Ohms for Dometic 100 Elect. Element

[Eagle & Bear]

The 110 side of the fridge stopped working. I replaced the elect. heating element today but was curious about the status of the old heating element. I set up my multi tester and plugged in the Ohm and Com wires and then attached the probes to the heating element wires. I got a reading of 51 Ohms. Anyone know what the resistance should be for the electronic heating element?

[HowieE]

There are 10 pages of specs for the different models on Dometic fregs.

Post the model number of your frig and I will post the number.-

[Eagle & Bear]

Thank you HowieE. It is a Dometic 100.

[HowieE]

I do not find any Dometic units with the number 100. All Dometic frigs have 2 letters before the model number. The elements can range from 75 ohms to 300 ohms depending on the size so without more info it would be a guess.

[1973Argosy]

If Howie's numbers are correct looks like yours fails. I've changed my element twice in my 16 years of ownership and both times it was the wire inside the insulators that caused the no cool on ac condition.

[Eagle & Bear]

My fridge is the original. That makes it over 40 years old. I was told that the RM 100 fridge will work indefinitely because the tubing in the RM100 is stainless and the others are made with plated steel. Apparently the plating breaks down and peels off over the years and plugs up the tubing.

The new element is working just fine so I am a happy boy. This is the second time I have changed the heating element in my Dometic RM100. Removing the element is not so hard but getting the new one to slide into position was a real pain both times.

The fridge is working but I want to find out if my diagnosis was correct. If the old element was good I would want to know what other problems were at play.

[sgschwend]

If you have a clamp on amp meter you could measure the current with the old then switch to the new and repeat the measurement.

Measuring the resistance of the element will give you some idea of what you have but the element produces the heat from being connected to 125VAC, it will likely not have the same resistance under load. If is did act like a 51 ohm load then your heater would generate 300 watts of heat.

A quick search shows that a Dometic DM2652 is 325 watts of heat, heater value 40-45 ohms.