Refrigerator Problem?

I have a Dometic Frige (Americana 2554 3 way I think) and the freezer will freeze anything you put in it but the refrigerator half is warm between 40 and 50 degrees (warm milk isn't that good). I don't understand what the problem is, help please? This is when plugged into 120

If you do not have one of the small battery operated fan that circulates the air inside the fridg section then get one. Any RV place has them. Also do you have the fan behind the fridg that you access from outside the RV and is it working properly? I have the same model fridg and on a 3 setting the freezer stays around 0 degrees and the fridg from 36 to 42 degrees. Check your temps to see just where they are. Beyond this I am nor a fridg tech so can't help any further.

Thanks Jim, I do have one of the fans inside the fridge, my outside fridge fan seems to be working fine. It doesn't make sense to me since the freezer freezes. Doesn't the freezer section cool the fridge? As in that their isn't a seperate refrigerator unit. If this is the case, then it seems there is some kind of vent or passage from the feezer to the fridge, right?

Big Lou said:

I have a Dometic Frige (Americana 2554 3 way I think) and the freezer will freeze anything you put in it but the refrigerator half is warm between 40 and 50 degrees (warm milk isn't that good). I don't understand what the problem is, help please? This is when plugged into 120

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This is my experience, you might have different results

2 things to do/check/& KNOW.

1, kind of FYI... and AGAIN!!!! it is ONLY my opinion and experience so far. I live in Kansas. and I have learned when it is summer, you can NOT run my fridge with top lowered and the trailer not be moving down the road! The back side of the fridge is a big heat exchanging coils-element, & when it gets hot, it will no longer exchange heat, which is needed in the fridge part especially.
a< My freezer stayed working all the time for the last 2 years though,
b< When top is lowered the top of the venting is blocked off. so then it gets hot even with fans, and it stops working, all but freezer would stay below 32, that I saw. Plus it is reportedly hard on that coils/cooling unit to run hot, eventually causes the chemicals to go bad inside the coils? at least this was my conclusion.

ALso, that rm2611 of Mine, is a 2 door (freezer top, and fridge bottom) and did pretty much what you've said yours does.
a< I callled around to various RV/Propane fridge specialists, everyone said probably the $480 or more, cooling unit (that part you can see in the back of the fridge, from the outside cover) was "Most Likely BAD".

I was broke (well I mean $500 part, or $1200 new fridge was NOT in the Budget, and I was VERY discouraged. Finally I decided to try installing/replacing the fan, so that I know it was ON when fridge needs it, if I remember to turn it on!

So,

2, Depening on the years of your hilo, There SHOULD be a fan, on the back side of the unit, which is located right at the top of the fridge's top exhaust hole on side of top half of camper. as far as I know, Stock HILO install, should have one fan, wired to have power "at all times" even with other switches off? and has a thermostat type relay so when coils get warm/hot the fan will come on. Ive read that some Earlier models, this could cause the battery to drain while in storage, because if it got hot enough in storage, the fans would come on, becuase of ambient air temps... that is what I have read anyway...


TO the possible fix, I have replaced the 1 fan with 2 quiet and more powerfull computer fans, PLUS I removed the thermo-switch from the wiring, so that when I flip toggle on, the fans are "on" all the time, even if I forget to turn off, lol.


NOW, HERE ARE MY CAVEATS: My problem with my advice at the moment is: I have ONLY once, had the camper out and the weather was NOT above 90 ish degrees outside! at least, since I did the fix. But it did fix it for me as far as I know.

Please note even when around or above 80 outside with WARM sun beating on camper, the fridge would quit working, yet like you said, freezer was great. BUT at night when temps fell below 70, the fridge seemed to try to work and get colder...

Once I did the fan mod, it worked for a whole week of testing in driveway, when temps were barely above 85, and it worked (constant monitoring) that whole weekend we camped this year.

Im hoping mine is fixed but I wont know until next year I guess, now that the weather has finally cooled off this year... But this weekend might be warm enough to test, in Wichita ks where I will be camping, but no where near 90 or 100's for a better test.

Hope this helps you or anyone .

You stated the freezer is freezing the freezer contents, which lends me to believe that your refrigerator/freezer is working as advertised ... I make this conclusion because they share the same cooling unit. If it freezes ice cubes it will refrigerate your milk. The previous suggestion of a battery operated fan to circulate the refrigerator air is a good one, or you could do one of the interior refrigerator mods documented in this forum, either way the air MUST CIRCULATE in the refrigerator for it to function properly ... maybe you are putting too much food in your refrigerator for it to cool efficiently because the air flow is blocked and parts of your refrigerator does not get cool air. Try pre-cooling the food and pre-cool your refrigerator before you load it up ... I have shoved bags of ice into the refrigerator to speed this process up. Good luck!

