Hi all,
I am asking for any help on this one that I can get.
This maybe lengthy. This is on a Dometic
fridge in a 17' 1977
Boler.
This all took place last summer at the end of my holidays. We were several hours from home and it was approx 23 degrees C
(not too hot) and I had placed a wirless thermometer in my
fridge (available from Radio Shack) to let me know how the
fridge is fuctioning temperature wise. I also paced a second remote thermometer along the highest point at the rear of the fridge, near the cooling fins. I always run only on
propane, as we do only
dry camping. The fridge is on
propane while driving as well. On another discussion , it was discussed whether it was beneficial or not to place a biscuit fan near the top coils (top vent) assisting in exhausting the hot air and thus not making the fridge work so hard to stay cool . Over the course of the summer I noticed a trend occuring. The inside of the fridge would vary very little in temp, a few degrees celcius at most at a constant setting of 4 on the controls. Temp was between 3 and 6 degrees celcius depending on the temperature outside. The other remote thermometer in the back of the fridge would vary in temperature from the mid 20's to as high as of low 40 degrees celcius depending whether the trailer was in motion or notand the temp outside . I also placed a inline themistast to operate the 5" biscuit fan. This thermistat was set to have the fan come on at around 35 degrees C and assisted in cooling down the back of the fridge. The fan only draws 0.2 amps/hr, not really having any affect on
battery power at all. I did notice that when the fan was on the fridge did cool down much faster, droping the inside temperature faster, and also the temperature in the back of the fridge as well.
As mentioned before I am glad the I had placed a wireless thermometer in the fridge, because I started to notice that the temperature in the fridge start to rise significantly and the other remote thermometer at the back of the fridge start to drop in temperature. Not good as this would only occur for a short period of time, as the fridge would have reach its desired cooling setting and there would be no demand on the coils , so naturally the temp would drop in the back, until the temp inside the fridge continued to climb, and the temp in the back continued to
fall. Problems yes. We had to pull over for a pitstop, so a good time to see if the flame had blown out, nope, and the coils were cold, not good.
When I got home , I plugged it in to 110 and left the setting on "4" as well. Over a short period of time the fridge started to cool down and the temp in the back of the fridge started to heat up and the fan would come on. That was a relief as I thought at the time that the fridge had a blockage in one of the tubes and the fridge was ruined. I ran the fridge on 110 for several days and the fridge operated as normal. Only when the fridge was on
propane, I didn't get enough cooling. I noticed at the time that the flame on the propane stove fluctuated a little. I had the proane lines and regulator cheched for correct pressure. It should be at 11 cm of water column and mine only was 5 cm of water column. Either the regulator had failed or the propane lines were blocked with oil. I won't discuss the procedure of blowing out the oil here, but there was lots and after that was complete, the line pressure was back to 11 cm of water column. I thought that would resolve my fridge problem, not so.
The fridge wasn't cooling as it should. If there was a blockage, as I had originally thought, why did the fridge cool down when operating on 110. Must be the flame or burner problem. Well we cleaned out the burner, orfice and the flue. Somewhat dirty after 29 years of dust and what not. The fridge now would cool down while the trailer was sitting still, but as soon as the trailer was in motion the temperature would start to rise inside the fridge, and the tubes in the rear would start to cool down.
Got any ideas, let me know.
Greg Boler77
Linear Mode
