Dometic refrigerator problem and conversion to residential refer

[kovalsmt]

Hello All
My dometic 14 cu ft refrigerator NDA 1402 has a freezer that is not getting below 28 degrees F. The fridge is getting down to 33 F. A service tech who was not familiar with the unit said he called dometic and was told the PC board 50-028602-c was bad and they did not make those any more. Anyone one know where I might find one?

Failing that I will have to modify the coach to fit a residential refer in that space. I like to boondock so will miss the Dometic. I have 4 each, 110 amp hr. 6 volt house batteries with a 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter and one 30 amp solar panel on the roof.

Any advise/guidance on a residential refer replacement or pc board would be apricated.

I've attached a picture of my current side by side fridge in this post, I tried to anyway.

https://www.irv2.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=347086&stc=1&d=1635121 652[/IMG]

kovalsmt
2009, 42' Monaco Camelot
425 Cummings ISL
F-150 towd

[sysadm47362]

Welcome to IRV2.

I have been looking at the 12 volt conversions from JC Refrigeration. Convert Dometic and others to 110 volt, 12 volt or replace the existing refrigeration mechanism with new propane / electric.

[PABO05]

I did the JCRefrigerant three years ago.
Using my refrigerator cabinet, and replaced the cooling unit.
This is a one man job and a few hours.
Let refrigerator out overnight to cure the adhesive.
I went with the 120V compressor.
As of today NO ISSUE..
This way there is no retrofit.

[Old-Biscuit]

IF the Circuit Board was faulty then the fridge would not cool on AC and/or on LP

Circuit board controls function of heat sources


Freezer (and food compartment) have 2 thermistors each
One to measure 'air' temp and one to measure 'surface' temp
Freezer temp sensing is factory pre-set (non-adjustable)...temp setting on Fridge control panel are for food compartment temp controls
*Freezer cooling process is first in line so it gets the coldest
On A/C temp setting is ~0*F and on Gas 7*F

The 'air' temp and 'surface' temp thermistors are used to control freezer fan and defrost cycles

Sounds like the freezer thermistors are failing NOT the Lower Circuit Board

Are you getting ANY error codes?
Is the Freezer fan working?
Does the fridge go into defrost mode ---should happen roughly every 24 hrs?
Have you placed a thermometer in freezer to compare temp vs displayed temp?

You can 'test' the thermistors resistance.
4 Pin P2 connector ---freezer (Pins 1 & 2/Air---- Pins 3 & 4/Surface)
4 pin P3 connector.....food (Pins 1 & 2/Air ------ Pins 3 & 4/Surface)

Pg 15 for info and Pg 49 for resistance values
https://myrvworks.com/wp-content/upl...ice-Manual.pdf

[SavnTheWales]

Have you tried tapping on the coils? My Dometic Rm1350 was not getting cold enough. So I simple took a small piece of metal and tapped on the coils. After that it now cools like it should. This is not a permanent fix, but it has been working for months now. My freezer gets to 0 and fridge to 33.

[be-happy]

Last year I went the way of JC Refrigeration and will not turn back. I have a NorCold, but JC takes care of either.

I went with the totally 110 unit as I do not dry camp and this was a great fit for me. The job was very easy to remove the old and install the new. Before jumping into a total replacement I would look into what JC can do.

https://jc-refrigeration.com/

[jacwjames]

From some of the responses sounds like you may be able to troubleshoot and repair.



We also do quite a bit of boon docking. Our Norcold crapped out ~3 years ago, it never really did cool correctly, freezer was OK most of the time but refrigerator would not.

I had bought a Samsung RF18 and used it while building our new house. After the Norcold crapped out swapped out for the Samsung. Because of the furnace underneath it was a chore to get it to fit but it worked.



Finally got a chance to give the Samsung a good test this summer, took it for a 5 week 4500 mile trip boon docking most of the time. It hardly changed my generator usage, ran it ~1 hour a night to bring the batteries up to 90% and run the AC to cool the coach and then went to bed and when I woke up would still have ~75% battery left. Batteries would charge while driving, and I have 325 watt solar, on some days the solar kept the batteries up.

I was in ND in July, 105F outside, luckily I was plugged into 50 amp so I could run both AC's and do laundry. It was hot hot hot, temps in coach were +85F but the Samsung performed flawlessly. I have temp monitors in freezer and fridge, the freezer stayed at -4F even with the sun beating down on that side of the coach. Dropped ice all day long.


I am 100% satisfied with my switch to the residential.

[Gary RVRoamer]

It's very unusual that the freezer is warm but the fridge is not. The freezer gets first call on the available cooling.


Like Old Biscuit, I would be highly skeptical that the circuit board is bad if the fridge is cooling OK. I suggest you do as he suggests to better determine the problem.

[kovalsmt]

Thank you. It is not going into the defrost mod unless I manually do it, Not sure if the fan is coming on I'll check it out tomorrow when I get back to the coach. I don't remember hearing it. The freezer is operating at 28 to 30 degrees and the fridge is 33-35 degrees.
I see they have thermistors at Amazon. I had a service tech check it who only called Dometic and was told it was bad and they don't make them anymore. I wanted a second opinion from IRV 2 as the tech said he never so one like mine before. Thank you for the feedback, I'll let you know how it goes.
Regards
Mike

[Old-Biscuit]

Originally Posted by kovalsmt

Thank you. It is not going into the defrost mod unless I manually do it, Not sure if the fan is coming on I'll check it out tomorrow when I get back to the coach. I don't remember hearing it. The freezer is operating at 28 to 30 degrees and the fridge is 33-35 degrees.
I see they have thermistors at Amazon. I had a service tech check it who only called Dometic and was told it was bad and they don't make them anymore. I wanted a second opinion from IRV 2 as the tech said he never so one like mine before. Thank you for the feedback, I'll let you know how it goes.
Regards
Mike

Defrosting is initiated automatically every 24 hours, at 1:00
AM ( based on clock setting).
However, a defrosting may be skipped if the air temperature in the freezer is greater than 18° F, or the DC voltage is less than 10.5 volts.

[Barneyb]

2 years ago went with the JC Refrigeration cooling unit swap, very happy with it but if I had it to do again I’d go with a residential fridge. Of course that’s because our usage of the coach has changed and we don’t used it every weekend like we use to.

[kovalsmt]

I was all set to tackle the fridge today now that I have the service manual. Before I left Saturday I reconnected a drain hose I found disconnected outside behind the fridge, tapped on the coils and did a manual defrost. Don’t know what happened but I got back to the coach today, Tuesday, and the freezer was at 2F and fridge was at 33F.
Thanks to all for sharing your experience and knowledge. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it stays good.
Best Regards
Mike

[96 Wideglide]

Originally Posted by sysadm47362

Welcome to IRV2.

I have been looking at the 12 volt conversions from JC Refrigeration. Convert Dometic and others to 110 volt, 12 volt or replace the existing refrigeration mechanism with new propane / electric.

They don't make a compressor kit that swaps into this Dometic model.

[kovalsmt]

[QUOTE=PABO05;5961826]I did the JCRefrigerant three years ago.
Using my refrigerator cabinet, and replaced the cooling unit.
This is a one man job and a few hours.
Let refrigerator out overnight to cure the adhesive.
I went with the 120V compressor.
As of today NO ISSUE..
This way there is no retrofit.[/QUOTE

Thank you, l hated the thought of modifying the place were it sets. Thanks. I fixed a drain hose from the fridge and 2 days later it started working the best I’ve ever seen it.