Dometic fridge LP problem

[Navl AV8R]

Left for 4 mos trip last week. Had pre-cooled fridge with shore power and all was good. However, while driving the wife noticed the fridge was not powered by LP.

LP tank was 3/4 full and she had just made some lunch with the stove, so had her try the water heater. That worked fine.

After 5 hrs of driving, stopped for gas and while stopped I tried to get fridge lp light to come on. After pushing the on/off button on the fridge many, many times the LP light illuminated. However, after 10 minutes back on the road the wife noticed the light out again.

After another 5+ hrs of driving, stopped at Wally World for the night and the fridge ran fine on LP all night. Now, a week and another 600 miles later it is still working just fine.

My question - Anyone else had this experience and if so, any ideas why it took so long to start up and keep running on LP? Could it be a temp sensor going bad, a spiders nest in the wrong place, or some other common problem.

I just want to know possible causes in advance so we don't end up losing some frozen food when I could have done something on the road to fix the problem.

[GaryKD]

Hi Navl AV8R,
In addition to what was mentioned in your OP, it could just be the wind hitting the coach the wrong way. Look at how the gas flame is protected from the wind, as you travel down the road. Consider letting the unit run on propane for a day or two. If the unit has a problem only when traveling, you may need to build additional protection for the flame.

Make sure your batteries are fully charged.

[RV Wizard]

How many hours does the ref. have on LP mode since it was last serviced? It may just need a good cleaning. What brand of ref. do you have and is it in a slide out? If so you may want to assure the lp line is not being kinked when room is retracted.

[lthrnk]

Not to hijack the thread, but we have had a very similar problem with our Norcold unit the last two days.

Never any problem before but all of a sudden running down the road the LP quit and got "No FL" msg and a beeping alarm on the ref. We were boondocked last night with the gennie running and no mproblem on AC.

Tried to restart the ref. on LP and it light off OK. After about 5 hours of travel, same as yesterday, it quit again. Sitting now and it won't stay lit. Runs for a few minutes and then a loud puff/knock and it tries to relight then quits. Almost sounds like a bad fuel/air mix?

Anyone any more thoughts on this?

Thanks, Mike

["007"]

Had same problem with fridge when I bought the coach LP wouldn't stay lite. Dealer wanted to replace fridge. I kept forcing into LP mode and finally it would stay in that mode. One thing you have to do is clean out chimney of rust by covering burner tube with a paper towel and gently tapping side of chimney so rust will fall to bottom, than vacuum out rust. If rust flakes get in burner will have trouble keeping heat sensor from working correctly.
Dependent on ventilation for burner what GaryKD said may need to be done add more ventilation while traveling.

[sknight]

I'd give it a good cleaning and replace the thermocouple. If the thermocouple has gotten lazy then the fridge will shut down to prevent a fire.

The way it was explained to me it the LP flame gets blown out often going down the road. An RV thermocouple reacts incredibly fast, reigniting the flame before gas can build up. If it doesn't get that signal then it shuts off.

[azloafer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lthrnk Not to hijack the thread, but we have had a very similar problem with our Norcold unit the last two days. Never any problem before but all of a sudden running down the road the LP quit and got "No FL" msg and a beeping alarm on the ref. We were boondocked last night with the gennie running and no mproblem on AC. Tried to restart the ref. on LP and it light off OK. After about 5 hours of travel, same as yesterday, it quit again. Sitting now and it won't stay lit. Runs for a few minutes and then a loud puff/knock and it tries to relight then quits. Almost sounds like a bad fuel/air mix? Anyone any more thoughts on this? Thanks, Mike

This too late to help you, but someone else may read it and it might solve their problem. When I had the "FL" reading the dealer determined that I hadn't used the frig for awhile on LP and it somehow got air in the line. This could have happened when the wind blew yours out??? Anyway, they just ran the water heater and furnace and the range on LP for awhile to clear the line and the code vanished and all was well. During warm weather we use the gen while on the road, along with the air. Otherwise we use the LP. Joe