Newbie question Dometic Fridge

[Gtx Eng]

I'm having a real hard time understanding how the refrigerator supposed to operate.

When plugged into shore power and with a topped off set of house batteries, it shouldn't the refrigerator be running on 120 volts electric with 12 volt control circuit? I keep my switch set to auto but it seems like the refrigerator has decided to run off LP and is drained the entire LP tank over several days. I can't force the refrigerator to operate on shore power.

The RV has been plugged in the entire time except for the occasional disconnect to be route a power cable.

I'd appreciate any advice.

Jay

[djb75]

OK, let's start with the obvious. Have you checked all of your circuit breakers and fuses? If you open the back of the refrigerator (on the outside), there may also be a fuse hiding in there.
Are all of your electric outlets working OK?

[Bcc75]

Same thing happened to me 2 days after I picked up my new trailer from the dealer. I don’t think it was ever working on AC and the dealer missed it on the PDI(among other things). Inside the panel on the back of the trailer there is access to the back of the fridge. There is a little control board there with a 5 amp glass fuse. Mine kept blowing that use on shore power when on auto mode. LP worked fine. Turns out to be a bad control board and possibly a bad heating element. Mine is currently in the shop waiting on parts which are on back order for possibly a month. Welcome to Airstreaming!

[Gtx Eng]

I did check all of the obvious things I could think of - there is shore power, all my receptacles have 120v, including the one the refrig is plugged into.

I've hard-cycled the fridge off with both the circuit breaker and by unplugging it.

I will pop the control board cover when it is daylight (and warmer) and check those control board fuses - this sounds exactly like the situation BCC75 described. I would have thought that a blown fuse on the control board would have resulted in some sort of error code display...

I've been watching this thing since day 1 and the LP indicator bulb has NEVER not been lit - I think it's just taken it a few weeks to drain the LP tank, we are having cold weather here, but my wife and I have been driveway camping to shake down the trailer and ourselves (we've never done this before).

I'll report back.

[Bcc75]

Yep. Same thing with ours. When it switches over to AC power the LP light goes out. The Auto light will only be lit if it’s running on AC. I’ll bet you it’s the fuse. But if the fuse is blowing then there is a reason.

[drbrick]

Just out of curiosity - have you tried closing the LP valves to see if the fridge will work on AC?

[Gvillerider]

BCC75: southland RV by any chance?

[Bcc75]

Yes. That’s where it’s currently at for repairs. They have been very helpful. I bought the unit at Airstream of Tampa.

[John & Roberta]

“Let the first owner find the loose screws,” they say, or find the loose screws yourself, the ones the first owner missed! Either way, there will be unpleasant surprises for Airstream newbies, as were Roberta and I one year ago.

Biggest surprise/upset, the Dometic refrigerator.

Gtx Eng’s problem—his refer refuses to go 120VAC, stays stuck in LPG. Our situation—refer refused to go LPG, stayed stuck in 120VAC. Solution: warranty replacement of circuit board (got the LPG going) and finally replacement of entire unit (got temperature at bottom down to 32 F). Original owner of our 2018 Flying Cloud apparently managed to “burn out” refrigerator “stack.”

At Bay Area Airstream, Fairfield CA, where we had our warranty work done, we were sold on upgrading batteries from existing lead-acid to state-of-the-art Li-Poly. Since leaving the dealership, we have been unable to activate our furnace, a VDC – LPG appliance. “It used to work,” we say with exasperation. John is still deep in study of the 19-page Dometic thermostat manual. You read that right—19 bloody pages.

[Gtx Eng]

Update - Opened the control board cover on the back of the fridge. Two fuses are present, both are 5 amp. One is a half-size glass fuse, the other is a mini-bayonet style fuse. The bayonet was good, the glass tube fuse was blown.

Replaced the fuse and turned the fridge back on - she's now only showing the Auto lamp lit and NOT the LP lamp (first time we think it's ever displayed correctly while on shore power). Now we watch and wait to build a bit of confidence in the operation before camping in a couple weeks.

Thanks forum! I would not have expected a blown control board fuse to have not lit up some sort of error display on the panel!

Jay

[rmkrum]

Wry grin. Bet you the blown fuse killed power to the control circuits that would have shown the error. That’s the way it usually goes...the self test circuits fail first...

[Bcc75]

Originally Posted by Gvillerider

BCC75: southland RV by any chance?

Originally Posted by Gtx Eng

Update - Opened the control board cover on the back of the fridge. Two fuses are present, both are 5 amp. One is a half-size glass fuse, the other is a mini-bayonet style fuse. The bayonet was good, the glass tube fuse was blown.

Replaced the fuse and turned the fridge back on - she's now only showing the Auto lamp lit and NOT the LP lamp (first time we think it's ever displayed correctly while on shore power). Now we watch and wait to build a bit of confidence in the operation before camping in a couple weeks.

Thanks forum! I would not have expected a blown control board fuse to have not lit up some sort of error display on the panel!

Not to be Debbie Downer but I replaced the same blown fuse and it worked on AC for about 2 hours. Then blew the fuse again. Then I replaced it and then it blew in 30 minutes. That’s when I knew some I was wrong. Bad heating element and control board.

[Gtx Eng]

Roger that BCC75.

It held overnight and we'll see how she does. At this point, I'm suspecting the fuse was blown before we took ownership at the dealer lot - we didn't know and no one else caught it. Let's hope it was a transport issue, bad fuse, etc.

I have about 2 weeks before our first trip, so I'm hoping to prove some reliable operation prior to having to trust it in the field. I can always revert back to LP operation for a week if I have to.

[aftermath]

GTX, glad you figured this out. Hopefully this is the solution. In your original post you said that the fridge "drained your LP tank...." Uh, I don't think that this would happen. The LP side of things basically operates a very small flame, think of a pilot light. This keeps the stack warm enough to keep things flowing. After reading through more of this post, I heard you say you were camping in the driveway.



If you were running your furnace, HW tank and stove then draining a tank after a few days is possible. If all you were running was the fridge, I would guess a tank would last a week or more. When boondocking, operating your fridge has very little propane or electrical draw.

[Gtx Eng]

Agreed on the low rate of gas consumption by the fridge. By camping, I should clarify that we've been really just sleeping and spending time with the RV, shaking her down a bit. My best guess at this point is that the fridge ran on one LP tank for about a month, and that same tank supplied the furnace for one night and HW for a single shower.

On a positive note, we really only turned that furnace on specifically to exercise it, the heat pumps have been able to keep the camper warm enough for us, despite outdoor temps below 40.

Using only a single 15A house receptacle, it's sometimes like the Apollo 13 scene where they keep shedding load until they get to something survivable...