Fridge, gas on or off

[gweedo295]

Good morning all, couple questions regarding traveling with the gas on or off keeping the fridge cold. I was looking through some articles and noticed fires involving the Norcold. I have the dometic 1402 and it works awesome. I always travel with the gas on to the fridge to keep it cold. IS THIS WRONG? if so I have been very lucky!

I see many of you have changed out the Norcold and Dometic for the Samsung, I can see why regarding the Norcold, but not certain as to why the Dometic. Have I missed a safety issue with the Dometic or are you changing it out for more room.

Do you travel with gas on to the fridge, why or why not and what do you do to keep things cold/frozen.

Is there a safety issue with the Dometic?

I don't want to be a victim.

Thanks, Pat

[Waiter21]

We leave our gas on all the time. We never had any problems with our Mirada while traveling.

On our Southwind, we are changing to a residential mainly because the flame keeps blowing out while traveling.

[Mr_D]

An RV gas system is designed, built, tested and certified to be on when on the road. And I did right up to when I removed the gas cooktop and replaced it with an induction unit in this rig which already had a Jenn Air refer/freezer. Now I'm all electric.

[8.3Oilbuner]

Hi Pat; Been traveling in RV's since the early 60's. Never had a problem with the refer running on gas. Have had Dometic and Norcold. Have know about the problem with Norcold's, but the models I have had are not in the recall. So I will keep the gas on while traveling. Hope this gives you some answers.

[Old-Biscuit]

More MH fires are a result of overheated brakes, engine oil fires or electrical fires then from absorption fridges.


Norcold AND Dometic made some design/production errors back in the 2000s by using thinner walled tubing in the manufacturing of their cooling units.....poor welding techniques added insult to injury by causing metal fatigue----hence BOTH Mfgs had 'recall fixes' to deal with the issues.

Majority of cooling issues (lack of proper cooling) are due to RV Mfgs NOT following installation instructions that both RV Fridge Mfgs provide laying out the specific clearances and airflow requirements.

When installed properly an absorption fridge can/does preform very well and does so safely.

[dix39]

Whole I can see a reason for turning the propane off while traveling, we have had ours on since we got our first TC in the late '70's. They were all Dometic. Perhaps we've been lucky too, but IMHO it's good to keep frozen things frozen.

We had our second TC for 23 years and it would blow the flame out reliably at any speed over 60 mph. Because of that we had it on 12 volts while on the road. I will say from experience that if left on 12 volts very long without some form of charging one 12 volt deep cycle battery will be depleted in just a few hours. Luckily, the truck and camper batteries were separated.

The current MH does not blow out and we run with it on propane all the time. It has a solenoid operated valve near the propane tank that is controlled by the "sniffer". I suspect it would turn the propane off at the first suspicious smell. It certainly didn't like it when I sprayed Lysol disinfectant nearby.

Steve

[MSHappyCampers]

We run the fridge off the inverter while traveling. That saves money on LP and don't have to worry about turning off the LP when fueling!

[gweedo295]

Thank you everyone for your responses. I'm glad to know what I have been doing is safe!. (I never thought of turning the gas off during fueling though, thnx) I am happy with the Dometic but I do wish it was a bit larger.

We lover our Endeavor, bought it two years ago and put a few thousand$$ making road ready. Don't know if I want to put more $$ into it or upgrade to a newer one. (I'm not one to keep up with the Jones, too expensive)

Thankfully the previous owner kept it inside and took extremely good care of it, it truly looks new, we lucked out I guess.

Thinking if we keep it, I will definitely need to remodel the inside to upgrade to the newer styles. anyone know of a place(s) where interior parts can be purchased.

Thanks again for all of your responses, I just love this site!!!

[96 Wideglide]

Pat: At the risk of jinx'ing myself , I can't say I've ever read a report on this forum, of a Dometic 1402 springing a leak, and catching fire.
I've traveled with mine on propane since owning it.

[saddlesore]

Originally Posted by 96 Wideglide

Pat: At the risk of jinx'ing myself , I can't say I've ever read a report on this forum, of a Dometic 1402 springing a leak, and catching fire.
I've traveled with mine on propane since owning it.

We had a Damnetic 1492, It never did like the hills in the NW when traveling (6%+ grades) finally had enough of flameouts and spoilage, replaced with a Sammy-18..

[96 Wideglide]

Is 1492 a typo, and you meant 1402?

If it is, mine has never flamed out. The temp in the compartments will climb a bit while traveling, but never enough to spoil food.

[saddlesore]

Originally Posted by 96 Wideglide

Is 1492 a typo, and you meant 1402?

If it is, mine has never flamed out. The temp in the compartments will climb a bit while traveling, but never enough to spoil food.

Nope... it was a 1492 double french door with ice maker.
The spoilage was due to the high cross winds = flameouts and /or off level when traveling with outside temps of 100+ deg's.

[keeney]

might be a good idea to turn off the gas while fueling the motor home, we run our fridge on gas while driving with no problems sense the mid 70s. the keeneys

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by keeney

might be a good idea to turn off the gas while fueling the motor home, we run our fridge on gas while driving with no problems sense the mid 70s. the keeneys

Only necessary ig you have a gasoline powered rig. Diesel is not very flammable.