Horn is in the shop :(

Well, I had to put the 3580 in the shop last night. fridge problems I just hope CW can get it fixed before next week.
I am not all that impressed with Dometic's customer service. I think they need to update their computer bank with up to date info on companies that do the warranty work for them.
They gave me 3 phone numbers to call, 1st # I called the guy stopped doing Dometic warranty work a couple of years ago.
2nd #. The guy does mobile home repair, and does a bit of Dometic warranty work, but wants to charge an arm and a leg to come to the house ( he is a mobile service ) then wants to charge for diagnosing the problem.
3 rd #. I called the guy answered phone, I told him the problem, his answer, " well, sir we do not do repairs on Dometic refridgerators, we are a warehouse for Dometic toilets, always have been, never had anything to do with fridges. " Big difference between a fridge and the loo in my book.
I had allready called the number I got from Dometics automated answering machine for the local authorized Dometic warranty shop, but they cannot get it in for at least a month.
After goofing around with this all day yesterday, the light bulb in my noggin goes off. Camping World, heck they are only 20 miles away. I call, they tell me bring it we will look at it in the morning. I get there. Well sir it will be $109 an hour charge for diagnosing the problem.
So my question is. WHAT the heck does the warranty cover?
Obviously not finding out what the problem is.
I told Dometic. " If my fridge at home goes out and it's under warranty I don't have to pay for a service call, why should I have to on this fridge".
OK thats enough of my griping. just hope it's fixed in time so I can get everything ready so we can roll on up to Goshen.

I was really upset, bad fridge ruined my black pudding ( blood pudding ), had to throw it away

Cheers Ken

Ken, what was the problem eith the fridge? Not cooling? What fridge do you have? We have the NDR1062 and had to have the cooling unit replaced last Winter. Parts were under warranty but the labor was mine because I'm in the 3rd year of my warranty. Good luck with everything and keep us posted.

Ken;

It's apparent that you fixed the aliens. Maybe the same approach with the service guy (now that's an oxymoron) would help at CW. Good luck and we'll hope for the best. See you in Goshen.

John

Ray. The problem was that the fridge will not cool during the day, it cools through the night, but day time the temp starts rising, it was at 36 yesterday morning, by the afternoon it was up to 59.
It is a RM 3962 model.
John maybe we should get aliens at CW to work on them.
Nahhh I'm not going to knock them, till I see how good a job they do. LOL
look for ya in Goshen, hopefully. Cheers Ken

We took our Dometic RM 1350 that is 5 weeks old to CW last Friday. When checking in they told us that we would have to pay if they found something like mice causing the problem. (Mice was not the problem - it was a combination of a bad door and fans.) Ours was not cooling and had temp swings from 45 to 52. After the work was done they said Dometic would not pay for diagnostics - I had already talked to Dometic ad they said if I used a moblie service they would not pay for the service call, but otherwise it was covered. I told CW that we would pay any of the bill and finally another CW man came over and they backed down. I read our warranty and labor and parts are covered for the original owner for two years and the third year parts only. CW does not get $109/hour from Dometic and if they can get you to pay they make more money!

Dometic told me on the phone yesterday that all that the company whomever it is working on the unit has to call the warranty dept, and they will give the OK for whomever it is to get paid for diagnostics.
CW service writer told me last night that he had to write it up as a repair, before he could warranty.
All I want is the bloody thing fixed, heck the unit isn't but 3 months old.

Ken,
Keep us posted on what the fix is, I know you and I have the same model # (3580) and I think build time was only a few weeks apart. I'm looking at my fridg as we speak and its at 36 degrees and stays close to that all the time. It might vary a few degrees higher depending on the temp outside and how often we open and close the fridg door. Thanks, Bobby A

Bobby . It's a bit like Murphy's law. CW can not find the problem, as of now. They called me, told me it was cooling just fine, can't find a problem they say. I guess it must have been these bloody Aliens , or a figment of my imagination that the temp was rising in the heat of the day. Yea right, I may be daft, but not that bloody daft.

Ken,

I have a 2009 BH 3580 which I purchased from CW about a month ago and have not had any problems with the fridge..... We love this rig and are looking forward to meeting folks at the Goshen Rally - Site 416.

Take care,

Chuck

Chuck. We love ours to, but it's bloody amazing why the fridge won't work properly for us, but does for CW. Today wasn't as hot plus it was overcast so that probably helped the fridge to cool quicker, tomorrow is only going to be 70, so you know it will cool real well tomorrow for the CW tech.
DW, says they can keep the BH and shut the fridge off, and wait for a 90 degree day, then see if it'll cool for them. It was amazing, my neighbour and I both turned our fridges on Saturday around the same time, we both drove 100 miles to OK, by the time we got to the CG his was at 36, mine was still showing 60 degrees, it wasn't untill Sunday am it cooled to 36, then started going up again in the heat of the day. It hasn't been turned off since Saturday and when I took it to CW yesterday it was at 49 and I had it set on 5 the coolest setting. So we just wish they can find a problem, so it can be fixed before next week. CW tech put a jug of water in it this afternoon and is going to check the temp of the water in the am.
Service writer told me this evening, that the tech cleaned out the back of the fridge. Heck I have had the vent covers off, and I have no idea what he could have cleaned out, because it was spotless in there. OH well the saga continues.
Sorry for rambling on, but when you pay that much for something you expect it to work properly, for more than 3 months.
Anyhoo look foreward to meeting you to, we will be in site 409, just look for the St Andrews cross flag. ( Scottish Saltire )

Cheers Ken

PS, Another thing PO'd me today the 4 , 4" tail lights I ordered about 3 weeks ago are still not in, they have 59 LED's in each light. They are meant to be at the shop where I bought them on Saturday, Don't do much good though, the Shop is just West of Kingman AZ, and I am in MO, and I don't think I will be out there this weekend to get them. So if anyone is passing through Kingman AZ, Saturday afternoon, Can you please stop in and get my lights.

