Shakedown

jaydeb · 05-27-2012, 09:18 AM

We are new at this! We need help, on first camping trip with new Passport and so far the fridge don't work on gas or electric. Next problem is grey water is showing full but have hardly used any water. What is up with this?

ls1mike · 05-27-2012, 09:23 AM

Is it brand new?

I know my fridge won't work uless I am pretty level.

My fridge in my old 5th wheel had a switch that had to be on for it run on either gas or electric.

How big is your grey water tank. Mine have filled up pretty quick when I thougt we were not using any water.

Course it could be a faulty sensor. I work around submarines and we get electrical sensors bad right out of the box.

Terrydactile · 05-27-2012, 09:40 AM

Do you have power to the fridge? Is the light inside on when you open the door? Can you open the fridge access door outside and verify that there is heat around the burner flue? If so, its probably working. RV refrigerators can take at least 8 hours to cool down. Even longer if you fill it full of warm food/drinks. Its best to pre-cool an RV fridge the night before you leave and then put pre-chilled items in it. You can add some warm items but most need to be cooled prior to loading.

As for the grey tank being full....The sensors are notoriously inaccurite, so you can't trust them all the time. If it is truely full then you have to learn to conserve the space you have in the tank because it will fill up very fast. You can not leave the water running, you have to take military showers and such. Or you just have to get the blue boy out and dump more often.

jaydeb · 05-27-2012, 10:36 AM

The fridge was on for a day before we left and was good and cold we get to the campground and hookup and it got hot overnight. Have had couple of guys here look at it and they are as confused as I am!

jaydeb · 05-28-2012, 03:52 PM

I have had a popup for seven years before my Passport, so I know it takes a while. I turned it on gas the day before we left, and it was cold! I take it to the campground and set up, everything is ok. Later that night we discover our drinks aren't so cold. Thats when we start looking into and discover it is not working. As for the water I know to conserve water, All we did is my son washed his hair in the shower, military style. This was our first trip so still learning but fridge put dampner on whole weekend!

f6bits · 05-28-2012, 04:13 PM

Did you try taking it out of AUTO mode? It sounds like you tried that if it’s not working on electric. It could very well be that the fridge is broke. Especially since it lost its cool mid-trip.

SteveC7010 · 05-28-2012, 04:28 PM

Simple things to check first. If you were set for propane on the fridge, was one or both of the tanks on and did they have propane in them? If you were set to Auto, still could happen.

Were you dry camping? If so, did the battery hold a charge? If the battery runs down, the fridge won't work. It needs a bit of 12vdc to run its circuitry.

Circuit breakers? Fuses? Check them all.

jaydeb · 05-28-2012, 05:37 PM

No the battery was fully charged. I plugged it in when we got there, full hookup, thought we were good to go. When figured out we were not staying cold switched back to gas, you could hear it light,checked later still not cold. Had a couple friends in campground look at, they told me it should be working. The camper is only three weeks old so I guess I'll find out how good my warranty is.

**JRTJH** · 05-28-2012, 05:57 PM

The same thing happened with our Dometic when we bought this trailer in 2010. First trip out it would cool down, then when it shut off, it would recycle on as it was supposed to do, but then it would not turn off again and would continue to run until the cooling unit was so hot it couldn't work. If you turn it off, it will warm up and then cool properly until it calls to shut off/restart and would overheat again. Dometic and the dealer determined that the cooling unit was defective and replaced it. No problems since then. Get with your dealer and have them check it out. MAKE SURE YOU EXPLAIN TO THEM THAT IT WORKS UNTIL IT CALLS TO RECYCLE AND THEN IT STOPS. They should be able to handle it from there.

hankaye · 05-28-2012, 06:38 PM

jaydeb, Howdy;

I had a problem with mine last fall.
Turned out to be the 3amp fuse in the control box
that is outside near the 120vac plug. Dang thing
runs the whole she-bang..... Mine worked on an off
for a few weeks then just went ka-put...

hankaye

PS. Please let us know what you find out.

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