This week a Certified Master RV Tech (who will remain unnamed) and I decided to bust the myth about burping ammonia evaporation RV refrigerators to "fix" malfunctioning units.
I had a new one on order, so what the heck?
Under ther supervision of "Ken J", the CMRVT and I removed the malfunctioning Dometic 2620 and did the following:
Put it on its side for 3 minutes
Put it on its top for 3 minutes
Put it on its other side for 3 minutes
Put it on its top for 3 minutes
Put it on side one for 3 minutes
Put it upright
tilted it forward at a 45 degree angle for 3 minutes
Tilted it backward at a 45 degree angle for 3 minutes
The chart tells the story.
What should I do, reinstall the old unit and sell the new one, or install the new one and sell the old one?
We turned ours upside down for 24 hours and it started right up and got cold almost immediately. If I understand your chart correctly, it's not very consistent with it's temps. Maybe I should check our temps before hubby reinstalls it.
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Beth
67 Sovereign, double bed, rear bath-"Moby"
2005 Dodge Ram 2500 Hemi, Quad Cab-"Ahab"
"Living in the belly of the whale is cool"
It is a method that can be used to attempt to revive an old fridge that has stopped cooling properly. From my understanding...the ammonia fridges will get an air bubble in the system from sitting and not being used. By turning the fridge up side down you get the bubble to break up or move and the fridge will start working again. It doesn't always work but does work often enough to make it worth a try.
Aaron
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....so many Airstreams....so little time...
WBCCI #2449 AIR #2495
Why are we in this basket...and where are we going
The Dometic 2620 has push button controls that allow you to select cooling levels 1-5. On 6-6-07, I began recording Level, Ambient Temperature (Inside Airstream Haven), the temperature inside the Fridge, and the temperature insdie the Freezer. On 06-17-07, I installed a fan in the compartment behind the fridge. On 06-23-07, we removed the fridge and burped it.
WHereas before burping the unit could not handle ambient temperatures above 80 F, it now handles temperatures above 90 F quite well.
Good info to have. Thank you for posting this and taking the time to track it all. In the past I've used the burping technique (but a full 24 hours) to revive what would have been considered a dead refer. So far the results have always been a better functioning refer, and money saved. We've done this more than once to the same refer and it has continued to improve. The fan in back to move air through was also a great addition.
This 'technique' seems to work....but only for an air pocket that forms from a fridge that has been sitting unused for an extended period.
If you have a blockage (even a slight one) that is caused by solidification or crystalization of the sodium chromate that is a component of the refrigerant, then all you are doing is postponing the inevitable, as crystalline blockages will not dissipate and will get worse and render the unit useless eventually.
Part of this process involves three six packs - we were lucky because we didn't have the three six packs and it still worked - I would suggest you don't try this at home as it takes a highly trained professional to supervise this operation - part of it wrist action and partly getting the speed and angles of the turn correct.
This 'technique' seems to work....but only for an air pocket that forms from a fridge that has been sitting unused for an extended period.
If you have a blockage (even a slight one) that is caused by solidification or crystalization of the sodium chromate that is a component of the refrigerant, then all you are doing is postponing the inevitable, as crystalline blockages will not dissipate and will get worse and render the unit useless eventually.
100 percent "on."
And when will that "burped" reefer quit?
When your on that trip, of course.
Now you have two problems.
1. The reefer quit.
2. Mama is not happy, and we all know that when Mama is unhappy, "no bodies happy."
In my 41 years with the Airstream product, I have never heard of any "burped" reefer lasting more than a couple of months.
In my 41 years with the Airstream product, I have never heard of any "burped" reefer lasting more than a couple of months.
Andy
"Ken J" claims that a burpee on another Airstream on which he was the burper, or at least a beer slugging observer participant, is still evaporating, condensing, and cooling these four years later.
I do not intend to take the risk. I will install the new one, and keep the old plugged into 110 volts AC and 12 volts DC, collecting data all the while.
Part of this process involves three six packs - we were lucky because we didn't have the three six packs and it still worked - I would suggest you don't try this at home as it takes a highly trained professional to supervise this operation - part of it wrist action and partly getting the speed and angles of the turn correct.
We sure had some fun with this
Ken J.
If you had the six packs you might have tried to burp it without removal from the trailer.
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