Expensive and UnNecessary refrig failure

[GM Airstream]

I recently was getting ready to hit the road... so we fired up the refrig... then went to go get food supplies. Noticed that it was not cold enough.. over night so we turned up the setting to make it so...

Normally the Dometic refrig would go on shore power and start cooling after several hours.

But this time it didn't.. it appears that it started to cool down.. then failed... and the red light was flashing. the refrig was still warm.

What happened was that the 120 volt heater probe failed and so the refrig tried to go on gas.. flashing the red light showing it had failed.

Ok so one would think... no problem ... like a light bulb the heater probe just went out after a few years of use. (we have the big refrig so its a high wattage heater probe)

Nada... after rushing to the RV parts store... and getting a heater probe... installing it... IT still would not work.

Called Airstream .. who said to call Dometic the next day... after a hour we got a tech on the phone.. who said.. 'Well... yep ya probably burnt up the heater probe.. and the refrig was trying to light on gas... (reason for the red light flashing) .

We told him that we put a new one in and it still didn't work... ' Oh he said did you pull the control board and replace it too... ' WHAT!!! ya mean replace the control board.... 'yep he said... sometimes when the element burns up it shorts (which mine did 2.4 ohms on the meter) it takes out the control board by burning up the copper tracing on it. Its all in a service letter that they put out years ago.. he went on to say...

Yep pulled the board.. and sure enough the wiring tracing was burnt off the board.. leaving a black mark where it used to be.

I started looking around on it for fuses... thinking that it surly had blown that too.. nada.. no fuses on the board...

Which brings us to the question .. why... when a 25 cent fuse in line with the heater probe would have saved the circuit board from burning up...

Cheap design... but expensive to replace... as Dometic wants about 300 bux .. when all done... to replace it and the heater probe. This when a 25 cent fuse would have saved it.

When we asked the tech why they didn't design it that way. .he said... we wouldnt be here today if we had... meaning they live on selling their parts... to stay in business... which is understandable.. from a business point but as a consumer... kinda stinks...

So being a engineer... we decided that this shouldn't happen again... (although we bought a aftermarket board... due to new technology and IT HAS FUSES built in .... sweet... )

So the fix is to remove one lead from the 120 v heater probe... from the board.. and put a 3.5 amp fuse in line with it... its a easy fix.. if one uses a push in 1/4 automotive type of fuse... even insulated body too... then you only need to make a Female female... short piece to connect from the fuse back to the terminal on the board... NOW YOU HAVE PROTECTION FOR THE BOARD... and to think it only cost less than a bux...

This wil save the control board if the heater probe ever shorts again.. (which I found happens more often than they just burn open)

I recommend that you take the same action... else it get expensive to replace the shore power temp probe when it shorts out and takes the control board with it... Its easier to buy a new heater probe... and 25 cent fuse.. than 300 bux for the same thing without it..

Note: the new after market board has fuses on them.. both for the 12 and 120 volt line. The dometic tech said that they have added fuses to their revised boards now too... but the early boards do not have ANY fuses to protect them... go figure...

anyone else had this problem ?

[GCinSC2]

Don’t know about frequency but curious how old of a fridge was it and pics are always helpful.

[Al and Missy]

Thanks for the tip - another task goes on the punch list.


Did you consider replacing the PCB trace with a wire? It may have failed in time to protect the relay. I blew a trace on my slide controller when the power lead vibrated off of its lug and touched the adjacent lug. I replaced the trace with a wire, crimped all the spade lug clips and it works fine. A replacement board was over $300 so I took a shot and it worked out.



Al

[overlander63]

Almost every modern Dometic fridge I've worked on has a minimum of one, and usually two fuses on it. If it's the OEM fridge in your 35 year old trailer in your profile, I would say a lot has probably changed in that time.

[rmkrum]

Do NOT use a 12 volt blade fuse in a 120 volt circuit. Under a heavy short, it will explode the fuse link and could start a fire. Get a proper 120 volt fuseholder and fuse and put that in the circuit instead. Please do it right—a 12 volt fuse just increases the hazard!

120 volt fuses are designed to contain and extinguish a 120 volt arc event. That’s why they are bigger, longer, and made of glass or ceramic instead of plastic!

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by GM Airstream

I recently was getting ready to hit the road.....
. . .

Could you please identify the year and model of your AS, and whether this was the original fridge?

Thanks,

Peter

[GM Airstream]

Yes... the refrig in mine is the 1303.. and yep its a oldie but goodie...

I did think about putting hard wires in place of the traces.. but the board is burnt... and old as well.. I am sure the Caps and other things on it are about ready to go too.. if its the orginal at its age...
but, the bad thing is the control relay.. its sealed and no way to see how bad the points inside got overheated... so best thing is new board...

Yes the after market board has fuses on it... If you have one fuse on yours its for the 12 volts coming in to run the board... otherwise... until recent .. according to the tech.. they didn't have a fuse for the 120 volts AC... they assumed that the unit being installed would have a fuse for it in line... which AC only hooks it up to the 20 amp main to power the whole traler plugs... etc...

I was at the club meeting tonight and several of the members read the blog... came over and said that those heater probes should have been changed out several times by now... (the date on the probe says about the same as the manufacture date for the rig)

When I said changed.. you mean they burnt up... the resounding reply was NO... It seems that back a ways a manufacture came and gave a presentation on the heater probes for the refriges... they said that the ones you use.. should be changed out every 3-4 years of use...

