Water leaking from fridge

[Robert M]

Hi Everyone,

I have a fridge question I'm wondering if someone can help me with.

I have a Dometic RM211 fridge in my Trillium. The fridge works really well - we just returned from a two week vacation to Nova Scotia without difficulty. However I noticed for the first time on this trip that water often leaked from the front of the fridge, and would be found on the small ledge under the door and all over the floor. The water was almost always rusty in colour. I was constantly mopping it up, about 1-2 teaspoons 2-3 times per day. The problem seemed worse in rainy days, but also occurred on dry days.

Does anyone have any idea what this could be? Condensation running out the front? Rain leaking through the exterior side vents? Something else?

Thanks!
Rob

[Per Walthinsen]

Hi Rob:

Ours is a Dometic RM2333 and I'd suggest the following:

1) Find a way to make sure the water is actually coming from inside the frig, not from underneath suggesting an unrelated source. The rust doesn't compute with me somehow.
2) If from the inside, does yours have finned cooling element on the top inside? If so the fins are probably condensing moisture from the air and dripping down to the bottom. On mine, Dometic suggest that when operating the fins should have a dry-ish frost on them, but that would vary with the setting, the frequency of the door opening and other variables, including variations in ambient and inside temperature.
3) Mine has a long rectangular plastic drip pan which fits on the bottom right under the fins. Occasionally it should be emptied out. If yours originally had a pan I'd try to get one, but something could easily be improvised I'm sure.
4) Get a wireless (Radio Shack) thermometer. Mount the sender inside the frig and monitor the temperature from the outside, the car, or your home, whatever. Very handy, but you may discover, as I did, that the installation was faulty and the frig did not function as well as I thought it should. I'd be happy to share my experience with this problem as well as some remedies, but yours may very well operate just fine.

[Donna D.]

Rob, here's the link to the Dometic RM211 Manual from the Document Center...if you should need it!

Dometic_Refr_Manual_RM211_1980

[Per Walthinsen]

Rob:

By glancing at the link provided by Donna it appears that I should backtrack a bit:

Your design uses a drain tube for condensation. If the moisture in fact is condensation I'd check that the tube and fittings are intact and the water can drain freely where it should. Pouring water into the tube might reveal something. If the frig is at an angle I suppose the water could run toward the door and miss the drain too.

If you can trace any of this to incoming rainwater that is another problem entirely: separation of the "outer" part of the frig from the rest of the trailer per Dometic's installation instructions. It took draconian measures for me to solve that problem but it worked. I'll be interested to know what you find.

[Robert M]

Hi Folks,

Thanks so much for the info and the link to the manual, it's really helpful! I agree, the rusty colour of the water is confusing, but the position of it on the small sill below the fridge compartment, but above the floor of the fridge, suggests to me that it couldn't come from outside. So why the rusty colour....my best guess is that there are two somewhat (but not REALLY) rusty screws on the ledge where the water collects - maybe that's colouring the water.

I like the idea of checking out the drain tube. I'll do that tomorrow in the daylight and report back...

Thanks,
Rob