I picked up our new 09 Sundance 310QB this past Friday and went straight to the campground for 2 nights. Everything seems to be functioning properly. The fridge is cooling fine, but it sounds like it's cutting on for about 10 minutes every hour or so. It will start making what I guess is like a running sound or almost like a buzzing sound. Like I said it will do that for about 10 minutes every couple of hours. Is this normal or is there a problem. My old TT had the same fridge set up and you never heard anything. Any thoughts?
jpmorgan37
Well-known member
Charlie51;
Since your refrigerator uses an absorption process for cooling and is usually silent, I am wondering, is it possible that you are hearing the hot water heater? This is more symptomatic of what you are describing. It would require that you position yourself close to either or both to verify where the sound that you are hearing is coming from. Just a thought.
John
Since your refrigerator uses an absorption process for cooling and is usually silent, I am wondering, is it possible that you are hearing the hot water heater? This is more symptomatic of what you are describing. It would require that you position yourself close to either or both to verify where the sound that you are hearing is coming from. Just a thought.
John
Bob&Patty
Founders of SoCal Chapter
Charlie51, Ya know, JP just might have hit on something. If your sundance has the electric water heater feature, turn that on and turn off the propane switch. Then you will know if it is the water heater or fridge making the noise. If its cool outside it might cycle on every 15-20 minutes to keep the water hot. Bob
That may be it. I know it's not my wate heater because I've already checked that. I assume since yours is doing that it must be o.k. Mine has the 2 access panels on the outside of the TT. One is for the fridge and 1 for the freezer. My other TT only had the one, so maybe its a different set up than some other trailers.
SmokeyBare
Well-known member
Most likely the reason for the two... because the Fridge is in a Slide Out room. When they are installed in a slide out... they can Not place a vent on the roof for a typical installation. Air must come in at the bottom of the Fridge... flow across the coils pulling the heat off them... and that hot air escapes through the top vent... Chimney effect of heat rising.
By using a hand mirror you will be able to see the whole back side of the Fridge is open between the two vents. If you use both a mirror and a flashlight... You MAY be able to see the fans that help to move air across the coils to improve the cooling of the unit. These fans operate off a sensor that detects when the coils are getting too warm... which will happen when the temps climb in warmer weather.
Marv
By using a hand mirror you will be able to see the whole back side of the Fridge is open between the two vents. If you use both a mirror and a flashlight... You MAY be able to see the fans that help to move air across the coils to improve the cooling of the unit. These fans operate off a sensor that detects when the coils are getting too warm... which will happen when the temps climb in warmer weather.
Marv
Macattack
Member
If I remember right, the cooling fan comes on when the temperature reaches 119 degrees. Smokey is right about not having a vent in the top of the trailer. If you leave the fridge on propane and not hooked up to power it will drain your battery in about a day and a half if you only have one 12 volt battery.
We have an 09 North Trail. On a recent trip, experienced the same buzzing. Our fridge is in the slide & has the top/bottom access panels as described. I removed the top panel (freezer) & saw one of the fans. Moved some pieces of surrounding insulation & it seemed to cut down on the buzzing noise. It was not gone but it seemed like maybe some insulation was interferring with wiring connections which caused the freezer fan to run too often. Freezer works extremely well; also tried lowering the overall fridge temp (slider mechanism). Ours was buzzing much more than 10 min/hr before I repositioned the insulation.
Very interested in other comments on this topic! I do feel better knowing that someone else has had a similar experience.
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Thanks for the input. I actually called Dometic since it is new and under warranty. I gave them my model and serial number and they said it shouldn't be making "any" noise. They gave me a list of service providers in my area and I scheduled an appointment to drop it off this coming Monday. It may be the fan like a couple of you mentioned, but the Dometic rep. said I should get it checked out before using it. I'm not going camping for at least 3 - 4 weeks so I figured why not pull it 15 minutes to a shop and let them check it out while it's under warranty instead having a problem down the road or something. Thanks for all the suggestions and input. This forum is a great help.None
jimmyt5 was right. There is a cooling fan you can get to when you take out the top access panel on the outside. It would cuts on when the temperture reaches a certain level. I appreciate all the helpful posts. You know how it is, it's a new TT and I wanted to make sure everything was right while still under warranty. Thanks again.
Jim & Harriet
Well-known member
more about the buzz
hi jimmyt5,
we also have the refrig. buzz in our 2009 sundance 3300sk. the refig. is in a slideout.
did your service provider "fix" the noise by doing something to the fan? can it be done by my DH who is very handy and knows about doing electrical repairs. our dealer is two hours from where we live. they are very nice and recently fixed a non-working slide-out for us. we also mentioned the "buzz" but when they ran the refrig. it did not make any noise (of course...) if it is an easy-fix DH will try it, if not - we will go back to the dealer.
this forum is so very helpful - thanks for everyone's help.
hi jimmyt5,
we also have the refrig. buzz in our 2009 sundance 3300sk. the refig. is in a slideout.
did your service provider "fix" the noise by doing something to the fan? can it be done by my DH who is very handy and knows about doing electrical repairs. our dealer is two hours from where we live. they are very nice and recently fixed a non-working slide-out for us. we also mentioned the "buzz" but when they ran the refrig. it did not make any noise (of course...) if it is an easy-fix DH will try it,
if not - we will go back to the dealer. this forum is so very helpful - thanks for everyone's help.
According to the Dometic service provider I used there was nothing he could do about the noise. It not really that loud and I'm used to it by now. My fan is inside the top panel on the outside of the trailer. It is just a small fan and the noise is basically coming from the vibration I guess.
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