Community Forums

**CountryFit** · 06-07-2014, 09:25 AM

while following the thread below http://www.irv2.com/forums/f258/another-norcold-story-206571.html,
i am concerned about the safety on my fridge... mine is not a norcold unit, but a newer dometic installed in 2010. it has ac and gas indicator but i can't select ac only. it will automatically switch between ac and lpg mode.

question - while driving on the road, do you let the fridge run on lpg full time? the wind effect could be huge when vehicle is in motion.

(not long ago i was searching salvage yards for a control panel and i contacted visone rv. they had quite a few country coaches and almost all of them were salvaged due to fire started from fridge).

macantic · 06-07-2014, 09:33 AM

I do it all the time,I did it with my last coach that had a norcold and now with this coach that has a dometic and haven't any problems,yet! you could always run your genny so it would run on ac if it would make you feel better.

Skip426 · 06-07-2014, 09:38 AM

4 , 5ers, over the years, and now the coach , always travel with the fridge running ( all Dometic); sometimes even the furnace .

pumper9x9 · 06-07-2014, 09:38 AM

Nope. Couple of reasons 1) slight fire hazard in the event of a wreck or an ignition source for some other incident like a gasoline spill at the fuel station next to you while you are filling up. But why risk it.
2) When the frig is running and it's not level this causes a build up in the cooling system that will shorten the life of your refrigerator. We have had the refrigerator off for up to 15 hrs and stuff was still cold in the frig and frozen in the freezer. (we weren't driving the whole time we just forgot to turn it back on) Hope it helps.

MSHappyCampers · 06-07-2014, 09:45 AM

We run the fridge on the inverter (AC) while traveling. We just have to be sure to switch it to LPG if we stop for a few hours without shore power!

SeattlePirat · 06-07-2014, 09:46 AM

Now I have something else to worry about.

Arch Hoagland · 06-07-2014, 09:47 AM

Had three RV's with Norcold refrigerators and ran them all on propane while traveling.

My current Norcold 1200 has been fine and cools quite well.

I have a question for you about the Norcold fires....How many Norcolds are in use and how many fires have there been?

Gordon Dewald · 06-07-2014, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pumper9x9

Nope. Couple of reasons 1) slight fire hazard in the event of a wreck or an ignition source for some other incident like a gasoline spill at the fuel station next to you while you are filling up. But why risk it.
2) When the frig is running and it's not level this causes a build up in the cooling system that will shorten the life of your refrigerator. We have had the refrigerator off for up to 15 hrs and stuff was still cold in the frig and frozen in the freezer. (we weren't driving the whole time we just forgot to turn it back on) Hope it helps.

Agree - we travel all of the time with the propane and fridge turned OFF. When we stop for the evening the beer is still cold and the steaks frozen. Start the generator or turn on the propane and turn on the fridge for overnight. Then turn it off for the next days travel.

Unless you are standing in front of the fridge with the door open trying to decide on which beer to take out the fridge will keep the cold for a long time. It is insulated.

Why run the generator (unless you are running AC) or run propane (risk of fire) when it is not required?

JMO

MSHappyCampers · 06-07-2014, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arch Hoagland

Had three RV's with Norcold refrigerators and ran them all on propane while traveling.

My current Norcold 1200 has been fine and cools quite well.

I have a question for you about the Norcold fires....How many Norcolds are in use and how many fires have there been?

Arch, even one fire was too many for me to take the risk!

Tomtall · 06-07-2014, 09:53 AM

Always travel with LP tank valve closed and all gas appliances shut off. If we travel for extended period of time we place a small bag of ice in each fridge compartment. Emergency responce people have enough to deal with at the seen of a accident they sure do not need a propane feed fire on top of it.
Just my personal feelings about the subject. Never say it can't happen.

vsheetz · 06-07-2014, 10:15 AM

I run the refrigerator on an inverter when traveling.

mel s · 06-07-2014, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CountryFit

i am concerned about the safety on my fridge... mine is not a norcold unit, but a newer dometic installed in 2010. it has ac and gas indicator but i can't select ac only. it will automatically switch between ac and lpg mode.

question - while driving on the road, do you let the fridge run on lpg full time? the wind effect could be huge when vehicle is in motion.

CountryFit
Are you sure your fridge doesn't have a 3 way, (auto/off/gas), switch on the control panel?

We use our 18 year old Norcold, (model 682), set to "gas" and running on LP, when we're traveling, when boondocking, (or overnighting), and whenever we are paying for metered electric.

Mel
'96 Safari, 132k miles

calhyatt · 06-07-2014, 10:36 AM

If the genset is not running, we run our fridge on propane. Never shut it off except to refuel the LP tank. The motion of the RV going down the road keeps the gas moving so we don't worry about plugging up the Ammonia system. That how we have been doing it, right or wrong. Nothing in our manuals telling us to not run the fridge on propane while moving.

OSP1268 · 06-07-2014, 10:38 AM

We have a Dometic Model 2862 which is gas or electric. When you first turn it on, don't have your propane on and it will go to and stay on electric unless you happen to loose electric and then it will revert back to propane.
When traveling we run the generator, then the fridge is on electric. We usually have the a/c on also and we really are not comfortable running the fridge on propane while driving down the road.
I have ran the fridge on propane and compared it to electric and found no difference in the temp.