Dometic RM2310 - nothing, zip, zilch, nada

[funkill]

I bought this little 2-way refer a few months ago from a sailor. He'd only used it as a spare beverage fridge, unmounted, and via 110V. It was working swell when I bought it. Brought it home, placed in on my covered porch with a heavy rubber cover and let it sit. Sat outside through the winter - expecting to put in into the Silver Olive this spring.

I brough it inside today and plugged it in... nothing. (I'm not really prepared to hook it to LP - as the lnes in my AS were removed prior to my ownership.)

Sigh. A bad work day enhanced by this.... any suggestions?

Laura

[Silver Hawk]

Not sure, but: in the old days in Mexico, we used propane gas refrigerators for vacation houses - when left for awhile we would tip them upside down to let the refrigerant gurgle down through the system - seems there is a one way valve in the system and it would get stuck sitting to long (refrigerant has lubricant in it). Worked every time.

[DKB_SATX]

When you say "nothing" do you mean that the heating element didn't heat up? Or that the heat from the heating element didn't drive the absorption chiller to start cooling the fridge?

If plugging it in didn't heat up the element, you may have a switch, thermostat or heating element issue that's easily fixed. If the element's hot but the fridge doesn't cool at all, there's a deeper problem.

[funkill]

After about an hour, the vent stack (exhaust?) is warming. The freezer in noticably cold but cannot discern any temp change in the refer part. I don't hear any gurgling...

Laura


Ahhh, found this on rvrefridgerator.net: (maybe I just need to find my patience)
After you have provided the cooling unit with its three requirements, allow plenty of time for the cooling unit to function. You should see signs of cooling in the freezer after about two hours. Allow six to eight hours, or even over night, for an empty refrigerator to come down to temperature. The ammonia absorption style of refrigeration is slower than the compressor style in terms of initially bringing the refrigerator down to temperature. However, once the desired temperature is reached, there should be no problem in maintaining that temperature.

[DKB_SATX]

One trick is to fill the freezer compartment with frozen stuff (soda or water bottles with frozen water inside, "cold packs", etc) then the freezer section won't be warming up the ammonia as much and more of the cooling will take place in the refrigerator section. That's my SOP when I start the fridge.

[funkill]

Originally Posted by DKB_SATX

One trick is to fill the freezer compartment with frozen stuff (soda or water bottles with frozen water inside, "cold packs", etc) then the freezer section won't be warming up the ammonia as much and more of the cooling will take place in the refrigerator section. That's my SOP when I start the fridge.

That's a great tip! Off to give it a try.

Thanks,
Laura

[idroba]

An hour is not long enough to tell if it is working. If it is not cooling in 4 hours you may have a problem. The ammonia cycle refrigerator does not cool down the same way a compressor refrigerator does. Also, on electric, they are generally totally silent, so you don't thing anything is happening.