Dometic RM1350 Operation

Barry Crocker

Senior Member
We have a 2011 Landmark. Yesterday, we had the doors open for several minutes loading groceries and just normal usage throughout the afternoon. When we opened the doors the temp was at 38 degrees. After we finished putting stuff in the temp was at 43 degrees. Later in the afternoon I noticed the temp had climbed to 48. During this time I had the temp setting at level 4 and running on electric. I then switched to level 5.

Overnight OAT: 57 degrees
Inside Coach Overnight Temp: 62 degrees
Starting Ref Temp at 4 PM: 48 degrees
At 5 AM Ref Temp: 40 degrees
Ran on propane overnight. Much slower on electric.
Put a thermometer on the top shelf in the back.

As I write this at 9:30 AM the temp is still at 40 with the thermometer inside reading 41.

BTW, all door seals have been replaced. Can't feel any leaks through the door seals.

Is this normal? We're starting to get concerned.

Sorry for being so long winded.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Barry, our 1350 is also very sensitive to losing it's cool while doors are open, and recovery takes hours.

I try to limit open doors to a few seconds at a time. I also have a battery-powered fan from Camping World to circulate the air inside. I also try to ensure that food is distributed in a way that avoids blocking vertical airflow. And I've read that it's important to not block the area in front of the cooling fins on the top shelf.

All that said, on '5' we can usually keep the temp in the mid to low 30s.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
You said your temp was 38* when you started loading. Did you check the position of the temperature probe on the left hand side in the refer? It should not be sandwiched between the wall and another item.
What is the temp in the freezer compartment?
Also listen for the fans running. There should be two small fans located in the back of the unit. You may be able to see them from the outside. Take off the lower vent panel on the outside and look up.
We keep our refer stuffed full and don't mind standing with the door open deciding what beverage I am in the mood for. Temp does go up but always comes back down to 34*. We keep it set on #4.
I installed a baffle near the upper vent on the outside. I think that helped our cooling efficiency. I may have posted pics on this forum. Do a search. If you come up empty and want to see them just let me know.
Keep us posted with your progress.

Peace
Dave
 

Barry Crocker

Senior Member
Thanks for all the good information. We'll do some rearranging of the stuff inside and I'll look at getting one of those fans. Might put in some of those baffles as well. Gotta love these forums to get the straight scoop.
 

sdagro

Well-known member
Dave... I AM SO JEALOUS OF YOU AND YOUR REFER THAT IS WORKING NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU GIVE IT THE OPPORTUNITY TO NOT WORK. I think you got a "LEMON"..because I think there are more out there like ours than yours. I am still considering an AC compressor type. Come April and May when the ambient temp gets into the upper 80's-90. I will make my decision. Steve and yes the caps means I am YELLING.


You said your temp was 38* when you started loading. Did you check the position of the temperature probe on the left hand side in the refer? It should not be sandwiched between the wall and another item.
What is the temp in the freezer compartment?
Also listen for the fans running. There should be two small fans located in the back of the unit. You may be able to see them from the outside. Take off the lower vent panel on the outside and look up.
We keep our refer stuffed full and don't mind standing with the door open deciding what beverage I am in the mood for. Temp does go up but always comes back down to 34*. We keep it set on #4.
I installed a baffle near the upper vent on the outside. I think that helped our cooling efficiency. I may have posted pics on this forum. Do a search. If you come up empty and want to see them just let me know.
Keep us posted with your progress.

Peace
Dave
 

boatto5er

Founding VA Chap Ldr (Ret)
Hey Dave, I think we both have "Lemons". Mine has been flawless. However, I can certainly sympathize with everyone having problems. The reefer in our last boat was problematic from the start (it was 120/12V only - no propane on a boat). Never worked well on 12V. After 3 years, I put an identical new one in and never had another problem. Same model, worked great for 10 years. The RV models are more complex with the propane (I still marvel at how we can make COLD out of HEAT - and I was a physics minor in college!) Hope you guys can get things sorted out. Based on what I've read here and other places, Dometic has some issues (as does Norcold). Keep us posted please.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Hey Dave, I think we both have "Lemons". Mine has been flawless. However, I can certainly sympathize with everyone having problems.QUOTE]

Gus, I am in agreement. I keep hoping that those with problems will find something simple that will solve the dilemma.

Peace
Dave
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Dave. Couldn't find pictures of the baffles. Can you send the link please. Thanks.
Here ya go. The pics aren't the best, but I hope they help. Basically what I did was try to divert the air over the very top fins. The way it was in the beginning, I think the air exited the chamber before hitting those fins. Now it has no choice.

Peace
Dave
 

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sdagro

Well-known member
Outside temps are on the rise.........and so is the refer temps. This past weekend when outside temps were near 80 degrees, my fridge was running 40-43 degrees and"IT AIN'T SUMMER YET". Here we go again. VERY FRUSTRATING!!!! One year anniversary in 2 weeks and still in refrigerator "LIMBO". KennyandDee's unit is crap....but their son's unit has been flawless. Same model, same fridge.
 

sdagro

Well-known member
Has anyone who has NEVER had a problem with their dometic fridge ever put a digital thermometer to compare the cute little digital read-out with a real thermometer? I have had 2 digital thermometers in my fridge for 10 months and they are never anywhere close to the built in read-out. And yes mine have been checked at both the boiling point as well as freezing point. JUST CURIOUS.
 

