Dometic Fridge Mod #2862

[gcharte]

Our Fridge is brand new it worked when we took delivery but when we got half way home I noticed it would only run on guess, I checked the manual and found there was a control panel with a fuse. Sure enough there was a blown fuse on the circuit board behind the fridge, we fixed it but it kept blowing. The place where we bought the motorhome sent us a new panel and that was not the problem because the fuse still blows. It happens as soon as the gas goes off and it switches over to AC. Does anyone have any idea what to check. There are no dometic or fleetwood places within days so we are kind of stuck. I also contacted the company where I purchased the rig from.

Thank,

Gary & Eileen

 

[Tom]

Gary & Eileen,

It sounds as though the heating element might have gone short circuit, which sometimes happens (that's why the fuse is there).

 

[John From Detroit]

I am reminded of when they installed the centeral air in my house.

The instalation team included a new kid.  Well... When they got around to charging and fireing up the compressor the technician (A much more expierenced one) put the fuses in and it popped one.  Tried again and again it popped one

Seems the kid had hooked the green wire to the black screw

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

If your fridge is similar to other  Dometic models, there is a 5 amp AC fuse and a 3 amp DC fuse and both must be good (not blown) for AC operation. The DC fuse is 12V power for the controller board and the 5 amp AC fuse is power to the heater element. 

If the AC fuse is blowing, it's probably a shorted AC heater element. If you are handy with a ohmeter, you can check the heating element by disconnecting the wires and measuring for around 45 ohms resistance.  That's for the 325 watt heater and yours may be different, but probably not very much. A shorted element will measure zero or nearly zero ohms.  If you don't know anything about meters, just replace the heater element.

If the DC fuse is blowing, it would likley be a defective circuit board (unlikely, since yours was replaced) or the wiring to the board.

 

[gcharte]

Thanks for all your help it was the heater element, I replaced it and everything is fine. Thanks to all.


Gary & Eileen