Dometic Refrig no lights on panel

[texascanuk]

We are full timing, yesterday the fridge went on the fritz. It's a Dometic RM2820 and is 1.5 years old. The lights on the upper panel will not light up when the power button is pushed "on". After several hours I tried it and they lit up and the fridge worked but only for 5 min then all the lights went out again. There is good shore power and 12 power reads 13+V, I checked the two internal fuses and they were good.

I think it could be the main control board, what do you think??

[AirHeadsRus]

I am no expert but it seems you should have lights even with a bad board. That panels lights run from DC power on I think. Where did you do your test that got your reading of 13+. You could get a reading on the DC wires where they attach to the board. Might just be a loose wire there. If not I have no clue.
Good luck,
Joe

[Morgan guy]

The control board and display on the fridge require 12v. to operate. Have you opened the outside panel and checked for 12v at the connector there. If you don't have 12v there you may have a circuit breaker or fuse problem. I would suspect that before I would suspect the display panel.

[lewster]

Originally Posted by texascanuk

We are full timing, yesterday the fridge went on the fritz. It's a Dometic RM2820 and is 1.5 years old. The lights on the upper panel will not light up when the power button is pushed "on". After several hours I tried it and they lit up and the fridge worked but only for 5 min then all the lights went out again. There is good shore power and 12 power reads 13+V, I checked the two internal fuses and they were good.

I think it could be the main control board, what do you think??

It's very rare for an upper board (called the 'eyebrow') to go out. I would concentrate on the wire harness connections or the lower control board itself. Remove the 'eyebrow' to be sure that the rear connector is plugged in all the way and that the wires going into it are all secure in the plug.

Then go to the lower control board and do the same. Be sure that all DC connections are clean and tight. If you find that all of the above are nominal, you are probably looking at a defective control board.

IIRC, your unit is covered under a 2 year factory warranty (check your owners' manual). If it is, you should have any factory authorized Dometic service center look at this, as you can void that warranty if you do it yourself.

[Gene]

The buttons on ours actually are rubber covers over the real buttons. The rubber covers can become dislodged and not work. To solve that annoyance I took off the plate and repositioned the covers.

Since yours worked and then stopped working, I doubt this is the problem, but if nothing else works, it might be worth a shot. I just fixed a remote for a ceiling fan where the rubber buttons failed to work because they were somehow out of line or dirty or something—not sure what I really did, but after I put it back together it worked.

Gene

[texascanuk]

It was the control board. I think back a week or so ago and I remember that the fridge was not keeping temp well. It usually held temp below 40F but it crept upward and correcting it by increasing the number on the upper panel failed. That must have been the signs of the beginning of the failure.

I installed a Dinosaur Electronics board and it is back to cool again. There is a place in California that had great prices ...r&g electronics I think it was called.

[texascanuk]

Symptom: The on/off switch won't stay engaged. If I hold it in the fridge will start and run but when I let go it shuts off. I disassembled it and took apart the switch (advise not to) and freed up the switch. It has a light amount of grease inside and a really tiny spring witch went flying and I couldn't find it till the next day I found it on the bottom of my shoe. Well, it's back together and works again.