fridge and freezer not cooling

[roads64]

got a newbie here. just upgraded my old bumper pull trailer to a 2010 bighorn 3670rl and loving it! i travel for work so i figured i better be comfy while im doing it haha. but got a question about my fridge. ive never ran into this problem with my old trailer but my freezer and fridge stopped cooling. no codes or anything and its got power all fuses are good. where im at now its single digits and into the negs over night. is it possible its to cold outside and its freezing the cooling liquid or freeon or whatever they use these days? and its preventing it from cooling? like i said my old trailer never had problems and i was living in -30 temps during the winter. any info would be awesome. also my fridge is in a slide out so its exposed outside. thanks a bunch

 

[jimtoo]

Hi roads64,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and Family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge when needed.

I don't think I have heard of the cold making the fridg not work. It is controlled by the thermostat inside the fridge. You need to make sure you have 12v to the unit, it must have 12v or it will not work. If you do, you might check outside under where the burner, heater is and see if you have a deposit of yellow liquid and powder. If you do then the cooling unit is probably out.

I'm sure some others will jump in also.

Enjoy the forum and let us know what you find.

Jim M

 

[danemayer]

Hi roads64,

What make and model refrigerator do you have?
Have you tried both electric and propane modes?
Is there anything blocking the air vents on the backside of the refrigerator?
Is the trailer level, especially front-to-rear?

 

[TXTiger]

Jim, I thought the fridge had to run on shore power, generator, or propane. Not sure if it runs on 12v. Can it run on the battery. Is the shore power and generator power bringing converted to 12v?

 

[jimtoo]

It is my understanding that the fridge must have 12v to the control board before it will operate in either setting, elec or propane. I think there is also a fuse on the control board,, but not sure.

These fridgs only operate on propane or 120v,, for the heating element,,,, but must have 12v also all the time.

Hopefully some of the other members will jump in that has more experience.

Jim M

 

[danemayer]

The frig circuit board needs 12V to operate and I would expect the board to be protected by at least one fuse, in addition to the fuse on the coach's fuse panel. I know the Dometic RM1350 has more than 1 fuse on it's backside.

 

[JohnDar]

Again, what is the model of the fridge? I have the DM2862 into '09 3670. Are the lights on for the display panel? Do you have the selector set to gas or auto? I leave mine on auto and if the power goes, it automatically will switch to propane. The default mode is 120v, and it will run on that if it senses it, unless you select gas via the control panel. There are two fuses on the control board, a 5A & a 3A glass type. They are under the black plastic cover behind the lower outside vent panel. Some other models also have a 30A inline fuse that goes to the display board. Do you have the manual for the fridge?

 

[roads64]

its a dometic rm 1350. everthing is level. thats how i usually level my trailer is off of my fridge. been in the same spot for about 4 months now. all fuses are good, it wont cool on electric or propane. there is no sort of residue back there or anything. its still got power and its not showing any codes.

 

[danemayer]

Roads64,

I'm attaching a copy of the diagnostic tests from the 1350 manual. This may help identify the problem area. If you don't have your manual, here's a link to the copy posted in the manuals section of this site.

If all tests run with normal results, you may have an overtemp lockout. This might happen (even in winter conditions) if the airflow on the backside is blocked. I don't think there's a user reset; the dealer tech will probably have to call Dometic to get walked through the reset.

If the airflow wasn't blocked, you may have a failure of the control board on the back of the frig, or a blown fuse on the control board, or something interrupting 12V to the board.

If you've already checked the fuses on the control board, and you've got 12V at the control board terminal block, you may have to get a qualified tech to investigate further.

Note that the manual warns against continuing to try running the frig when it's not cooling as doing so may cause permanent damage to the cooling unit.

 

[brianharrison]

Single digits F or negative? I would think if it is too cold the fridge may not work - heat is needed in the perk tube to liberate the ammonia gas and recondense and reevaporate in the cooling units to remove heat inside the fridge

Here is a good link to a RV Absorption fridge reference page (with diagram).

