Refrigerator Malfunction

Here is one that I've never heard of before. We have a Dometic 10 Cu Ft refrigerator. It's a little over two years old, so is still covered under the Dometic warranty. Several days ago, it started freezing things in the refrigerator section; eggs, iced tea, lettuce, celery--you get the idea. Now this has been set on #4 since we got it and never had any problem on electric or gas. We turned it off and defrosted it and I checked the low ambient and climate control switches to make sure they hadn't been bumped. Turned it back on and the same thing. We had a freezer, not a refrigerator. I called Dometic Customer Service and they couldn't give me any suggestions other than have a service repair person check it. I asked about a mobile repair, since we have a very good one in the area. They said that would be ok, but they wouldn't pay for the service call. I called the repair man and he said to turn the low ambient switch and climate control switch on and leave it on four or five hours. Then turn the refrigerator off for eight or more hours and then turn it back on. He said that the circuit boards need to reset themselves and that this may correct the problem. It worked. The refrigerator is working normally for the past 24 hours. We'll see how long it last. Just thought that you might find this interesting.

John

Hello: This web site helped me not call the refridgerator repair Man!!"acmehowto.com" also 2 month before I fix our oven !! Both items were only 4 years old. Both item in are house not in are 5th wheel.We had problems with 2 Dometic's both main board!!Good luck

I think this info should be HOOTered. I've had frozen lettuce a couple of times and will need to be able to find this info later on, I'm sure.

HOOTered - funny!

We have out own language going on here, all beginning with H.O. (HOF, HOC, HOOT).

Jim

sjrellis said:

I think this info should be HOOTered. I've had frozen lettuce a couple of times and will need to be able to find this info later on, I'm sure.

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We have not had the problem with this unit, but did have it with the 06 model we had. I called and was told to do a reset also and it worked. But I had forgotten about it untill now. This is the kind of info we need to be "HOOTered" in a searchable data base, if a repair is proven such as this one. If it's a maybe try this or that, then I don't think it should be. It would be good for us old folks that can't remember ----- stuff.

HOOTERED??? We have one of those here in town, good burgers and cold beer. On a serious note ours did the same thing at our rally. Ever try to peel a frozen hard boiled egg? They are pretty hard to slice too. Bob

John, did you unplug the reefer outside during this reset? Just curious. Our original problem was just the opposite and after the Holmes guy at the rally did "something" to fool the sensor, we have 34 degrees at the setting on 1. Our freezer still ranges around 10 degrees. I just may try that reset next time we defrost, which by the way we have to do about every 2 to 3 weeks.

I did not unplug it. I just turned it off at the switch, but this was after I had turned on the low ambient and climate control switches and left everything on for about five hours. Then I turned it off and left it off all day.

John

Ray,

Do you think the humidity down there makes you have to defrost that often? I'm just beginning to notice a build up and that has been since October that it has been running.

Jim;

We normally have to defrost about every three months. This has been true whether in Texas, Virginia, Minnesota or points in between.

John

We are in Fl right now and defrost about every 3 weeks also.

Low Ambient Switch?

I'm not familiar with a low ambient switch. The climate control switch is on the upper inside edge of the door frame, the on/off, gas/auto, and temperature selector switches are on the control panel on the front. Where is the low ambient switch and what is it used for?

I've been full-time for a couple years, and in our '09 3670 for a few months. Both RV's had/have Dometic refrigerators and needed defrosting every 3-6 weeks, just depending on humidity and use.

Rick and Jan;

My refrigerator has the two switches right next to each other in the top inside edge of the freezer door frame. This is our forth RV with a refrigerator and the first one that had the two different switches. Some models don't have that one.

John

Goodmorning all,
We have had our 3100RL since August and have not had to defrost yet.....What luck....We do have to have the thermostat set to the highest setting thouigh.
John

sjrellis said:

Ray,

Do you think the humidity down there makes you have to defrost that often? I'm just beginning to notice a build up and that has been since October that it has been running.

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I'm sure it's related to humidity. I suppose the dehumidifier we bought a couple weeks ago will help some. We'll be leaving here in a couple of weeks so it should get better as we head North. OK get the sun going up there so we can get home by mid April.

Has anyone ever had their icebox turn off of electric and go to gas? We were gone for a week visiting and left everything on electric. When we got back, we found that the icebox had stopped cooling just a few hours before when we ran out of gas. We were a little stumped because we left it on "auto" or electric setting. We found that it was on the gas setting and not sure why. The electricity had not gone off of surged while we were gone because none of the clocks were flashing or wrong. A couple of days ago the same thing happened but we were here thank goodness to catch it before the gas ran out again. The only thing we can think of is maybe when I used the blowdryer in the bathroom, it popped a circuit but we checked that and nothing was popped. Any ideas on this?

Brandy;

Your refrigerator should be on a circuit all by itself. The only thing that I can think of is that you may have a circuit board malfunction. I would try calling Dometic Customer Service and see what they have to say.

John

That's what we kind of thought. We'll do that and thanks JP.