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Old 02-17-2021, 02:50 PM   #1
wiredgeorge
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refrigerator

Power went out for four day and I had the camper plugged into shore power. I had left some of the cabin lights on (12V) and of course the battery died (on charger now) and I believe I ran out of gas as I loaned my neighbor one of my 20 gal. tanks as he was using it for heat (has a propane heat thing).



Left the battery in place and put my charger on it (12VDC 1.5A). After plugging in the refrigerator in (Dometic) the Auto light won't come on but the check light does. I thought it was 120V AC so why is the check light on and what to do to fix this issue? TIA wg
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Old 02-17-2021, 04:05 PM   #2
sourdough
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Hi George. What brand/kind fridge is it? Does your fridge run on LP and AC? Is it running and cooling even though the check light is on?

I'm trying to dig in my cobweb memories but I believe that when I unplugged AC my Norcold switched to LP. When it did that my check light would come on and stay on until I plugged back into AC again. After setting up in a park and plugging in I always went in to make sure the yellow light went off indicating it was back on power.

Reckon it's running on LP and the power isn't getting there for some reason or maybe it's running on AC but your LP is gone?? Just wondering out loud.
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Old 02-17-2021, 04:23 PM   #3
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I'm a little confused over your situation. As it stands right now. Is your camper plugged into shore power and is shore power on? So does the camper have AC power right now. Even if the battery is low, or even disconnected, the converter in breaker/fuse power control will feed 12 volt DC to the refrigerator. If you are not hooked up to shore power, then the refrigerator is attempting to power from the 12 volt battery, which may not be charged up enough.

Even if your refrigerator is gas/electric, the circuit board runs on 12 volt DC power. And if the circuit board is not getting adequate DC voltage, it won't run right.

The circuit board controls both electric and gas and switch over between the two. So, in essence, your refrigerator needs all 3 sources of power to function as designed ... gas, AC electric, and DC battery.
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Old 02-17-2021, 04:24 PM   #4
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If your plugged in, check for AC power at the plug behind the refer. It’s on GFCI so make sure it isn’t tripped also. Report back for further instructions.
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Old 02-17-2021, 04:43 PM   #5
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Dometic, propane & AC. No propane. Plugged into shore power. Battery charging.



In any case, I went up to the camper and turned the refrigerator on and off a couple times and the check light went off and all seems good. With the temps we have been having it would be impossible to say if the cooling continued as we have in in single digits to mid 30s since the power went out to the camper and my house. Was off from Sunday night about 1AM till this afternoon. I took my generator to a generator repair guy (his business is hopping) and it turns out the solenoid under the carburetor has a spring loaded needle that does something mysterious and has an electrical connection. It may work in conjunction with the main jet which is in the bottom of the float bowl. I took the carburetor off and cleaned it in 8F weather at 1:30AM Sunday night sitting on a broke down Chewy box so my tail didn't freeze. It I failed to check the function of the solenoid thing and cleaned the main jet. He also cleaned the spark plug which had been flooded due to trying to start it. The little teeny generator battery puked after a few starting attempts (was almost new) and I took the battery out of my lawn tractor and it turned the generator over easily. I had started the generator only a few days earlier (in 70F temps) to make sure we were ready for the anticipated storm. Best laid plans, etc. We have another storm coming with winter mix predicted follow by a couple more inches. A couple of the days it was colder here than in Alaska. Yeah global warming!
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Old 02-17-2021, 04:45 PM   #6
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Glad your up and running. Hard to say what made it do what it did, but at this point it doesn’t matter. Stay warm my friend.
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Old 02-17-2021, 04:49 PM   #7
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Stay warm George. Seems like yesterday we were thinking global warming was just going to have us sweating thru winters very soon.
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Old 02-17-2021, 06:54 PM   #8
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It is not a good idea to run an RV fridge (absorption fridge) in those very cold temperatures as the solution can freeze and you will overheat the boiler. This is a link to the page at ARPrv.com that tells about this problem. https://www.arprv.com/how-dometic-no...fridge-failure
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Old 02-17-2021, 07:21 PM   #9
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George,

My guess is that there's nothing wrong with your refrigerator. If you are trying to run it on 120VAC and it's cold outside, the electric element can't "boil the ammonia mixture" so it won't percolate (can't get hot enough) so the interior of the refrigerator won't get cold, and the check light will come on indicating "no cooling"... As soon as it warms up (about 30-40F) and it's turned off to reset all the faults, then turned back on, it should run normally. That is, if you've got a good reliable 12 VDC source to the refrigerator control board.

In the future, if it's below about 35F, put a piece of cardboard (or if you're super safety conscious, a piece of non-flammable sheeting) to block most of the lower vent opening. That will allow the rear of the refrigerator to warm up enough to usually get things "perking again"...

Stay warm, it's been colder there during the nights than it has been here, and we've got about 30" of snow on the ground. I hope things get better there, you all don't deserve the cold since you don't have any snowmobiles, snow skis or snow shoes !!!!!
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Old 02-18-2021, 05:45 AM   #10
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Often on my Dometic fridge when I first plug into shore power and turn fridge in...usually I see this when getting ready for first trip of year the fridge faults with LP flashing even though 120 power is present. A quick cycle to auto puts fridge on AC mode...

The solenoid spring on that generator carb is a safety feature to prevent fuel from flowing without it running. That mechanic should know it’s a known fail point and Alice changed two out on my riding lawn mower. If solenoid don’t open engine will fuel starve cause solenoid doesn’t open allowing fuelmt9 flow from tank..

Cold weather and RV fridge... in over 45 years of Elk hunting trips at high altitudes and temps below 20 I’ve NEVER had a fridge fail to cool.. my current Alline with Dometic RM1350 has worked just fine at temps of 5 degrees
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Old 06-01-2021, 04:40 PM   #11
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Any ideas to improve refrigerator cooling in hot weather? Our domestic refrigerator in our 2016 Montana High Country struggles to keep refrigerator temps below 40 degrees. I have heard rumors about using a fan somewhere in or in back of refrigerator to help cooling, any thoughts?
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Old 06-01-2021, 05:45 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ACD View Post
Any ideas to improve refrigerator cooling in hot weather? Our domestic refrigerator in our 2016 Montana High Country struggles to keep refrigerator temps below 40 degrees. I have heard rumors about using a fan somewhere in or in back of refrigerator to help cooling, any thoughts?
What model fridge? Is it in a slide?
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