Community Forums

Sully · 05-10-2006, 06:14 AM

Has anyone had a problem with the new Dometic refer? Ours cycles wildly from 30 to 60 degrees in a 12 hr period.

Sully

Sully · 05-10-2006, 06:14 AM

Has anyone had a problem with the new Dometic refer? Ours cycles wildly from 30 to 60 degrees in a 12 hr period.

Sully

Audrey & John · 05-10-2006, 07:26 AM

We have the 14 cu ft. model with icemaker.

Never seen anything like you describe. Sounds defective to me.

Audrey

Sully · 05-18-2006, 09:02 PM

Audrey,

You are right, it was defective. Replace two days ago and found a pinhole in a cooling tube.

Sully

Audrey & John · 05-18-2006, 11:52 PM

What was replaced? Just a part, right?

Now it's our turn darn it! Seems like for the past week things didn't feel that cold in the fridge and a couple of things seemed to spoil quickly.

Finally measured it 2 days ago, and darn if the temp is around 54 degrees, instead of the 34 degrees displayed. Something happened to the thermostat I presume.

Ironic, it's doing a great job of keeping temps regulated within 1 degree, but it's off by 20 degrees!!!

So I guess we're looking for Dometic service ourselves now.

Fortunately we had the annual service done to maintain the warranty. That was just 2 months ago - fridge seemed to be working great then.

Audrey

EngineerMike · 05-19-2006, 06:18 AM

Ours leaks water into the ice tray. Has since new. Great if you want one BIG ice cube (i.e. good for Margaritas!!). Otherwise working OK.

Buddy and Beverly · 05-20-2006, 04:28 AM

E-Mike,

Our refrig. must be doing the same thing as yours--leaking water into the ice tray. I have been wondering why we have this big solid block of ice. I kept thinking it must be due to the refrig. being off at times due to our having it in the repair shop so much.

Mine doesn't automatically defrost either. Gets a big buildup of ice. Should I be doing some programming or something? I confess, I haven't read the refrig. manuel. (Excuse, the MH has been in the shop so much and the manuals are in the MH.)

We have the MH home now, but didn't go on a trip because we have to take it back the 24th for the tech from Detroit to look at the SmarTire system.

Beverly

Ted III · 05-20-2006, 06:23 AM

Mike,have you considered feeding the ice maker feed tube with the Margarita mix. Right up front you would have ready made frozen Margaritas!

Ted & Carol
2005 Alpine 2005 34' FDDS
2006 PT Cruiser GT

Audrey & John · 05-20-2006, 06:43 AM

On the leaking into the ice tray:

We found that a hole behind the ice tray where wires come through was not sealed. This lets condensation come in and freeze. When we had the 1 year service we had the tech look at that and he sealed the hole with putty.

We also adjusted the icemaker to make smaller cubes. It works better.

Now we have an icicle building up on the right top back corner of the freezer, and I suspect there are some unsealed holes back there too.

Our understanding is that all holes coming into the freezer should be sealed, otherwise there will be ice build up.

The tech used some kind of putty. He said NOT to use silicone or something like that because the taste/odor will get into the food.

Audrey

EngineerMike · 05-20-2006, 10:15 AM

On ours the water inflow making the big cube is too fast for condensation to explain it. It seems like something associated w/the water feed. If we shut the ice maker off, the inflow quits. This was a problem right away during PDI week, and we left Yakima w/out a solution, tho the PDI crew spent some time on it. I've got a putty ring around the water tube, and Izzy was the one who screwed down the cube size screw to its absolute min. limit. Don't know if WRV is the one w/the putty; the condensate exit tube (see below) has a putty ring also.

We also have a condensation build-up below the wire entrance. I'll see if I can find & plug that leak. But the defrost generally seems to work; there is condensate in the tube that exits at the bottom of fridge behind the service panel on PS, and the inside of the freezer is nicely clean of frost except by the icemaker.

Ted- You're breakin' my creativity meter. I love the idea. I can use the by-pass around the RO unit & just fill my main tank w/margarita mix. In fact, I could use the pre-mix w/the tequila right in it!! Then just toss the cubes into the blender w/a shoter 2 of tekillya fer lubricashun...

hic..

EngineerMike · 05-20-2006, 10:28 AM

The computer MotherBoard for the fridge has 4 GM type fuses and one buss fuse, along w/two in-line fuses to the left of the MB. For temp issues generally, might try checking those; you have to remove the black plastic MB cover (one philips screw @ top & 2 friction hooks, one @ ea. lower corner). The MB is located behind the service panel on PS, lower right looking at coach. The MB buss fuse is hard to see at most extreme right of MB. I didn't see any reset, but for those who bought the optional diagnostics, there is an RJ11 or RJ45 type port on the bottom of the MB.

RJF · 05-20-2006, 10:50 AM

Our Dometic defrosted great when we traveled and would be shutting it completely off after a trip. In Nov we bought our lot in Aguanga and now store the Alpine with the power on to the fridge. The defrost cycle was not working properly. Frost and a big chunk of ice blocked the drain tube. I had to manually defrost the refer once a month by completely turning off and use towels to soak up the water. A nice way to spend the afternoon.
In March as the rally was here the techs came by. The diagnosis was a crimp in the drain line.
They didn't have the right tools to access. A few weeks later we took our Alpine to Rick's RV in San Clemente for 1 year service. The drain tube was replaced in 30 min. It's worked great since then.

EngineerMike · 05-20-2006, 11:16 AM

Dometic Fridge Link with links to Install/Operation PDF & Parts List PDF manuals.

Audrey & John · 05-22-2006, 01:02 PM

Interesting.....

Luckily for us, Dometic told us that they would support any dealer/RV tech outfit working on the fridge under warranty as long as they agreed to follow their "procedure". We called a local mobile RV tech outfit, and someone came out to take a quick look this afternoon (they decided to pop by while doing a test driver on another RV - LOL!).

We showed all the issues. He took a good look inside and at the back. He decided to disconnect the sensor on the flange in the fridge (he said he thought there was ice on it) and lo and behold, the fridge suddenly started to show the correct air temps in both the fridge and freezer!!!

How weird is that?

So it does appear as if something bizarre with one sensor can screw up all the readings.

The fridge seems to be cooling now

. The tech will be back tomorrow to figure out how to reinstall the flange temp sensor or what else to do.

Nothing like mobile RV service!!! Gosh it's a relief to be able to show a tech first hand what is going on and getting benefit of their experience.

Audrey