Is My RV Refrigerator Defrosting???
Posted 09-03-2011 at 09:26 PM by SUMDALUS
The RV refrigerator does not work like a house refrigerator. Yes, they both cool and freeze food, but their methods of operation are not the same. Here's one good example:
I had a customer call me one afternoon, insisting that his refrigerator was defrosting and wanted me to fix it. When I arrived at his RV, he showed me the water dripping from the fins. I proceeded to carefully make all of my usual checks on the refrigerator. Afterwards, I explained that his refrigerator was within all design specs and working entirely as it should. However, he was adamant that it was defrosting and that the control board (the electronic brain) had to be bad and wanted me to change it. I kindly stated that to change out the control board would be a waste of his money and, again, tried to convince him that what he was seeing was normal. All of my explanations were to no avail. He wasn’t convinced.
Two days later, he called me again. He had gone to the local RV dealer and bought an expensive control board and installed it himself. But…for some reason, it “was still defrosting!” and “Could I fix it?” I went out to his RV and again checked out his refrigerator. My findings were the same as before.
Ladies and Gentlemen, just because there is water dripping from the fins, it does not mean that the refrigerator is defrosting!!! An Absorption refrigerator is not engineered to be self defrosting. Period.
Comment: Okay, okay – you caught me! That last statement is only 99.9% correct. One of the RV refrigerator manufacturers has attempted to engineer a self defrosting Absorption refrigerator in response to customer expectations for the RV refrigerator to be more like their home unit. Today, there is only one (1) specific model in the field that executes an auto defrost cycle once every twenty-four hours. Based on my service call experience, that model has some rather unique problems -- there are, in fact, nine different error codes applicable just to the defrost cycle alone! Get the idea? (Note: If your owners manual does not mention a defrost cycle, the refrigerator doesn't have one.)
When you see water dripping from the fins, what you are seeing is the normal operation of an Absorption refrigerator. It all depends on the time of day you look inside the chill box. You will usually see frost or thin ice on the fins early in the morning and water dripping from the fins mid to late afternoon. Here’s the WHY -- Because the chill box is usually closed up tight for seven to eight hours each night, every bit of heat has been removed from the refrigerator and any moisture on the fins has been chilled or frozen -- hence, frost or thin ice. As the day goes on, you open and close the door numerous times and allow a lot of heat into the unit -- hence, the dripping water.
Note: As a rule of thumb, consider that it will take about an hour to extract the heat that enters the refrigerator for every one minute you have the door open. This is why it is very important to know what you want inside the refrigerator and where it is located. Standing with the door open just lets in a great deal of heat. {Gee, Mom, I guess when I was a teenager, you weren’t exactly correct when you kept telling me, “Close the refrigerator door! You’re letting the cold air out!”}
For more information about your RV refrigerator, please check out my blog about "Understanding the RV Refrigerator." The first page (Part I: Introduction) is HERE.
Dale Lee Sumner
RVIA Master Certified RV Service Technician
Mobile RV Medic, Inc.
I had a customer call me one afternoon, insisting that his refrigerator was defrosting and wanted me to fix it. When I arrived at his RV, he showed me the water dripping from the fins. I proceeded to carefully make all of my usual checks on the refrigerator. Afterwards, I explained that his refrigerator was within all design specs and working entirely as it should. However, he was adamant that it was defrosting and that the control board (the electronic brain) had to be bad and wanted me to change it. I kindly stated that to change out the control board would be a waste of his money and, again, tried to convince him that what he was seeing was normal. All of my explanations were to no avail. He wasn’t convinced.
Two days later, he called me again. He had gone to the local RV dealer and bought an expensive control board and installed it himself. But…for some reason, it “was still defrosting!” and “Could I fix it?” I went out to his RV and again checked out his refrigerator. My findings were the same as before.
Ladies and Gentlemen, just because there is water dripping from the fins, it does not mean that the refrigerator is defrosting!!! An Absorption refrigerator is not engineered to be self defrosting. Period.
Comment: Okay, okay – you caught me! That last statement is only 99.9% correct. One of the RV refrigerator manufacturers has attempted to engineer a self defrosting Absorption refrigerator in response to customer expectations for the RV refrigerator to be more like their home unit. Today, there is only one (1) specific model in the field that executes an auto defrost cycle once every twenty-four hours. Based on my service call experience, that model has some rather unique problems -- there are, in fact, nine different error codes applicable just to the defrost cycle alone! Get the idea? (Note: If your owners manual does not mention a defrost cycle, the refrigerator doesn't have one.)
When you see water dripping from the fins, what you are seeing is the normal operation of an Absorption refrigerator. It all depends on the time of day you look inside the chill box. You will usually see frost or thin ice on the fins early in the morning and water dripping from the fins mid to late afternoon. Here’s the WHY -- Because the chill box is usually closed up tight for seven to eight hours each night, every bit of heat has been removed from the refrigerator and any moisture on the fins has been chilled or frozen -- hence, frost or thin ice. As the day goes on, you open and close the door numerous times and allow a lot of heat into the unit -- hence, the dripping water.
Note: As a rule of thumb, consider that it will take about an hour to extract the heat that enters the refrigerator for every one minute you have the door open. This is why it is very important to know what you want inside the refrigerator and where it is located. Standing with the door open just lets in a great deal of heat. {Gee, Mom, I guess when I was a teenager, you weren’t exactly correct when you kept telling me, “Close the refrigerator door! You’re letting the cold air out!”}
For more information about your RV refrigerator, please check out my blog about "Understanding the RV Refrigerator." The first page (Part I: Introduction) is HERE.
Dale Lee Sumner
RVIA Master Certified RV Service Technician
Mobile RV Medic, Inc.
