Close call - Dometic 3801

[gpearston]

Wanted to post my experience with my Dometic 3801. I am not dogging Dometic at all - I have been very pleased with my fridge - before and after.

My fridge stopped cooling on AC so I tried DC and LP and none seemed better than AC. I did some quick tests and ordered a new cooling unit. The unit came and I pulled the fridge out. After taking the panels off the back that covered the board, relay and connections I found that the relay was FRIED. When it went it allowed or caused a severe heat issue and several of the wires melted together. It was hot enough that the plastic on the relay had started to melt. The insulation on the wires was blackened.

The good news is that no fire started and all is ending well. I replaced the relay, the heating elements (the bulk of the wire damage) and put shrink tubing on a couple of other wires that had insulation damage.

The bottom line for me is simple - I will be pulling the access panel and the covers every couple of weeks to check on the condition of the wiring and make sure everything looks OK. I will not assume things are working as they should. I learned a valuable lesson (with no more cost than a few bucks) - I need to keep an eye on it and trust nothing. Hopefully, someone reading this will now check on their wiring and it will prevent a problem.

I thank God that this turned out the way it did, it could have been truly bad. Take care and keep your eyes open. If you can afford an auto Halon extinguisher for the fridge get it, if not double check the fridge to make sure all is well.

[Its Paid For]

I do a weekly visual on everything, and a regular inspection on everything using a spreadsheet with SOP's so I don't miss anything. Some things need to be inspected once a month, others quarterly, but everything gets tested atleast quarterly. In winter I am more anal.

[gpearston]

Smart -- very, very smart

[RangeCampMan]

More often than not when we get a complaint about poor cooling of a refrigerator it is because of poor air circulation. When you do your inspections take a shop vac and remove you outside access panels and make sure there are no obstructions. These refrigerator are fairly simple, they need a heat source to cool, I know it sounds kind of weird, but that is how they work, so if the heat source is working rather it is 12vdc, 110vac, or propane the cooling should be the same. One thing that is very important with them is that they need to be as close to level as possible during their operation if they are not it can cause severe damage to the refrigerator. I'm glade you didn't have a fire, and you are on the right track keep it clean.