I have seen people put pink fiberglass insulation in the outside vents when it is really cold to keep the "heat in" - certainly a fire hazard in my opinion -

Brian

EDIT --> Link to RV Doctor Cold Operation of Absorption Fridge

 

[danemayer]

What exactly is the temperature/error code LCD displaying?

 

[roads64]

thanks ill see what i can figure out. hopefully its something easy but i doubt it haha

 

[roads64]

the lcd display is saying 59. its not throwing any codes

 

[danemayer]

the lcd display is saying 59. its not throwing any codes

Here's the info on the fuses on the back of the 1350.

The refrigerator is equipped with the following 3 fuses:
• 5 A fuse for 12V DC.
• 5 A fuse for the AC heaters.
• 3 A in-line fuse for the fan and heat tape and for
RM1350IM, RM1350MIM, RM1350WIM & RM1350WID
for the ice maker, water and ice dispensers.

 

[roads64]

so something funny just happened. i went out there and was poking around and checking fuses and all was well. then i got to thinking, i recently shut the water off and unhooked the line to my ice maker cuz it froze and cracked where it hooks up, maybe there is some sort of safety shut off when the ice maker ist working so i unplugged my ice maker and went inside to see if i unplugged the right one and the lcd display was showing it running on auto and lp. so i tried to swith it back to auto but it wouldnt do it. but i went back outside and it was running off of lp. so maybe its working now?? maybe its working on auto and lp just to cool down faster?? im sitting and waiting to see what happens. does that sound like a possibility?

 

[danemayer]

Sounds like you unplugged the AC to the frig. When the Auto and LP lights are on, it's switched to LP mode. I'd let it continue to see if it cools. May take overnight for the temp to start coming down.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[roads64]

huh good to know. ill leave it like that overnight and see what happens. thanks for all the info. if that dont work then i got warranty ill call a service guy to come look at it.

 

[wrgrs50s]

It sounds like when you unplugged the 110, it went to the next available source which would be 12v and propane. One possibility is that the 110 heater rod is out so it didnt work while on 110, but the unit or (circuit board) switched to propane as it's designed to do when 110 is not available.
The heater rod is located on the flu, you'll see 2 wires going into the flu with a small cover with a couple of screws to get to it. If you plug the unit back in you may be able to put it back on auto and see if the area of heater rod is getting warm. If not, it could be the rod, or the circuit board. You can manually test the rod by pulling it out and disconnecting from the circuit board and wiring directly to a 110 source. This may sound crazy but my brother has an older motorhome and he did this test with rod and found that it was good, so in the mean time he wired it with wire nuts to an old piece of extension cord and bought a 110 timer and set it to come on for two hrs and cycle off for so many minutes until he got it to hold a constant temperature. Sounds crazy, but it's been like that for a year or two. He keeps saying he's gonna fix it right but for now it works when he goes camping so there's no rush. I tease him about rigging stuff but we just get a good laugh now and then. Someone else please chime in on this. I'm definately not an expert on the subject, but have succeeded here and there by just trial and error.

 

[jnbhobe]

Check for 110v at the recepticle and the ground fault

 

[wdk450]

Check for 110v at the recepticle and the ground fault

Your symptoms sound like no 110 volts AC is getting to the refrigerator. The logic board senses this (just like you are unhooked from AC power and driving down the road) and if the refrig is in the auto mode, the logic circuit board will run it on propane gas.

Just to expand on what Jon posted, the master GFI outlet is normally in the bathroom, and has an indicator LED on it. If the LED is lit, the power is on. If the LED is NOT lit, you need to push the rest button on the outlet. Also check all AC circuit breakers CAREFULLY to look for a tripped breaker. You might go ahead and turn off and turn on each one to see if one has tripped. Sometimes the off positioning on a tripped breaker is so hard to see, you can not visually discern it.

BTW, if the refrig is currently running on propane, is it cooling down???