atwood.
But they assured me that they would have it ready for me next week so I can leave at the end of the week.
Now I am not going to hold my hand of my butt waiting for this to happen but we will see. There is a faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel at this point in time.

[trikerbob]

Hey there, Greysquirrel. I know you haven't posted anything about you and your dealer, but I was just curious if you had heard/found out anything yet ??

Thanks, take care.

Robert

[Greysquirrel]

Robert:
Haven't heard from them since I phoned them last week and they said they have ordered a board for it.
I have to pick it up on Friday at the latest, fixed or not as we are leaving on a trip on Sunday.
If it's not fixed and not working I will just get dry ice for the fridge and take alone a couple of coolers, one that takes ice the other runs on 120AC or 12VDC and I am sure we will manage for a week. We used to have a sailboat and would go for a week and make out and we only had one small ice chest so we are not worried if it is not fixed but it would be nice.
I intend to call them tomorrow and see what is going on with it.
She Who Must Be Obeyed keeps tell me to phone them every day and I keep telling her it will be fixed when it is fixed and if I call them every day they might just park it a corner of their lot and get around to it when the feel like it or I quite calling.

[trikerbob]

Thanks for the reply, Greysquirrel. Hope you get it fixed real soon, and I hope you have a great/safe trip anyway.
What brand of thermo cooler do you have? I've been wanting a Coleman, cause there's no way I can afford one of the more expensive brands right now. It will be for a back up, anyway.
And I think you're right about the calling thing. If you agitate them, there's no telling when you'll get the thing fixed, no matter how soon the parts come in.

Take care.

[Greysquirrel]

We have a Coleman Iceless chest, bought it at our local liquidation store for $25 and bought the AC adapter at Amazon for $19 so haven't got a lot invested in it.
Not going to let a little thing like no fridge ruin our vacation plans nor the weather, if it rains we will do as the Chinese do, Let It Rain, can't do a thing about it and as we will be by the ocean a little water won't hurt us unless of course it is accompanied by thunder and lighting.

[JRTJH]

Greysquirrel,

I like your outlook. When I was a kid, I never understood why my parents made us get out of the river when it rained. We got just as wet standing on the bank as we did in the water, and as soon as it stopped raining, they would let us swim again...... Hmmmmmm

[Greysquirrel]

As of Wed. Sept. 18th at !:54 PM EST. my trailer is home and the fridge is working at least for now.
The service manager told me that he was told by Atwood the there was an intermittent problem with the power board of some of the earlier fridges. But neither Atwood nor Keystone send a service bulletin out to any of it's dealers. Guess it wasn't considered an problem except to those of us who have this problem. When they pulled my trailer in and hit the power button the fridge went right to AC with no problem, but they did change the board and right now it works, I will see what happens this weekend and when I come back and leave it for the winter I will plug it in once a month to keep the battery up to snuff and check it then. Even though I have battery switch the battery still seems to lose some of its charge if I don't charge it once a month, if I leave the switch on it drains in a couple of weeks down to just about nothing with all the parasitic drain this trailer has.
Before I cover it and put it to bed for the winter I always check the water in my battery just in case it may need some, if you charge with low water you may ruin your battery, go ahead and ask me how I know.

[trikerbob]

Greysquirrel, glad you have your trailer back and all seems to be well. And I'm glad to hear what the problem may have been. So far, fingers crossed, our fridge seems to be cooling sufficiently right now. We're headed out Friday, ourselves, for the weekend, so we'll see how ours does in real world use. I hope you have a good weekend, the fridge performs well, and I hope you have no further problem. Thanks for posting your progress.

Robert

[trikerbob]

Hey there, Greysquirrel. Just checking to see if you had made it back from your weekend travels yet, and how your fridge performed on the trip. We just got back from a short 3 day trip, and our fridge performed flawlessly. I used it on both gas and ac, and no problem with either one.

Please post when you get back. I'm anxious to hear how yours worked with the new board in it.

Take care.

