Hello! Dometic freezer works, not fridge

[zenarmy]

sooooo
our Freezer works.... HARD.. building up ice-cicles! fridge WAS working fine, now is at about 59 degrees.. hardly enough to cool all the food we have in there.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Please help!

[redhawkerII]

You may have too much in the lower part. The freezer is where all the cold is generated/action --and some of the cold is transferred down below. Keep it closed tight and give it a chance!

[Maryw164]

Ours was like that too. Turned out to be the door gaskets not sealing like they should. A quick fix was to add thin self sticking foam gasket to the front inside (not the door) all the way around to make up for the old gasket on the door not sealing. Now it works great! Almost too great, as it got the fridge down to 32 degrees. So I had to adjust the setting way down to compensate. Give it a try, its an inexpensive fix until you get new ones. Many of the old fridges have gaskets still available. Call this place below, they are not cheap, probably $150 for both top & bottom door, at least on mine.

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Mary

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by zenarmy

sooooo
our Freezer works.... HARD.. building up ice-cicles! fridge WAS working fine, now is at about 59 degrees.. hardly enough to cool all the food we have in there.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Please help!

The original reefer in your 27, was a 2 door model.

Each section of the reefer has it's own cooling coil.

Several things could have happened to yours.

1. If you ran it more than 1/2 bubble "OFF LEVEL" then you have vapor locked the cooling coils.

The fix for that, is to let the reefer cooling coils in the back of the reefer, that get very hot, cool off for a day or two.

Then tow the trailer, for a few miles, going around many corners. That should bring the unit back to life.

You should also take the spiral diverter out that's in the reefer chimney, which is above the burner. Clean it well, and clean the chimney too.

Remove the burner and orifice, clean those and remove all the rust. You can clean the orifice by soaking it along with the burner, in Lime Away for 24 to 48hours.

You can clean the chimney by using a wad of steel wool attached to the end of a coat hanger. Run that up and down thru the chimney, several times. You will find that lots of rust will fall down from that cleaning.

Make sure you remove all the traces of rust wherever you see it in the burner base.

Lastly, check the LPG pressure. It should be between 11 and 13 inches, of water column pressure, preferably closer to the 13 inches. You can check the pressure at the stove, with a gauge that you can make from a small diameter plastic hose. The "how to" has been previously posted.

Reassemble everything, including the steel spiral.

Place a bubble in the bottom of the freezer compartment and make sure the reefer is not more that 1/2 bubble off of level. Installing a permanent bubble level on the "A" frame, calibrated to the freezer compartment, is what most owners do.

RV reefers must be within that level range, or else you will be back to square one. Also be aware that the hotter the ambient temperature outside, the more critical that level becomes.

When the reefer is in motion, being off level does not hurt it.

Should you stop for grocerys, sight seeing or whatever for more than about one hour, the reefer freezer plate must again be level within tolerance. If the stay will be longer than that, and you cannot find a level parking place, then simply turn the thermostat down to zero, which stops the burner from coming back on.

When your through with your stop, turn the thermostat back up to whatever setting you need.

Don't feel singled out, as every owner must also do some of the above, sooner or later, or else.

Should the reefer still not cool, then the bullet has struck home, and you will need to have the cooling unit replaced, or the reefer.

Any questions?

Happy Airstreaming.

Andy

[n2916s]

I hate to bear bad tidings but this was the exact symptom before we replaced the cooling unit on our Dometic RM2800.

On a positive note, if you buy a rebuilt cooling unit, it is something you can do yourself (trust me, if I can, you can...)

mike