Refrigerator froze up!

[sooney50]

Hi all and Happy 2015!
We are winter camping in Northern Colorado for my husbands job. We have a 2014 Alpine 3535RE and our refrigerator (apparently) froze up last Friday, unnoticed by us. It is a Dometic Side by Side RM1350MX. We bought this 5th Wheel in May 2014, so it's just over 8 months old. It was fine in the morning, or so it "felt", but when I went to start dinner about 6:30 pm, I noticed the temp display read 59 degrees. I opened the fridge and the freezer compartment was almost totally thawed and the bottom compartment felt like a nice June day in the Bahamas!
We cannot take the unit into a dealer to thaw it out - we are snowed in right now. I called a service tech and he told us to put a 40w bulb inside the outside compartment. We can't fit our hang light in there, the space is very small and I don't want to touch any wiring or tubing. Anyone know how else to attempt to thaw this? (Other than stand outside for three days with a hair dryer?) What is the deal with ammonia instead of freeon? Is it explosive or a fire hazard? RV Refrigerators are a new one for us!
Thanks for any tips,
Sue

[carwheel_09]

If you smell ammonia leave the RV immediately. It is a powerful toxin. Ammonia uses a heat strip or pilot light type of flame to compress the gas. Freon uses a compress to make the pressure needed to cool. Hope that helps. I not an expert by any means.


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[Mike L123]

Hi all and Happy 2015!
We are winter camping in Northern Colorado for my husbands job. We have a 2014 Alpine 3535RE and our refrigerator (apparently) froze up last Friday, unnoticed by us. It is a Dometic Side by Side RM1350MX. We bought this 5th Wheel in May 2014, so it's just over 8 months old. It was fine in the morning, or so it "felt", but when I went to start dinner about 6:30 pm, I noticed the temp display read 59 degrees. I opened the fridge and the freezer compartment was almost totally thawed and the bottom compartment felt like a nice June day in the Bahamas!
We cannot take the unit into a dealer to thaw it out - we are snowed in right now. I called a service tech and he told us to put a 40w bulb inside the outside compartment. We can't fit our hang light in there, the space is very small and I don't want to touch any wiring or tubing. Anyone know how else to attempt to thaw this? (Other than stand outside for three days with a hair dryer?) What is the deal with ammonia instead of freeon? Is it explosive or a fire hazard? RV Refrigerators are a new one for us!
Thanks for any tips,
Sue

You have to figure a way to get heat in the outside fridge compartment. Keep the fridge running on propane as that will generate a little more heat. A conventional trouble light will not fit in the compartment - you need to rig up a bare bulb. Is there a hardware store nearby? You should be able to buy a basic two-wire with a plug on one end and a screw in receiver end for a light bulb. Go large and use a 60W bulb as it will bring the compartment up to heat a little faster. Keep the bulb away from any other wires and stuff although you can lean it against some metal parts back there. Use Zip ties to "situate" the bulb in the safest way possible.

If you smell ammonia or see any yellowish powder in the back of the fridge, like along the coils back there, DO NOT do anything else. The cooling unit is NG and definitely hazardous to your health. You will have to get a mobile repair person to do a warranty R&R on the cooling unit.

Just so ya know, it took TWO DAYS to thaw our reefer out just before Christmas.

Cheers and Good Luck

Mike

[mikell]

Been there done that. I had to seal the outside up and slide the fridge into the living area. Llaid it on it's side for a couple of hours then on it's top over night then on the other side. Could hear liquid flowing so I knew it didn't leak out.

Turned it right side up for a while and plugged it in right in the middle of the floor. I think I had to wire the 12 volt but it's worked fine since.

If it has leaked out the new cooling unit is about $800 if I recall.

Send me any questions it was -40 when ours quit and many people said it needed to go down the road to separate the fluids but that wasn't an option.

I wrote about it somewhere around here.

[mark1228]

First thing you need to know is that freeze up is not a warranty repair. Dometic will not pay for it. Second, do not leave the fridge running on either electric or LP until you get it thawed out. Running it while it is gelled up can ruin the cooling unit and again, that is not a covered repair by Dometic. What you need to do is either remove the fridge and get it to a heated shop where it can thaw. As has been mentioned, this can take a couple of days. If that's not an option, then pull the fridge out of the hole and stuff the vents with insulation until you reinstall it. Set it on the floor of your heated RV until it thaws. Before you reinstall it, get some heat tape from a hardware store along with a thermostat to control the heat tape. About a 1/3rd of the way up wrap the cooling unit to prevent it from gelling again in cold weather, remove insulation, re install fridge and do and LP leak test.

[{tpc}]

Would a small electric heater do the trick? They are about $15 at a store like walmart. You could even fashion a box around it to trap the warm air towards the are that needs it. I would not leave it running unattended though.

I think the bigger issue is that you are snowed in and may not be able to get to a store?

A couple of ideas for an electric heater fan. You could balance it on a ladder outside, if you had one. If not, you could get some metal twine wire and wrap it outside the outside carefully, and then affix the other end to something higher, to hang it in the right area. You could use the box it came in to craft a tunnel of some sort to direct the warm air where it is needed.

Just some ideas. Luckily you are snowed in, so food could be kept in containers outside maybe to stay cold while you sort it out.

Edit: I would be sure that propane was off to the unit prior to trying to warm it with any type of electric heater or hair dryer, or even a light bulb as the tech suggested. Sounds fairly dangerous. I would also suggest a call to the tech again prior to that to determine if that is a safe and acceptable way to do it.