NDgent said:

You stated the freezer is freezing the freezer contents, which lends me to believe that your refrigerator/freezer is working as advertised ... I make this conclusion because they share the same cooling unit. If it freezes ice cubes it will refrigerate your milk. The previous suggestion of a battery operated fan to circulate the refrigerator air is a good one, or you could do one of the interior refrigerator mods documented in this forum, either way the air MUST CIRCULATE in the refrigerator for it to function properly ... maybe you are putting too much food in your refrigerator for it to cool efficiently because the air flow is blocked and parts of your refrigerator does not get cool air. Try pre-cooling the food and pre-cool your refrigerator before you load it up ... I have shoved bags of ice into the refrigerator to speed this process up. Good luck!

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ndgent,

my fridge and Freezer share no "cold" components inside the respective storage areas, the fins in the fridge woud NOT cool off, but the plate in the FREEZER would get cold and freeze like it should. Also note, This is on 2 door models that I have seen/dealt with. Yes it uses the same part on the back of the fridge itself, but just because freezer was cold fridge was still 60 degrees (empty) after 3 days. My father had same "issue" of not understanding how this could be, becuase in HOME fridges, the freezer usually pushes air down to the fridge. This is NOT so in my fridge, and I doubt it is in the one described by BIG LOU, to whom I was replying to. I even contemplated drilling a hole from freezer compartment to fridge and use a fan to circulate air from the Freezer's side. glad I didnt. I have reasonable assumption I have the "issue" corrected.

FWIW, single door models will be different since there is not any seperation at all (meaning one big door to open same storage compartment) from freezer to fridge, where the cold spot in freezer has it is just a little box with a door, still cools the fridge (inside the same door). My old RV and some older campers I've had, have single door fridges, never had a problem with them... FWIW the RV was a 1973 Eldorado, not sure brand of fridge, it was only 2 way, gas & 110v. Course they didnt have rear/outside of fridge venting issues either, as the walls were stationary and fridge vented out the roof instead of out the side, and never had the vents get covered up like when Hilo roof half is lowered.

My response was to Big Lou as he originated the Post and my understanding is that he has a single door refrigerator/freezer with the freezer compartment within the refrigerator ... just like mine. Given those points I stand by my statements about Big Lou's solution.

Sting, given the situation with your two door refrigerator/freezer I hope you have figured it all out, as I have given no thought to the problem you experienced but I think you demonstrated proper restraint by not perforating the freezer compartment with your drill!

NDgent said:

My response was to Big Lou as he originated the Post and my understanding is that he has a single door refrigerator/freezer with the freezer compartment within the refrigerator ... just like mine. Given those points I stand by my statements about Big Lou's solution.

Sting, given the situation with your two door refrigerator/freezer I hope you have figured it all out, as I have given no thought to the problem you experienced but I think you demonstrated proper restraint by not perforating the freezer compartment with your drill!

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My Bad, since I read the 1st post once again, now I cant be sure what he has, and made a big assumption: only because I pictured mine similiar as his (2 door style.

Still I went to this link, Dometic RM2554 Americana Fridge Refrigerator Refer 3-Way Large Single Door with Black Metal Frame Trailer RV Camper
so I see his fridge now like you said, single door. But it is different than the 2 single door versions (much newer than my past ones) but it too has the "fins" outside the "icebox" or freezer part, and since those must not be working (stays warm) like mine does... that possibly have same issue, and would be worth the effort to try getting lots of air flow on the coils on the back of the fridge, even with a fan pointed into bottom of back, with top up for testing?

Sorry I was wrong, I should have checked to see how close to my fridge it was.

Sting

Not a problem ... we agree! I believe your 5th wheel is the exception when it comes to which refrigerator is installed in that the classical Hi-Lo is not tall enough to take a two door refrigerator.

John

NDgent said:

Sting

Not a problem ... we agree! I believe your 5th wheel is the exception when it comes to which refrigerator is installed in that the classical Hi-Lo is not tall enough to take a two door refrigerator.

John

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That could be it, but I wasnt sure it was more like maybe, the bigger a rig, bigger the fridge? and so i thought maybe a 28ft or longer regular hilo has this fridge? mine is mounted pretty low, I think, and it didnt need to be that low, and easier to get things in and out of, LOL. SOme normal campers and maybe your hilo's seem to have single door, but then like a AC inverter or Furnace below th fridge.

This is fun though, off the hip Trouble shooting.

has anyone thought of seeing if the fridge is level(place level inside on botton of fridge), and do you open the door frequently to check the fridge temp also do you empty the water collection trays inside below the cooling coils on the inside back wall of the fridge?

