NEW electrical element NOT working

[Diggievitt]

Dometic RM 2652

the refrigerator was working fine on electric, then it suddenly quit working. I narrowed down the culprit to the electrical element. The old one was full of rust so I installed the new one and it wasn’t heating the flume. I even tried interchanging the wires that went to the circuit board from the element, but no luck.

I resorted to using propane and that worked great for 2 weeks then the check light came on and it quit working. I filled the propane but that wasn’t the issue. I’m not getting a spark to light the propane. I tried to manually light it with a lighter and that got it lit, but only that one time. In the evening I tried to work with it and still no flame and I heard some loud clicking around the circuit board, very consistently. I turned it off so that wouldn’t lead to any other issues.

Any idea why the element and propane quit working?

 

[danemayer]

Hi Diggievitt,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

It does sound unusual to have both the electric and propane operation fail in a 2 week period.

On the propane operation, you do need good 12V DC power. Low voltage will cause a problem. Have you checked that?

 

[Diggievitt]

I'm going to go check the DC power when I get back to it.

As for the electrical element, do you think maybe I could have purchased the wrong one? It was troublesome finding one that is specifically for my model.

I installed the -- Dometic 3850644422 120V/325W Heating Element into my Dometic RM2652 model.

It seems pretty self explanatory to install, I don't think I installed in incorrectly

I'll get back with you on the DC power reading, thanks!

 

[danemayer]

Different manuals for the 2652 show different #s.

3850644422

17 37 68-03/7 A B Heater, 325W, 120V

The wiring diagram seems to show that the main circuit board controls both propane and electric operation. So if your 12V DC power to the board is ok, you may have a bad board.

 

[Diggievitt]

Sorry for the delayed response. I resorted to buying a new dinosaur circuit board. After installing it the propane still wouldn’t light, but it did work on electric and the flume was getting hot and keeping the freezer nice and cold. Later after shutting off the generator and turning everything on again I heard a constant buzzing on the circuit board. It is NOT a fan. It makes a buzzing sound with an occasional tick.

Im assuming It is an issue with the voltage. The voltage on the battery is 12.7v. Good. The breaker box reads everything at 14v. The outlet reads 0v. I’m assuming that explains the buzzing and the failure to work. But why was this working fine a few hours ago, and a few weeks ago while plugged into this same outlet? I want to check the battery charger in the back of the rig but it’s late and the bugs are bad. Not sure if anyone has experienced something like this and would like to share some advice

 

[Diggievitt]

Update: the outlet for the fridge is at 119v. Is it enough if it’s short of 120v? The AC inside is still working fine, so I imagine this should too. Everything I’ve tried I still hear that conserving buzzing with a tick on electric, and no spark or an attempt for a spark on gas. Again, there is no fan. The sound is like a buzzer on a game show or something, haha. And again it worked perfectly on electric an hour prior before I heard the buzzing in the NEW board which is installed correctly

 

[Diggievitt]

Another update: I touched the flume and it’s hot and cooling the freezer....but it is turned off on the inside? Maybe generator is on, but it’s still weird how I have it switched to OFF and it is cooling. I’m just glad it’s cooling but how do I fix it to where I can control it on the inside panel correctly?

 

[wdk450]

Dinosaur Electronics has a customer service page with troubleshooting info and a customized e-mail contact form: http://www.dinosaurelectronics.com/Cust_Service.htm