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Austinrpod
Newbie
Joined: 23 Aug 2020
Location: Austin TX
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 8
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Topic: Refrigerator problem Posted: 24 Aug 2020 at 3:38pm |
Joe, Just got access to the forum. I had the identical problem with my 2019 191 Dometic fridge. My dealer diagonsed it in mid june, still under warranty, the heating element. I have been waiting ever since for the part to arrive from Dometic. Last told 2 weeks ago, that Dometic said it would be 2 to 4 weeks before my dealer would receive it. Dometic would not respond to emails from my dealer for 4 weeks, finally my dealer was able to talk with someone, spent several hours on hold before a response. I am in a wait and see mode right now, using my Yeti as my fridge. Propane works, but in Texas right now it takes about 6 hours to get below 40. So only using it when staying multiple days in the same spot. About to go on a trip to the NW for a month and sincerely hope it is fixed.
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offgrid
Senior Member
Joined: 23 Jul 2018
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5290
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Posted: 24 Aug 2020 at 9:43am |
Marwayne, I couldn't find an orifice size for the RM8501 but I did find this generic chart:
which shows what btu/hr you can deliver at a standard 11 inch water column LP gas pressure for a given orifice size.
So how many btu/hr does the fridge need? No info on that specifically either but most folks go several weeks on a cylinder if all they're doing is running the fridge. A cylinder contains about 400,000 btu so if it lasts say 3 weeks then thats 800 btu/hr. Since the smallest drill size (0.021) given is already supposed to provide 3000 btu/hr I think your 0.025 is probably more than big enough. If everything was working right your 0.025 orifice should go through a cylinder in less than a week. How does the flame look compared to what it used to when running right?
It seems like you probably have some contamination in your propane lines if the orifice is continually clogging, might want to blow it out and also check your regulator, it might not be producing enough pressure. You can make your own manometer like this if you want.
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold
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Badweissenbier
Groupie
Joined: 26 Oct 2019
Location: WV
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 41
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Posted: 24 Aug 2020 at 8:34am |
Joe, I am wondering about the campsite power supply, it could have been a low voltage problem. Do you have a surge protector that checks incoming power? Can you plug in at home and check to make sure it's still not working or maybe a generator to hook up to?
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marwayne
Senior Member
Joined: 25 Oct 2011
Location: Edmonton AB Can
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Posts: 1002
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Posted: 23 Aug 2020 at 11:11pm |
I'm having a problem starting a new thread. so I ask my ? here, To the gurus here, can anyone tell me the size of the hole in the orifice, here is why I ask. We went out for 4 nights, once we reached the campsite I noticed the flame on the fridge got smaller and smaller until the flame went out. I took out the orifice cleaned it put it back together, worked great for a while and then the whole thing started over again. I had to do that 3 to 4 times a day just to keep the fridge going. When we got home we searched for an orifice without any luck of coarse. The earliest was 3 to 5 weeks maybe, I said by that time camping season is over in our neck of the woods, so I thought I have nothing to loose by making the hole in the orifice slightly larger, even tho people say don't do that ,it's dangers, it could even blow up, blah, blah, blah. Well as I said I had nothing to loose. So I drilled out the hole with a 0.025" bitt. Put it all back together turned the fridge on and guess what it didn't blow up, the flame was a tiny bit larger. Started the fridge at 1 pm set it on 2 lights, fridge was empty, temp was 23* C in the fridge, by 8 in the morning the temp was 5* C. The other thing I noticed is that the top grill never got as hot as it normally did. By the the way the fridge is a Dometic RM 8501.
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If you want something done right, do it yourself.
2011 RP172, 2016 Tundra 5.7 Litre, Ltd.
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JoeSaint
Groupie
Joined: 06 May 2018
Location: WI
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 40
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Posted: 23 Aug 2020 at 8:56pm |
My 2020 171 refrigerator has always worked fine until today. I always run it on battery as I drive to the campground and switch to ac when I arrive. Today when I switched it, the panel was blinking on and off as well as the red reset button and continually beeped. I tried it several times but no change. I checked the breakers and fuses and all were good, and it worked all weekend on battery. Any ideas.. thanks
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