Sounds like you have a slow refrigerant leak....don't let them recharge it without finding the source of the leak. Monitor the temps, if the problem gets worse in time then its likely a leak. Check the system pressure while its running....low side port 25psi, high side port 200psi is normal.

Ken,
Our 3670 fridge has shown the same symptoms.

I think a lot of this is due to the side wall vents, as the fridge is in the slide. I've minimized the effect by adding another fan (Horizontally) (~$20) behind the upper vent and tying into the 12vdc thermostat that controls the factory (Vertical) fans. This seems to move some of the heat out of the chase. This made a significant improvement

I also insulated between the top of the fridge and the roof of the slide. I cut a water heater insulation blanket to fit (~$10). There was an extreme amount of heat "stacking" up there (easily 130 degrees in the heat of the day) which is adjacent to the freezer compartment and about 8 inches higher than the top of the vent.

The other thing I did was added a small 12vdc fan (~$12) in the fridge compartment to circulate the air in the fridge.

The beverages are cold again, and the ice cubes freeze faster.

Thanks West and Rick, for the tips.
I talked to CW today, they couldn't find a problem, well it's only 60 degrees here today, been in the high 80's to low 90's plus humidity was high. It is meant to get up into the 80's and almost 90 again starting friday. I told CW to turn fridge off, then let inside trailer get warm, then turn it on Friday afternoon, and see what it is at by Saturday afternoon. I have giving them till Monday afternoon, to find the problem, then I have to bring it home, so we can pack and get ready for Goshen, just hope I have a cool fridge by then.
I will call HL customer service in the am, to see if they can be of help, because Dometic and CW are certainly not the most helpfull people around in my book.

I hope you get it fixed before but if not when you are in Goshen call Holmes On Wheels @ 888-465-6376. Dave is an authorized Dometic service tech and knows his stuff. I have had a couple of minor problems that he had fixed in a matter of minutes and I was on my way. In the past he has been part of the whole Rally event I do not know if he is part of it this year or not. Hopefully you will get it fixed before your trip but if not give him a call.

Good luck!

Dewey

thanks Dewey

Well, I just called CW to see how things were coming along with finding the problem with the fridge.
I get a hold of the service dept. they pass me through to warranty guy, I get cut of.
I call back, finally after no telling how long I get warranty guys voice mail. I waited over an hour for a call back, no responce, so I call back, finally after getting passed to 3 other people I get the guy who deals with warranty. I told him that Dometic had called there and talked to someone. He knows nothing about it. He takes my number, so he can get back to me.
A short time later the guy who I talked to the first time calls me back, telling me we will get it in the shop tomorrow, and see what the problem is. I thought it had been in the shop already.
I told them I need the trailer back by Monday am, as I need to get it loaded up to head to Goshen. So who knows what will happen now. I may show up to Goshen with a pickup bed full of coolers to keep my food cool.
One unhappy person with the service department at Camping World.

I may have to get the big guns in on this deal. AKA The Wife. LOL

Hey Ken, Remember the ordeal Creeper went through while his rig was at CW? Kind of makes you wonder. Someone earlier had mentioned Holmes on Wheels. A mobile repair guy in the Goshen area. He's an authorized Dometic dude. You may want to consider that. If you can, call Dometic on Monday and see if you can have Holmes look at it while your here and then tell CW Thanks for nothing. No diagnosis, no money! See ya at Goshen.

It sure does make you wonder Ray about CW, makes you wonder what kind of people that they hire. DW are going up there this afternoon, we will see whats going on then, if nothing I will drag the Horn home I probably would have been better of getting someone from that warehouse that distributed Dometic loo's, at least they weren'r full of ***t, like CW is.

Well, got the Horn home, CW couldn't find anything wrong with it after having it 5 days. I get it to the house level the trailer, plug in shore power, and guess what ? You got it, the temp started to rise, it's up to 45 degrees at 10 pm. So much for them cleaning out the back of it, I found a wasp nest up on the fins at top of fridge, I had never taking that vent cover off till tonight.
On the fan that is at the back of the fridge, does anyone know how HOT it has to get back there before the fan kicks on ? It feels rather hot back there but fan is not kicking on.
Thats another thing about CW, so called tech who has been working on the unit, didn't know if it had a fan on it, he and his manager went out and looked to see if it had one when I was there.
They were going to charge me $115 for doing nothing, I told manager that is BS, it was brought in for warranty work, and should not have been written up as a repair order. So he proceded to politly tell his service writer that he done it all wrong.
Anyhoo I think CW will be the last bloody place I go for repairs from now on.
If it isn't working properly by the time we get to Goshen I may have to call that mobile service that Dewey mentioned in his reply.
Oh well life is a ***** you know what
Cheers Ken

Maybe you found the problem with the faulty condenser fan.....hope so.