sdagro

Well-known member
is there a "LEMON LAW" in the RV industry. Been wondering that for some 6 months now. I really love my Bighorn and want to keep it as I have made a few simple mods to make it "MINE". But D****T BOY!!! I know this will probably get pulled, but enough is enough. I will be going to Gulf Shores next week for 5 days and probably have an ice chest as a fridge. Does this suck or what. Would love to have the retail price of my RM1350 to apply to a residential fridge and inverter/converter. PLEASE MAY THE RIGHT PERSON READ THIS!!!!
Steve A. Dagro
 
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MICKEY

Past Florida Chapter Leader
Steve;
I have a fix that came from both this forum and from dealer that I happen to be at when a bulletin came out. Give me your email and I'll forward it to you. I just sent someone else the info and don't want to type it all over again. It worked for me all last summer and I live in Florida.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Steve;
I have a fix that came from both this forum and from dealer that I happen to be at when a bulletin came out. Give me your email and I'll forward it to you. I just sent someone else the info and don't want to type it all over again. It worked for me all last summer and I live in Florida.
Mickey, maybe you could cut and paste the fix here on the forum so that all can benefit from it.

Peace
Dave
 

MICKEY

Past Florida Chapter Leader
Ok folks;
Here is my fix for 1350 refrigerator cooling problem. Some ideas I got from listening to forum and some from a bulletin from Dometic, I saw at a dealer
First I put on slide toppers. This helps keep direct sunlight off top of slide where refrigerator resides in a lot of coaches. Those with refrigerators on walls that do not slide USUALLY don’t have the problem because there is better ventilation to top of refrig. The taller ventilation acts like a chimney pulling air out top.
The problem in slides is lack of vent extended to top of coach. In slides the vent is in side wall and not completely at top of refrig. If you notice one vent on bottom, and one directly above near top of slide. Refrig sits directly behind with about 2-3 inches of room between outer skin and back of refrig . The stock cooling fans, at least on most, sit mid way between top and bottom vents. Cool air comes in bottom and hot exits top. The Thermistor (thermostat for fans) sits at top of refrig over on left side near more cooling fins. There is also some air space usually between top of refrig and top of coach where you can place slim blocks of foam insulation. This helps keep hot air from sitting in that space. The later factory installations have anything from a thin piece of wood or maybe even metal deflector that is intended to help get the hot air from back of frig being blown by fans over cooling fins; out the vent. Ok that was good in theory but in real world wasn’t efficient enough.
So the bulletin states to reduce the amount of space behind coils to no more than 1 inch by building a deflector from sheet metal and placing it on outside wall. This forces air to go over coils instead of around it. I couldn’t get to it easily and would probably have to pull refrig to do that. So I added additional fans to system. I wanted to attach directly to something firm inside unit, but didn’t want to drill into back of refrig. My solution was to add fans directly to the top vent cover by placing 120 mm fans to horizontal reinforcements. I used stainless steel bolts and nylock nuts.
The wiring was pretty simple. I bought some neat connectors from radio shack. They just bend over wire and leave spade connector to plug into. In my installation there are three wires to thermistor. One hot, one ground, one switched that controls factory fans. I carefully located a position in cabinet next to left side of refrig where I could install a toggle switch with toggle inside the cabinet, to allow me to control fans from inside living quarters. I then drilled ½ in hole, and mounted switch. I tapped into hot side of circuit (one of three red wires) went to switch. Came back from switch to hot lead to both fans. Then joined both grounds to ground wire. Reconnect battery leads and test. The switch worked perfectly. Remember these are wired to hot side of thermistor so they turn on with switch regardless of factory fan operation.
Since the factory fans work as published as heat builds, they come on. Usually when I see the factory fans struggling to keep up, I reach inside cabinet and switch on larger supplemental fans. Since these work well at getting hot out from behind and over refrig cabinet, and at same time help draw more cool air into lower vent, the refrig cools considerably better. My unit was running 45-48 on hot 95 -98 deg sunny day. With this mod it now runs 32-35 on same days. On a good day I will hear factory fans cut off while mod fans continue to run. This tells me my system works. Also these fans aren’t any louder than factory, if not quieter. I have also installed an interior refrig fan that runs off D cell batteries on lower shelf of interior. This also circulates air inside. I have a thermometer inside refrig and keep an eye on it to verify digital meter on top.
This worked well for me, good luck with yours.
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KENNY COCHRAN

MCNEESE STATE COWBOYS #1
I've been down the same road. I would suggest you move the fans you added to the top vent to the very top of the fridge and angle them so they blow the air straight at the plastic vent you have them mounted on, block off the bottom 2 vents on the top vent with sheet metal and I think you would get better air flow. where you have the fans, they are not blowing directly out the vent. I bought the lighted fans from radio shack and i have them set to run 24 hours a day. with the blue light on them, i can see them day or night when i walk by the rv. They have been on for 6 months and so far they are still running. Steve Dagro who has 3 brand new dometic units installed in his rv is finally getting some results by doing this same modification. Idea did not come from dometic but from this and other forums. His dealer finally decided to do something as dometic was just throwing money on the problem and 3 new units did not fix anything. He should be posting his results on here soon.
 

sdagro

Well-known member
The dealer installed 2-120mm fans in the rear/behind fridge facing up as well as modified the baffle that Dometic/heartland recommended and as of right now is holding at 33degrees
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
The dealer installed 2-120mm fans in the rear/behind fridge facing up as well as modified the baffle that Dometic/heartland recommended and as of right now is holding at 33degrees
Sounds great Steve, keep your finger and toes crossed.
 
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