Dometic Fridge Question

[Uncasbear]

Hello Everyone, My wife and I just purchased a '91 T1550, we were told everything worked. Guess what, nope. The fridge trips the GFI style outlet on the side of the closet when operating with electric. I found out that it could be an element issue so before buying an element for it we tried the gas part of it. The pilot lights and stays lit, but after 8 hours of running no cooling was happening. You could here it gurgling for lack of a better word, so something was going on, but it wasn't getting any colder. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions. Thanks

 

[mainah-SUN]

Sorry but "gurgling" is a bad sign. They do make replacement innards so it's possible to rebuild it.

 

[Uncasbear]

Thanks mainah, kinda stinks, but at least now I know. Looks like a rebuild, if possible would be better than buying new, they look pretty expensive.

 

[mainah-SUN]

Yeah they are not cheap maybe a working used one? In my area there are a couple of used rv parts outfits.

 

[JohnGB]

If you take some of the lower burner guards off the gas burner area, do you see yellow residue around the gas burner area?

I just replaced a cooling coil in a RM-2652 last week in a 2007 Sunline. A leak of the ammonia and sodium chromate (the yellow residue) leaked out from a crack in the boiler tube area. The fridge was running on electric and the circuit breaker for the 120 VAC on the fridge tripped and would not reset. The fridge kicked over to gas with the lack of AC power. As the unit cooled somewhat from the AC element cooling down, then the breaker would reset. The ammonia smell in the barn was bad with the building being closed up. After we saw the yellow residue, I had a bad feeling. Shut down the fridge, took off the burner cover, and yup, the cooling coil was toast.

Check and look for the yellow residue. If that is the issue, I can point you to where I bought the new coil, the new electric heating element and some pics of the change out process.

Hope this helps

John

 

[Uncasbear]

Thanks John, I hadn't seen your post until now. I will check for that the first chance I get. My unit is also in a barn and there was no ammonia smell when I was trying to run it on propane just the gurgling, and it always kicks the breaker when I try it on electric.

 

[JohnGB]

OK, check out the burner area for yellow residue. A coolant leak can occur in a few places, but the burner area is more common.

Here are some pics of a failed Dometic RM2652 in a 2007 T286SR. You have to remove the recall metal shield to expose the burner area. This shield to the right with the big wiring diagram sticker on it. Assuming yours was in the recall and was corrected.

Once the shield is removed, you may see some yellow residue. Looks like this.

It may not have leaked this far out in the open. Take the small screw out that holds on the burner cover and wiggle the cover off. Then if it is there, you should see it. Looks like this

And when all apart, like this.

If your barn is vented to outside, the smell may have evaporated off but the yellow residue should still be there until it gets cleaned off. Try not and get the yellow stuff on your hands. It is sodium chromate, a rust inhibitor.

If the cooling unit has not failed, we can drill into the electric element tripping the breaker. But first, it should run and cool on gas and that is what started all this. Why does it not cool on gas?

While your out checking, get a model number off the fridge. It should be inside the door area. Or is on the newer ones. And any pics help too.

 

[Uncasbear]

Many thanks, I will check it out first chance I get, probably Thursday, and will let you know. Thanks Again!