Frig did not work this weekend!

[LynnAllen02]

We think we did everything we were supposed to. Turned on electric 24 hours before leaving, loaded it 12 hours before leaving. Frig packed loosely with plenty of air circulating around items. All temps were good when we left!

We left with frig on Auto, running on Propane, as we drove. Temp kept rising and rising was at 40 degrees a half an hour from campground. At the campground, we checked and the propane was lit, we could see the flame was on, and the stove worked all weekend. We turned off Auto and set it on Gas. By morning it still was not working properly, we put ice in it to cool it down. But on propane with ice packed in every nook and cranny I was lucky to keep the freezer at 39 degrees. It is not a good cooler, I bought a lot of ice over the weekend!

We were Dry Camping for the first time. We did NOT take a cooler with us, after all we have this lovely brand new refrigerator! It worked on Electric, but generator hours were limited. 2 hours in am and 3 hours in pm, not enough hours!

We are home and it is working on Electric - Freezer is Zero degrees and Frig is 35 degrees.

We just switched it over to Gas now:
On light is on, steady and green.
Gas light is on, steady and amber.

None of the indicators flashed or blinked the whole weekend!

Any thoughts or suggestions? I am afraid that I will get to the dealer and they will tell me nothing is wrong!

Thanks in advance for any help!

Lynn

[justman]

You should be able to keep the same temps on gas or electric. There's a possibility the propane isn't generating enough heat. If you have a temp sensor, take a reading of the thermal stack on electric, switch it to propane and then wait an hour or so and take another reading. They should be within a few degrees of each other. If not, I think you're in for a trip to the dealer.

Or...you could just skip the troubleshooting and take it to the dealer and ask them to fix it.

[mike837go]

What were the outdoor temperatures during your trip?


We were in the Adirondacks with daytime highs near 90F and nights barely dropping to 70F. These gas absorption fridges loose effectiveness at those temps. And opening the door every 1/2 hour to check on progress doesn't help either.


Or the gas jet in the burner is partially clogged. When on gas, pull the access panel on the side of the RV and open the burner window. There should be (IIRC 1.5" x 2") nice blue flame with just the least bit of yellow tips. The manual has a good drawing of what you should see in there.


On my fridge (2015), the tube from the gas valve to the burner was not cleaned properly during manufacture and some metal shavings and oil completely clogged the gas jet after we started a long weekend of boondocking. I managed to get it going with the tools I carried after singing off all the hair on my left hand!


Check the flame quality... Good Luck!

[BCK]

X2 on checking the flame. I had a cooling issue on propane on my last trailer and found the flame tube partially blocked about half way up the tube. Once cleared it worked perfectly.

[LynnAllen02]

Thanks, and yes we were in the Catskills, much lower altitude than the Adirondack range, and yes it was hot!

When we brought it home to sea level, it was much cooler, but it was zero for freezer and 35 for frig on electric and 75 freezer and 75 frig on propane! We thought so because the temps would drop during generator hours!

DH looked at the flame, it was blue...

The whole thing was very curious, we have an appointment early Friday morning at the dealer. Hopefully it is something clogged like you suggest...they want to keep it and I don't want them to, I will drive it back up when they get the parts they need in!

We will still take it on our next trip even if it is not fixed, I have great coolers left from our Teardrop and will take them for frig! As a matter of fact I may never leave home without a cooler again, trying to make a 6 cubic frig be a cooler with ice packed into it and melting all over the place was not my idea of camping, roughing it or no!

[lpasco]

One of the things that i was told during my walk around of my 2016 was that if it was over 90 deg, take the cover off of the outside that covers up the fridge hardware. He said that it gets very hot there and the more air flow, the better.

[Fire_Instructor]

Your lower vent is on the side of the trailer. Is your upper vent also on the side? Or does it vent through the roof? Roof vents are a lot more efficient than side vents. I'm thinking of adding one of these to improve the performance of my side vent.
https://www.arprv.com/index.php

[LynnAllen02]

So our trip to the dealer was quick and good. They cleaned out the tubes for spiders and creepy crawly things, and it works great now!

Funny I would have thought that cleaning this out would have been part of dewinterizing the trailer for us? But evidently not when it is brand new, even if it has been on the lot through several months of winter?

Well it certainly is on MY list for doing before use next year....

[norty1]

Regular maintenance. Once it happens you know where to go first.