need quick help on Dometic fridge

[Tin Diesel]

we have a electric/propane Dometic in our 1999 30' Excella. We're on location in the Vineyards Campground on Grapevine Lake in Dallas.
We're hooked up to electricity.

In the middle of the night last night, the fridge stopped. No interior light. No lights on the light panel. Obviously, no longer cooling.

ALL other 12V and 120V systems are working.
All circuit breakers seem OK.

The fridge was serviced for the Dometic recall several months ago, and has worked fine since.

The inline fuses on the fridge circuit panel (outside) are OK.
It looks like they installed a new thermal sensor on the vertical pipe, along with the sheet-metal shield.

Any ideas? Its clear that ONLY the fridge has gone offline. Where can I find the break in the circuit, or what has tripped it off.

Thanks.
(its 35 degrees outside, so maybe we'll just load everything into a cooler and put it outside!)

[Guido]

Have you checked the 12 volt line in and the 12 volt ground out to make sure you have power and ground?

[moosetags]

The panel lights and control unit are 12 volt so that the control panel can operate when the refer is running on LP. Ditto checking your 12 volt circuits and fuses.

Brian

[Tin Diesel]

Are these lines to the fridge specifically? Where are those located, and are these something that would fail overnight? Thanks, Fr. Guido.

[Tin Diesel]

Moosetags, I checked all the fuses I know of, including the fuses on the refer panel outside. Panel lights on fridge are out, so clearly neither 12 volt nor 120 are working.

[Tin Diesel]

Any known problems associated with the Dometic recall work?

[moosetags]

My first suspect would be the automotive type fuse on the converter panel. There is probably a specific fuse that goes to the 12 refer circuit. I just took a look in my outside refer box and did not see any outside 12 volt fuse.

Brian

[moosetags]

I had my recall work done last summer and have not had any problems.

Brian

[moosetags]

I don't know how similar your set-up is to mine. I have a 20 amp automotive fuse in the converter box that goes to my 12 volt refer circuit along with the the water pump and range vent/light. Remember that the refer control circuit is 12 volt and is required for the refer to operate on 120 AC or LP.

Also, don't depend on the automotive fuse looking intact. They can sometimes be deceiving. Replace the fuse anyway or bridge the connection with a wire.

Brian

[Tin Diesel]

Thanks Moosetags. I'm not at the trailer right now (we're up visiting family). I've never looked into the fuse panel by the converter - I guess its under the front gaucho? I did look at the 12v breaker panel under the front window. All those seem OK, and in any event each one feeds multiple 12v circuits - and everything else is working.
I'll check out the converter panel tonight.

[moosetags]

When you do find the culprit, please let us all know. It's a big help to everyone.

Brian

[Tin Diesel]

OK, so I checked around the converter for fuses. Found a single 1amp fuse, but it was OK.

Went outside and decided to replace the two fuses on the circuit board. But wisely decided to unplug from the 30amp connection first.

After unplugging, just as I get back to the outside fridge panel, I hear it light up on propane!!! Go inside, sure enough the panel is lit up and everything works.

Go back and plug it into the 30 amp line, and it converts over just fine to AC power.

What happened?
Is there a thermal sensor that might have tripped and wouldn't reset until the shore power was detached?

Still don't know what happened, although it now works.
(Maybe Andy will read this and have an answer!)

[moosetags]

To answer your question, I don't know. I will, however, keep your "fix" in mind for future mystery refrigerator problems.

Brian

[azflycaster]

Sounds like you should have called the help desk where I work. Reboot!
The controller card may have taken a power glitch and needed to be reset. That's just a guess...

[Aerowood]

One of the 3 R'S Reset, Reboot, Relax

[Guido]

As far as I know, Microsoft does not manufacture the circuit boards for Dometic fridges, so a reboot should not be required.
The ground should go to the inner skin of the trailer, near where the wires go back between inner and outer skins.

[Tin Diesel]

Well, this story just got better.
Last week we were back in the Vineyards campground.

This is a fabulous campsite, but my Dometic fridge doesn't like it - the fridge failed again in the middle of the night. This time the old unplug/replug didn't work. Same problem, absolutely no electricity - no lights on the front, or anything. It wasn't a mechanical problem, but an electrical one.

After an hour or so of checking fuses, I was about to give up.
That's when you start thinking logically. I figured it had to be something with the recent recall work.

I think they installed a second thermal fuse - there seems to be two in the stack, and one is very old. The other had new red wires.

I started trying to figure out if the new thermal fuse had gone bad. While tracing the wire with my finger, I hear the fridge 'click' on. Let go of wire, it 'clicks' off. Click, click, click, every time I touched it.

Traced the wire to a junction where the 12V (I assume 12V, but it was the power supply) comes it, with the thermal fuse as an interruptor. The thermal fuse wire hadn't been screwed down tight - just stuck into the hole. It couldn't be seen because that opening was in the back, out of sight.

Lots and lots of work on my part, just because the bozo who did the recall (at PPL Motorhomes) didn't tighten the screw!

Good thing I'm a decent backyard mechanic, or it would have cost me a bundle to get it fixed on the road!