Why... they seemed to relate it to the fact that the heaters start to go soft after that.. and the performance of the refrig starts to fall off... and not cooling the refrig box section as well... I was also told by one of the more astute owners that he remembers the guy presenting the show... taking a 3 year old temp probe and a new one.. and measuring the temp output... He said that when they lowered the lights in the room the old probe glowed dull red.. while the new one was quiet red... when they measured the difference he seemed to recall that it was about 100-150 degrees less for the old probe...

I have never heard of this.. and for sure no one has ever said that if the refrig cooling starts to fall off .. change the probe... and that they should be replaced (maintenance) every 3-4 years of use...

Am I the only one that didn't seem to get the message from the manufacture ? Has anyone else heard that saying ?

Maybe instead of the refrig going bad.. its just the temp probe not putting out what is needed to make it work ???

Interesting...

Oh and the reason that no pix.. is because of the limited amount of storage on the blog.. if you go over it... you have to buy more... and according to the master.. you can not delete the old pix.. ever... hmmmmm...

[PatLee]

Hopefully AS management is reading your post and will look at this defect and correct in future production. Dometic rep's response is almost criminal (sort of like Zip Dee's lousy instructions about operating their electric awnings). Customer focus is the single most important principle of any company who is serious about delivering a quality product.

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by PatLee

Hopefully AS management is reading your post and will look at this defect and correct in future production. Dometic rep's response is almost criminal (sort of like Zip Dee's lousy instructions about operating their electric awnings). Customer focus is the single most important principle of any company who is serious about delivering a quality product.

I alluded to it in my previous post, but I guess it got lost in the confusion.
The refrigerator in a brand new Airstream is completely different from the refrigerator in a 35 year old Airstream. Complaining about the design of a fridge that has been out of production for decades is counterproductive, at best.

[wlj1943]

Originally Posted by GM Airstream

I recently was getting ready to hit the road... so we fired up the refrig... then went to go get food supplies. Noticed that it was not cold enough.. over night so we turned up the setting to make it so...

Normally the Dometic refrig would go on shore power and start cooling after several hours.

But this time it didn't.. it appears that it started to cool down.. then failed... and the red light was flashing. the refrig was still warm.

What happened was that the 120 volt heater probe failed and so the refrig tried to go on gas.. flashing the red light showing it had failed.

Ok so one would think... no problem ... like a light bulb the heater probe just went out after a few years of use. (we have the big refrig so its a high wattage heater probe)

Nada... after rushing to the RV parts store... and getting a heater probe... installing it... IT still would not work.

Called Airstream .. who said to call Dometic the next day... after a hour we got a tech on the phone.. who said.. 'Well... yep ya probably burnt up the heater probe.. and the refrig was trying to light on gas... (reason for the red light flashing) .

We told him that we put a new one in and it still didn't work... ' Oh he said did you pull the control board and replace it too... ' WHAT!!! ya mean replace the control board.... 'yep he said... sometimes when the element burns up it shorts (which mine did 2.4 ohms on the meter) it takes out the control board by burning up the copper tracing on it. Its all in a service letter that they put out years ago.. he went on to say...

Yep pulled the board.. and sure enough the wiring tracing was burnt off the board.. leaving a black mark where it used to be.

I started looking around on it for fuses... thinking that it surly had blown that too.. nada.. no fuses on the board...

Which brings us to the question .. why... when a 25 cent fuse in line with the heater probe would have saved the circuit board from burning up...

Cheap design... but expensive to replace... as Dometic wants about 300 bux .. when all done... to replace it and the heater probe. This when a 25 cent fuse would have saved it.

When we asked the tech why they didn't design it that way. .he said... we wouldnt be here today if we had... meaning they live on selling their parts... to stay in business... which is understandable.. from a business point but as a consumer... kinda stinks...

So being a engineer... we decided that this shouldn't happen again... (although we bought a aftermarket board... due to new technology and IT HAS FUSES built in .... sweet... )

So the fix is to remove one lead from the 120 v heater probe... from the board.. and put a 3.5 amp fuse in line with it... its a easy fix.. if one uses a push in 1/4 automotive type of fuse... even insulated body too... then you only need to make a Female female... short piece to connect from the fuse back to the terminal on the board... NOW YOU HAVE PROTECTION FOR THE BOARD... and to think it only cost less than a bux...

This wil save the control board if the heater probe ever shorts again.. (which I found happens more often than they just burn open)

I recommend that you take the same action... else it get expensive to replace the shore power temp probe when it shorts out and takes the control board with it... Its easier to buy a new heater probe... and 25 cent fuse.. than 300 bux for the same thing without it..

Note: the new after market board has fuses on them.. both for the 12 and 120 volt line. The dometic tech said that they have added fuses to their revised boards now too... but the early boards do not have ANY fuses to protect them... go figure...

anyone else had this problem ?

Yep, some years back and recently on the Caravel. I used a 250 volt rated protective fuse used in my Biddle megohm meter ( 10 amp) and it has worked fine for years.

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by GM Airstream

Yes... the refrig in mine is the 1303.. and yep its a oldie but goodie...
. . .

So which year AS is this in? [ '73 -- '78 -- '85 according to your ID on the left ]

Your youngest AS is over 30 years old, and the oldest is about 45.

And you are complaining about the design/longevity of the original fridge components?



Maybe I have missed something?

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by PatLee

Hopefully AS management is reading your post and will look at this defect and correct in future production. Dometic rep's response is almost criminal (sort of like Zip Dee's lousy instructions about operating their electric awnings). Customer focus is the single most important principle of any company who is serious about delivering a quality product.

Do you realize how old this Airstream fridge is?