You are correct (robobd) the fridge has to be level to work correctly. The liquid ammonia returns to the gas boiler by gravity, if the fridge is not level the return tube will not be in a downward slope and the liquid ammonia won't be able to return down to the boiler. Permanent damage to the fridge will happen if operated like this. RV fridges do not have a compressor like a house fridge does they have no moving parts, also they recover much slower, if the door is opened often, the fridge doesn't have enough time to recover. When the door is open the cold air in the fridge is very quickly replaced with warm air, partly due to the small size. When the door is open and the air inside reaches about 50 degrees and on a very hot day this happens very quickly, the fridge will take an hour or more to get back down to below 40 degrees, if the door is opened before it fully recovers the food will warm up and the recovery will now take even longer. Best advice is get out of the fridge what you want quickly and don't open the door unnecessarily. My son gave up on his fridge and uses ice chests as he couldn't keep his 4 kids from opening the door all the time.

If the fridge is kept well filled with food the temperature change from opening the door is reduced due to there being less air space. Our experience has been to use a cooler to keep high use things like beverages, as was suggested, this will be very helpful.

I don't believe anyone suggested checking the temperature sensor that is clipped to the cooling fins. Sliding it up or down will affect the temperature in the lower compartment.

Checking the temperature can be best done with a wireless indoor/outdoor thermometer. Just put the outdoor sensor inside and set the indoor unit on top, in the house, or even in the tow vehicle. That way you can keep the door shut and monitor the temperature. I used that when I had a problem with our fridge in the gas mode. It turned out to be a bad gas regulator at the LP tanks, it was only allowing 4.5" of pressure where it should have been 11".

RichR said:

If the fridge is kept well filled with food the temperature change from opening the door is reduced due to there being less air space. Our experience has been to use a cooler to keep high use things like beverages, as was suggested, this will be very helpful.

I don't believe anyone suggested checking the temperature sensor that is clipped to the cooling fins. Sliding it up or down will affect the temperature in the lower compartment.

Checking the temperature can be best done with a wireless indoor/outdoor thermometer. Just put the outdoor sensor inside and set the indoor unit on top, in the house, or even in the tow vehicle. That way you can keep the door shut and monitor the temperature. I used that when I had a problem with our fridge in the gas mode. It turned out to be a bad gas regulator at the LP tanks, it was only allowing 4.5" of pressure where it should have been 11".

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What a great point, Rich! I never thought of trying to reposition the sensor.

Regarding the condensation tray though. There should be a drain to the outside that keeps water from building up there. If that drain is plugged though, you should clear the blockage. I found that my drain tube has 4 or 5 small holes in an "end cap" at the bottom of the tube to allow water out and to keep bugs from getting in. Those small holes could probably get plugged up pretty easily, since that end is exposed to all kinds of road contamination.

- Jack

The older trailers didn't have a drain tube, at least my 95 didn't, you had to empty the tray.
If you use a fan inside to circulate the air, I don't think repositioning the sensor will change much, but anything that helps is a plus.

thanks for all the replies. I did check to ensure the refrigerator was level with a handle level. I will check some of the other suggestions next time out.

Something that I forgot, I was having fridge problems with the 95. I discovered that ice was forming on the fins where the thermostat sensor is mounted, this kept the fridge from turning on. I got the small fan for inside the fridge to circulate the air and placed it right under the sensor, this solved the problem.
Also if after a meal, if you have left over hot food, put water in the sink and cool the food as much as possible before putting it in the fridge. My wife has got into just preparing enough for the 2 of us, so there is no left overs. With some foods though there is always left over, and we do prechill as much as possible before putting in the fridge.
If you don't have much in the freezer put one or two freeze packs in. then when you put warm food in the fridge put the freeze packs around the food.
Guys don't put a couple warm six packs in and expect them to be cold in an hour.

Warm beer is an emergency situation. Always have a cooler and a ready source of ice available. You just never know when a situation will arise.

I always ice my beer in a couple of small coolers and there it stays until consumed or until the ice has completely melted away. Using two coolers allows one cooler to stay untouched longer, thus preserving the ice longer. Only after the ice is all gone do I move any remaining beer to the refrigerator toward the end of the trip when the contents of the refrigerator have been reduced, insuring there is sufficient air flow to keep the beer properly cooled. One has to have their priorities.

Cooler use.

I have a coleman cooler with a thick top. It advertises that food will stay cool for five days with ice. I have found this to be a true claim. Finaly replaced ice on day five. Good to have a cooler with you especially if your ref. is old or stressed out in 100degree heat.