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Old 05-28-2017, 07:00 AM   #1
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Smile Need some info

Hi friends,
Since my DH passed away recently, I have decided to invest a "few" more $ and get Serenity out of the driveway and go camping..she has more problems than I like to think about although she does look pretty inside! She is a 1986 1661 Saturn...
I turned the fridge on electric and it cooled down! Then I tried it another time and all
I had was a few drops of water in the freezer..so I shut it down..a few days later was going to try the gas and found the coils in the back were VERY warm! It had been turned off about four days..weather NOT hot. I unplugged it,and even the cord was warm(possibly from the warmth in the compartment?)..Now I am afraid to try and light it.. No battery is hooked up but convertor is producing DC at least to TV booster..could that have anything to do with the overheating and no cooling? What is my next step please? Thanks. Janalee
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Old 06-01-2017, 07:52 AM   #2
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HI Janalee,

What you are describing may be a cracked cooling coil or a plugged cooling coil and maybe a controls issue too. The pipes get real hot but no cooling. If this is the case, this is a danger issue which is what the Dometic recall was all about. The pipes can get so hot as no cooling is going on a fire may start if something burnable touches the boiler area pipes.

Look around the base of the flame chimney area. See if any yellowish residue is in this area. When a cracked cooling coil leaks and all the fluids inside comes out, it can sometimes create a yellowish residue

Here is a hit on the web I found of a pic of a failed one with the yellow


Here is another one


If you can take some pics of yours in this area, we can see if you have this issue or not.

Something else is not adding up in your post. Please clarify. You said:

Quote:
I turned the fridge on electric and it cooled down! Then I tried it another time and all I had was a few drops of water in the freezer..so I shut it down..

a few days later was going to try the gas and found the coils in the back were VERY warm! It had been turned off about four days..weather NOT hot.

I unplugged it,and even the cord was warm(possibly from the warmth in the compartment?)..Now I am afraid to try and light it.. No battery is hooked up but convertor is producing DC at least to TV booster..could that have anything to do with the overheating and no cooling? What is my next step please?
Something is not adding up with the 4 days and the coils being very warm.

When you mean the cord was warm, do you mean the 120 VAC cord for the electric element?

If I'm following your time line, you turned it on "electric". It worked!

Then you tried another time and it did not. I do not follow the few drops of water in the freezer part. How long a time span was it and was the fridge Off before this time when you started it?

The point in this, the fridge did work at the start, then stopped getting cold and the pipes where very hot but no cooling at all. Need to better understand what you turned off when you only saw the few drops of water in the freezer?

Either the control unit was stuck on when you turned it off and the cooling coil failed or became clogged or some combo of this.

Question: Once you actually pulled the 120 VAC plug out (if you did) has the pipes then cooled down since?

Hope this helps

John
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Old 06-01-2017, 01:42 PM   #3
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Hi John B..been waiting for you..lol!

lets start over..
1.fridge cooled on electric..shut it down
2.next attempt did not cool..shut down but four days later found the coils very hot..I (DONT THINK I SHUT THE TEMP CONTROL TO OFF, ONLY THE SELECTOR KNOB-IT MAY BE STICKY.).so I then unplugged the unit from its receptacle.
3.next attempt was on gas..no yellow residue showing there John..nice blue flame..eight hours later still no cooling..but coils had heated..shut it down completely and turned off gas tank.
Now I have suddenly remembered some units require a battery hookup for the DC controls to work properly even on AC..this may be my case. I will explore that tomorrow with a battery, borrowed,as I had not purchased one since I was only going to be on AC...if it doesnt work I will trash the fridge and put in a 2.7 cu AC fridge for $119 from Lowe's !!! (I read online somewhere that the fridge needs at least 10.5 v DC to operate..nowhere near convertor output!
Will let you know...and ty for your response John..Janalee
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'96 2553 & '95 1950 Sunlines
'95 and '98 Solaris 2653's
2002 Solaris T-2363
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Old 06-01-2017, 05:45 PM   #4
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Hi Janalee,

H'mm OK.

In this case it would help if we had a model number of the fridge. Can you find it and post? I'm assuming it is a Domectic and no one has changed the brand since Sunline shipped it. Confirm that too.

Also please confirm on this fridge you do "not" light a pilot for the gas valve operation? This at least lets me know you have an DC electric gas valve setup. I really do not know if Sunline used any pilot gas valve fridges or how old they can be. Since you said you had an 120 VAC electric element, it seems to be new enough that is should be a DC electric gas valve and igniter.

Yes, the controls do need the 12 volt DC to be working. This is correct. However, the gas valve is a 12 volt DC gas valve and it was working enough on DC to create heat as you saw the blue flame. And since it did not shut down on ignition safety, the flame sense is working so the control board has some level of working.

Pending which Dometic model, the lowest it can go is 9.6 volts DC but they list it can only tolerate an AC ripple of 6 volts. By using an older converter with no battery, there might be a AC ripple issue.

That said, the fridge for the most part is mechanical. If the gas flame is burning, especially all the time, the fridge should cool. You do not seem to have this.

If the gas has been on for 8 hours heating and no cooling, it seems the cooling coil may have issues. It is clogged or leaked and you cannot see the normal yellow residue.

A question: Is the fridge level? If this is a real older one, being level is more important then the newer ones.

If the cooling coil is not cracked and leaked out, some folks have lucked out by turning the fridge over a few times and it jars loose a clog. I have never done this, only heard about it and it is a long shot it may or may not work.

From a model number I can better confirm my thoughts still point to the cooling coil having issues. You can try the battery and see if it helps, but I doubt it if the gas burner was burning all the time.

Hope this helps

John
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Prior Sunlines: 2004 T2499 - Fern Blue
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Old 06-01-2017, 06:55 PM   #5
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John..I really appreciate the time and effort you have made to help me but I think I am going to trash it..Everything seems to be pointing to something serious and could be dangerous! I will be going only local with AC hookups so a new electric unit will be good for my use and my peace of mind. (by the way it is an RM361 Dometic)...thanks again! Janalee
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1981 Sunline1350
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'85 2100& '87 2262 Sunlines
'96 2553 & '95 1950 Sunlines
'95 and '98 Solaris 2653's
2002 Solaris T-2363
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Old 06-01-2017, 07:28 PM   #6
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Hi Janalee,

Thanks for reporting back. Yes, $119 at Lowe's is a cheap way out of this that will work and work well if you are only using electric hook ups, it is a solution.

Hope you can get out camping soon.

Thanks

John
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Prior Sunlines: 2004 T2499 - Fern Blue
2005 Ford F350 Lariat, 6.8L V10 W/ 4.10 rear axle, CC, Short Bed, SRW. Reese HP trunnion bar hitch W/ HP DC

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