Robert

[Shogunles]

Originally Posted by zuley

I started to read the post and immediately thought I knew what the problem was. However, I believe it to be different from what I encountered this past weekend with my Attwood. I had taken the batteries out of my RB23 to charge at home prior to returning to the PP. We had been boon docking for two weeks. After reinstalling the batteries and trying to start the fridge on propane all the lights across the board lit up and nothing worked. The trouble shooting guide suggested an "open DC circuit". I recalled during our PDI the tech mentioning an internal fuse which I figured I had blown reinstalling the batteries. (my assistant grounded the positive cable FOR A SPLIT SECOND) After pretty much dismantling the fridge and a call to a fellow board member I found the fuse located on the back side of the fridge, almost dead centre of the access opening, inside a black plastic cover held on with 4 screws. There are three old style barrel fuses located there. The blown fuse was a point three amp. The other two are much heavier amperage. Not having a spare I did the tin foil trick and got myself working again. Don't be slamming me for the tin foil; Ive bought another fuse and will replace the one in question this weekend when I get back to the park.
I do not believe this is what the OP experienced but something to keep in mind for others with the new style Attwood fridges.

I wish I read your post about 4 hours ago!. It would have saved me about a year on my life and a fight with my wife! I was starting to unscrew those screws to the black cover. But I second guessed myself and decided to let the dealer fix it. Since it is not even a week old. Same thing happened to me. Boondocking last week and took battery off to charge for the trip I am leaving for tomorow. My brother grounded the battery by accident and same thing with the fridge! Thanks for the info.

[Greysquirrel]

Originally Posted by trikerbob

Hey there, Greysquirrel. Just checking to see if you had made it back from your weekend travels yet, and how your fridge performed on the trip. We just got back from a short 3 day trip, and our fridge performed flawlessly. I used it on both gas and ac, and no problem with either one.

Please post when you get back. I'm anxious to hear how yours worked with the new board in it.

Take care.

Robert

Robert:
Got home Sat. afternoon and have been busy cleaning the inside and outside and winterizing the beast.
The fridge worked all week with no problem so maybe it is fixed, I will check it the first of every month when I do my thing about starting my power washer, generator and riding mower and plugging the trailer in to top off the battery, just one more thing to check.
Had a good trip only thing that did not go good is my wife got a speeding ticket coming back from Tybee Island and after we hiked a mile and a half through the woods with the intention of coming back along the beach we found out it was high tide and we had to wade through the water to get to the beach, all was going good till a wave came in and broke and wet me up to my waist and I had my cell in my pocket, not big deal only a $4o phone so I bought another phone for $40 but this one is a smart phone now if I can be smart enough to not get it wet I will be OK. This is the third phone I have lost due to it getting wet. Will make another post with some pictures later but have to run now.

[trikerbob]

Greysquirrel, Thanks for the reply. Glad the fridge is finally fixed, but sorry you had the other troubles. We had a good weekend, also, except for rain. We only traveled 50 miles to a local state park, but it was raining sooo hard, it took us about 1 1/2 hrs to go that 50 miles. And I got soaked to the bone getting everything set up. But we needed the rain soo bad, it didn't really bother me. I took my phone off so it wouldn't get wet!
The rest of the weekend was picture perfect.

Anyway, take care and travel safe.

Robert

[CoHideout]

We bought a 2014 Hideout with a Helium fridge. It worked great in Camp Driveway, but on our maiden voyage (so to speak), it quit working on electric after one day. After several tries, we got the gas to ignite and it wouldn't cool down on that either. It is at the dealership right now and has been for a week. They couldn't repeat the problem. DH told them to plug it in all weekend and leave it to see if that helped. We haven't heard from them yet, but I have my fears.

The tech that DH talked to said that he refers to this message board often to look for information. Hopefully, he has read all of this. However, it does seem that our problem didn't come from switching over as it was there before we tried the switch. If the fridge won't work on either AC or gas, is that still a power board problem?