Fridge is Freezing

[HappyCampers]

About a month ago we were out with the coach on a trip and we noticed that the fridge was freezing the stuff inside. I thought it may have just needed to adjust to the cooler climate so I didn't think too much of it. Well this evening I went out to start loading some things for our outing this weekend to find that everything we left in the fridge was frozen solid, even the stuff in the bottom. I'm not quite sure what is going on. It is a dometic that has the preset temperature control that I can't adjust. Any ideas? I turned it off to defrost the items, but I'm not sure what to do now. The coils are not frozen up, and I don't see anything out of the ordinary. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Lowell

[phillong]

Not sure if this is your problem, but you can check it.

Open your refrigerator door, not the freezer, and look at the fins on the back wall.

There should be a white plastic slider on the right side. If you slide this up and down, you can adjust the refer temp.

If your items are freezing, I would say to move the slider down.

Phil

[JohnB]

Hi Lowell

It might be simple, let me explain some first.

Inside your fridge on the back top of the fridge compartment are some aluminum fins. Attached to those fins is a temperature sensor on the far right side. While many of the Dometic fridges do not have a knob to turn to adjust the temp, there are some things that may shift it.

See here on this pic. This is not my camper, I took this pic from a TT in a dealers lot one day but is a Dometic like ours is. It has a scale of warmer/colder


And here is a pic out of my 2004, T2499. No scale but a blue pointer???


The simple thing to check first is did that temp sensor get knocked off the aluminum fin and is touching air in place of the fin? If so the fridge could be trying it’s hardest to get the air to be the fin temp and freezing everything in the process.

Now where does the temp sensor suppose to be at. Well I have read that sliding the temp sensor up and down the fin can shift the temp normal maintaining temperature. I have read conflicting forum posts on which direction is colder, up or down. Then I bumped into that one fridge at a dealer that had a scale on it. Then I went out to my fridge on the 2499 and found the blue arrow but no scale???. I have fiddled up and down and on the T2499 and not made a lot of difference. However I’m sure it takes hours worth of time to see a change.

This I do know, on the T310SR, same model fridge. Mine is all the way down to the bottom and the temp is now at about 32 to 33F since I installed the vent fan in the back of the fridge chimmney. It use to be about 33 to 34 without the fan. I do not have anything frozen in the fridge.

If you find the temp sensor is attached and touching the fin, well come back as that then is a trouble shooting mission why the sensor is not shutting down the cooling.

Hope this helps

John

[HappyCampers]

Phil and John,
My lands you guys are fast. If I ever needed a reminder of why this site is so great, I just got it. I went out to the driveway a few minutes ago to look at the fridge, and to find the slider. Well it is there. I'm also not afraid to admit that I never noticed it before. I just assumed that since the fridge states that it has automatic temperature control I could not change the temp. It's like the picture of your 2499 John, thanks for the pic. I've noticed you have a pic for everything which makes things so much easier. The temp sensor is inside of a fold in the slider and seems to have no direct contact with the fins. Is this how it looks in your coaches? Phil, I took your advice and slid it the whole way down. After the stuff in the fridge, and the ice that has built up on the fins defrosts I will turn it back on and report back. We are heading out tomorrow after work for a much needed weekend respite.

[HappyCampers]

Well It's still freezing. I slid the thing all the way down and left the fridge off for a day to thaw and reset. I turned it back on yesterday evening and when I got up this morning the stuff on the top shelf by the coils was starting to freeze again. I guess the problem lies a little deeper.

[JohnB]

Lowell

Do you have anything in the frezzer?

This is a long shot but we always carry ice blocks and put them in the frezzer so when we tow we move them to the fridge. Then at camp we move back to fridge

Our fridge runs at 32 to 33 as shown by a temp sensor on the top shelf we use to see what temp is inside. Nothing in fridge frezzes.

But we alays have a something as a load in the frezzer that uses some of the cooling first and what is left over the fridge uses the rest of the cooling

I have never tried an empty freezer ans see how cold the fridge gets. I do not belive there is any temp cotrol in the frezzer. It is a byproduct of the absorption gas type system as the amonia works itks way down thru the system

If the frezzer is empty, try some ice cubes or ice blocks in the frezzer

Hope this helps

Do you have a volt/ohm meter? If the ice blocks don't do it it is time start trouble shooting the control board

John

[Gene]

I have a RM2652 and there is a note in the manual about it going into "limp mode" if there is a problem with the controller or sensor. Presumably it just keeps running full blast without controlling the temp.

[HappyCampers]

I do have a decent amount of stuff in the freezer so that can't be it. Tomorrow I'll take a look at the manual and see about the limp mode Gene brought up. Mandy somehow ended up with both sets of camper keys in her purse, and she worked this evening, soooooo I'm at a stand still. Well John I had a volt/ohm meter but it met an untimely demise awhile back. It took a nasty trip under the truck. I was fooling around and forgot I set it on top of the truck tire, and I'm sure you can figure out the rest. I'll buy a new one here very directly so I can troubleshoot this issue. Thanks for the help, and I'm sure I'm going to need more of it.