220 smoked my fridge / HELP

[RiskIt]

Hello all,
It's been awhile since I've posted anything on here but I'm in a bind. I have a 1970 AS Land Yacht with a Dometic fridge. My work brought me from FL to upstate NY an the camp ground didnt have any sites left so the offered to put me in there mobile park. That section had 100amp service an the said there electrician would switch over power for my trailer. I left the plug (110/30amp) for him to see.

You can see where this is going... Guy wired it up 220. My inverter (PowerDynamic 9180) caught fire.. BAD,and I needed a fire extinguisher to put out the fire. My A/C is a new Penguin an held up fine.

The fridge on the other hand does not work. There is 110 power at the outlet it plugs into but it doesn't get cold (at all).

The campsite said they would pay for the repair an let me stay in a room (they have a small motel as well) for a couple nights free while I had a new inverter shipped in. It's been a month an although I'm staying in the trailer I still haven't been able to get the fridge working.

The site said they need the model number so the can order a new element... As there repair man said that is all that is needed.

I'm not looking to sue anyone an all I want is the fridge to be fixed.. I have redone the trailer an dont want to remove the fridge if I don't have to.

Thank you all for any an all help

[AldeanFan]

Bad Luck!

I had to replace the element on my '77 Safari Dometic fridge, no big deal at all, 2 push on connectors and one screw to remove an access panel.

The fridge model number will be on a plate inside the fridge, just open the door and look near the control knobs.

The part number will also be stamped on to the element along with the details (watts and volts).

I bought my element on Ebay for around $40

If it is only the heating element, the fridge will still work on Propane, I suggest you try that before changing out the element.

Hope it all works out for you.

[RiskIt]

"A.Fan"
Thank you for the quick reply. I'm almost embaresed to say I've NEVER run the fridge on propane.. I've rebuilt everything on/in this trailer an never touched the fridge. I'm not sure it works on propane.

Is it hard to get working if it hasn't been used in YEARS???

The $40 element on EBay sounds very good and is great to read. I understand there could be more to the fix but I was thinking the worst.

[DKB_SATX]

Originally Posted by RiskIt

"A.Fan"
Thank you for the quick reply. I'm almost embaresed to say I've NEVER run the fridge on propane.. I've rebuilt everything on/in this trailer an never touched the fridge. I'm not sure it works on propane.

Is it hard to get working if it hasn't been used in YEARS???

The $40 element on EBay sounds very good and is great to read. I understand there could be more to the fix but I was thinking the worst.

If it hasn't been run on propane for a long time, you may need to clean the burner orifice and (while the burner is removed or protected) you should probably clean the rust of the the "chimney" above the burner. Old absorption fridges are dead-simple, if your propane system works there's a good chance you can get the fridge running on propane without too much trouble.

Oh, and kudos to the campground for covering your repairs, and curses to electricians who glance at a TT-30R 30-amp RV plug and just ASSume it's a 220-v dryer plug without ever bothering to read the text that's stamped on it for good reason.