Dometic fridge ice maker and water not powering up

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tedmbard

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Joined
Apr 5, 2015
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10
  Fridge stopped working, found DC power connection bad. Repaired connection and now everything works but Ice maker and water. Power good, but did notice Light brown coloring on both sides of Board around the  J2 area. Does this sound like a bad circuit board.
 
Thanks for replying<

  It is a model NDA1402. All the fuses are good. 110 volt power is good also. I don't see any bad wiring connections anywhere either.

 
The ice maker is powered by 120v, not 12v, and the fridge circuit board doesn't get in the picture. The ice maker and its water solenoid/valve is essentially an autonomous unit.
 
I understand they are separate. Just wondering why the 12volt bad connections happened and then the ice maker/water stopped working at the exact same time.


Ted
 
The ice maker will not start working until the freezer is cold enough to freeze water.  That could take a day or two.

Make sure there's water (under pressure) at the solenoid valve.  If you find a manual shutoff valve make sure it's open.
 
The Fridge and freezer both work great. Nothing on the Ice maker or  water work at all. Everything worked like it was suppose to for the last month. About a week ago everything stopped working, that is when I found the DC power connection was bad. I repaired the connection and now the Icemaker is my only problem.

Ted
 
There won't be any 120v power to the solenoid except when the ice maker controller opens the valve to add water, a duration of about 7 seconds in each 1.5-2.0 hour ice-making cycle. Hard to catch it. However, the 1402 manual has a section on winterizing the ice maker that tells how to manually trigger the solenoid.

Unlike the Norcolds, the Dometic NDA 1402 has only a single 120v power plug that supplies 120v to both the cooling unit electric heater and the ice maker. The 120v power flows via the control board 120v terminals, so maybe something got damaged there. That's the only connection I can think of.  I now see that the NDA 1402 also has two power cords, one for the fridge and one for the ice maker. See Jeff's reply about the power to the plug used by the ice maker.

NOTE: See my later message about different versions of this fridge - there was a design change that affects ice maker operation:
http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,82973.msg752183.html#msg752183


Let's talk more about the ice maker symptoms. Is the bail arm on the ice maker fully down to allow it to start an ice cycle? Does the ice maker fill with water? If yes, did the water freeze?
 
The Bail arm is down. None of the lights on the fridge door light up. No water inside, no functions at. Still concerned about the brown spot on the circuit board. It is right on what looks like a small processor of sorts. Both sides of board.
 
Both of our National RV Tradewinds had two 110v power outlets behind the refrigerator, one powered by shore power or generator and the other from the inverter panel to allow making ice while using LP.


If you have one have you checked the inverter panel for a blown fuse?
 
After looking at the manual and the circuit diagram I'm of the opinion that your board may be bad.  The icemaker on this one appears to be triggered by a signal on connector j-11.  Right next to the fuse in the lower right corner of the board.

No lights on the front panel kind of points to a bad board or a bad display.

You might want to have the board tested by a competent RV shop (and good luck finding one).  If they say it's bad I would first opt for a Dinosaur Electronics replacement if they make one.

There are two thermistors in the freezer.  It seems logical that if either of them is bad this would be the result as well, except for,the dead indicators.......

Here's the PDF with the diagram.  http://www.gas-refrigerators.com/pdf/sidewise-parts.pdf
 
None of the lights on the fridge door light up.

I would start by getting that fixed. It's unusual that the fridge still cools when the display panel is dead, and that points to either a failed board in the display/button module, the wiring to it, or the main control board itself.

The icemaker has its own temperature sensor mounted in the ice cube mold and does not rely on the freezer thermister for temperature input.

The parts diagrams show a design difference that starts with S/N 510xxxx. Before that, the ice maker appears to get power through the main board pin J11 & J6, but after that serial number it has its own direct source via a 120v power plug. Check the fridge serial to see which version you have, so we can determine if the main board is involved or not.
 
I do appreciate all the advice. I am hoping to get back to work on it by the weekend. Worse case scenario, I will have to make the next trip without icemaker. (leaving Thursday)  At least the fridge works.


Ted
 
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