Extra wires to fridge?

[danjoe91]

I just bought a new Dometic 2820 fridge for my "85 Excella, and am a little confused. I have 4 wires that went to the old fridge, ( large orange, large white, small black and small red)- yet only two ports (positive and negative) on the new fridge. What do I do with the other two? Also, how have other people taken care of the new freezer drain line? It must go outside.

[Aage]

Does it have any fancy features, like an icemaker?

What does the manual say?

[idroba]

I believe that your original refrigerator probably had the 12 volt option for cooling, and that was controlled by the extra small wires so that when you started your TV, it went into 12 volt mode, and when the TV was shut down, the refrigerator went back onto propane, after a 20 minute delay. It was called "automatic energy selection" by Dometic, and never worked very well. I had it on my '83, 310 motorhome. On the trailer it required an extra set of wires in the umbilical cord to sense when the TV was running or not. Those would most likely be what the small black and small red wires were for.

So, I would just check that the large orange wire has +12 volts on it, and connect it to the + terminal on the new refrigerator, and the large white wire will be the - 12 volts. Tape off the other two and leave them to history.

[Aage]

Originally Posted by idroba

I believe that your original refrigerator probably had the 12 volt option for cooling, and that was controlled by the extra small wires so that when you started your TV, it went into 12 volt mode, and when the TV was shut down, the refrigerator went back onto propane, after a 20 minute delay. .

It works on LP/120V only. Perhaps the extra wires are for the interior lighting it has..?

Start here:

Products - Dometic

(or click here if that link wraps too much)

And if you bought it new, where is your manual...? Dometic manuals are quite good, IMHO.

[Edit] OK, the manual had a link to it in the page I referenced above.

https://www.dometic.com/f6e8a773-69f...801da7af.fodoc

I took a very quick look, but didn't see any reference to extra wires. Give it read, or as I mentioned above, reference the docs you got with the refer and let us know?

Enjoy your new refer!

[danjoe91]

The new Dometic manual did not mention a thing about what to do about any kind of replacement installation other than into brand new. I did cap off the other two. Thank you for your help!

[overlander64]

Greetings danjoe91!

Originally Posted by danjoe91

I just bought a new Dometic 2820 fridge for my "85 Excella, and am a little confused. I have 4 wires that went to the old fridge, ( large orange, large white, small black and small red)- yet only two ports (positive and negative) on the new fridge. What do I do with the other two? Also, how have other people taken care of the new freezer drain line? It must go outside.

Your 1985 Excella is from a four year period (1985, 1986, 1987, 1988) when Airstream utilized a 9-pole connector plug that supported in addition to the usual functions a tire-tele-tector (tire pressure monitor system) and a refrigerator switch system (see attached diagram). I remember this topic being discussed in another thread, and I believe that the reason for this switching mechanism was to insure that the gas flame on the refrigerator was extinguished whenever the ignition of the tow vehicle was turned off . . . a safety measure when refilling the fuel tank on a gas powered tow vehicle. I don't remember from that discussion whether the Dometic refrigerator in those years was a 3-way or a 2-way with a special switching device. My suspicion is that there is a section in the owners' manuals for the years included explaining the operation of this feature.

Good luck with your investigation!

Kevin

[danjoe91]

I have hooked up the orange and white low voltage feeds, and plugged it in. Also capped off the smaller gauge wires. I am just finishing a remodel on the inside, so I have the propane turned off 'till the new oven arrives, but the new fridge's panel lights up, and the interior light comes on fine. There is no ice maker in this model, so I don't have that to consider. The new Dometic installation manual spends much more time on how to ventilate the unit then about electrical. It barely shows you where to put the two wires! Thank you for your thoughts! Once again, learning a lot!

[Aage]

Glad to hear you are working it out.

You may want to consider putting some "muffin" fans on the rear of your refer on the condenser, and perhaps even one inside. They have been shown to give significant improvements in the refers over all cooling capabilities.

Use the search to find some of the threads talking about them.