Mystery refrigerator


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crystal79

New Member
Have an older camper van with a Domestic refrigerator (just electric). The refrigerator has some issue. I always thought it worked off the house battery, which (I think) only charges from the electric cord? The refrigerator has always worked when parked in the drive way (which is on a slant). Now it doesn't get cold. Everything else seems to work fine. When I take it for a short drive, the refrigerator gets cold. When I park it again, and plug the camper in, the refrigerator warms up again. There's a little red light on the top of the refrigerator that blinks. (Is that to show the battery is low?) If that is the case, why would the refrigerator work when I drive it? I'm confused.
So, does anyone have any idea what is going on?
 
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LEN

Senior Member
Re: Mystery refrigerator

Just a thought, if it is a 12 volt only refer(don't know if this is the case) and with the blinking light the battery could be shot. When driving the alternator is giving the refer the 12 volts it needs and when you stop the battery does not take over.

LEN
 
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LEN

Senior Member
Re: Mystery refrigerator

More!! And or the 110 charging system is shot also or does not work with the bad battery.

OH and welcome.

LEN
 
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crystal79

New Member
RE: Mystery refrigerator

Thanks for your comments. I put a new battery in today and plugged the camper in, but the refrigerator still doesn't work. I did, however, start to get cold when I started the engine. The especially confusing part is that the refrigerator will actually get hot when connected to the power cord and the battery? Have been told in the past that the engine running had nothing to do with the refrigerator - guess that info was not true. (Maybe I'll just get a large cooler!) Thanks for any thoughts.
 
Kirk

Kirk

Senior Member
Re: Mystery refrigerator

Is that refrigerator a Dometic brand? If so, what model is it? There are, or were some 12V refrigerators built by Dometic in the 70's and 80's but I have not seen one in quite some time. We had on of those in our 74 pop-up and it never worked for long on a battery so we replaced ours with a two way(gas/120V) and that served for years.

If you can give me more information, I might be able to find it in some of my service manuals.

If you have a meter, I suggest that you do some power tracing to see if it is getting the proper voltage when you are not running the engine. Does it work when yo are connected to 120V, shore power? If I understand, it does not. That seems to indicate that for some reason the unit only gets power when the engine is running to supply it from the alternator. There must be some type of transfer device that has failed, or some type of wiring problem.

By the way, your house battery should also be charged by the alternator from your engine, if all is working properly. If it is not, that may be a hint as to where your problem is. You are probably going to need a good multi-meter to figure this one out.
 
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crystal79

New Member
Re: Mystery refrigerator

Thanks for your reply. It is a Dometic RB-2195. The camper is a '89 - we've owned it for over 10 years. We did not get a manual for it when we purchased the camper. We just went with the information that the seller told us. Have never had a problem with it - until now. It is becoming more obvious that there's a lot more going on here than I ever imagined. Thanks, again, for your reply.
 
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crystal79

New Member
Re: Mystery refrigerator

Thanks for your replies, Kirt and Len. The refrigerator is now working. I've learned a bit more about how these things work. Not sure exactly what the problem was, but after playing around with a few things, I started the engine, which made the fridge run, left it on for awhile. I could hear the noises in the fridge. When I turned off the engine, the red battery indicator had stopped flashing and now the fridge is running okay. Thanks again.
 
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