Beeping Fridge Fix - By Jim Fielder |
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Podster
Senior Member Joined: 16 Sep 2014 Location: San Antonio Online Status: Offline Posts: 1108 |
Topic: Beeping Fridge Fix - By Jim Fielder Posted: 03 Mar 2015 at 8:41pm |
This was posted by Jim Fielder over on the FB side and I think it is worthy of a re-post here:
How to fix a beeping Refrigerator. . .
Read to the end for the solution and the solutions that don't work. . . Okay, the saga of PodWA and the beeping refrigerator. We purchased our 2015 178 on July 8th, HRE model. Once about a week into things, the refrig started beeping for about 10 seconds every 2 minutes. According to Dometic and the manual, this is a signal that the refrigerator is not latched and needs to be closed and latched. You can check to see if you need to push down the handle to see if it's latched. It was latched. So I did the testing if the light was turning off, it was - how did we do this? We put an iPhone inside it when were were doing FaceTime, and then closed the door, and the light went out. So the door was latching. It quite in about 24 hours and all was good. Then about 2 months later it started up again, this time it went on for about 2 days, then it started again in the middle of our 73 day fall trip. This time it kept on and we looked a possible solutions. We unplugged the light, we restarted it, we did the "reset", we did the call to Dometic. We had previously taken it to a dealer, but now it was driving us crazy - we ran music loud at night to drown it out. Unplugging the door switch silenced it but over the course of two days the temp in the refer rose to 50F and the ice melted. Not a fix, plugged it back in and it was quiet for 24 hours and then at 2 am BEEP BEEP BEEP. Domestic hooked us up with a dealer in NC, we headed there and they ran lots of diagnostics and tightened the door. Solution - replace the unit, unit was shipped and after the weekend of listening to it beep and getting increasingly agitated, we received the call and went to the dealer to have the new unit installed. When you start over with a new unit, it has to come up to temperature and the dealer wants to check it. So we returned to the campground we were staying in and enjoyed the silence, until 4:18 AM when the #&@#!# Beeping started again on the new unit. It had been totally closed and never opened as we waited for the temp to come up. We took it to the dealer that morning and let them know the new unit was beeping too. Did I say we were in NC coastal area - high humidity? So the tech at the dealer pulled the door latch unit with the light out and it was full of humidity and moisture. He noticed that when you manually moved the switch to the closed position, the LED light would start to glow faintly. The moisture was shorting it out and allowing current to flow. The scheme they use to determine if the door is open is if there is current flowing to the LED. So he called Dometic and they came up with a plan, his idea and they said give it a try. He used a can of compressed air, like you get to blow off computers, etc. He blew the area inside the switch clean and dry - key word DRY, then he smeared Dielectric Grease around all the electronics inside the switch. The area was dry and now protected from moisture, no more shorting, no more beeping, I'm once again relaxed and happy. So give that a try, the replaced refrigerator was probably not necessary, but we started anew and now with the dielectric grease life is good. I keep a can of compressed air and dielectric grease stationed in PodWA and life has been good. Problem solved. Thanks for reading to the end. |
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Cliff & Raelynn
Ranger 4.0/178 (1/2 ton 5,800lb tow capacity) |
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Joe-n-Terri
Groupie Joined: 12 Oct 2014 Location: Navarre Florida Online Status: Offline Posts: 53 |
Posted: 09 Mar 2015 at 10:14pm |
This was happening to me as well and after talking with my Father-in-law Skip, who had it happen to him suggested firmly pushing on the door after it was closed. Me knowing everything thought it has to be more complicated than that, after all I had slammed the thing shut and checked the latch on the top and it was latched. After taking his suggestion and just solidly pushing the door after it was seemingly closed I could hear it latch and shut my mouth no more beeping. Thanks Skip.
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Joe & Terri
2015 179 2015 Ram 1500 crew cab/ eco diesel 2005 Ram 1500/ Tekonsha Controller Lovestarved Pom/Demanding Chihuahua |
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Boomertype
Senior Member Joined: 12 Jan 2014 Location: Seattle Online Status: Offline Posts: 108 |
Posted: 13 Mar 2015 at 11:04pm |
Cliff, thanks for sharing it here.
Jim Fielder aka boomertype |
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Tanager
Newbie Joined: 09 Jul 2014 Location: Minnesota Online Status: Offline Posts: 6 |
Posted: 21 Mar 2015 at 11:45am |
Good post, thanks. One other thing to try. We had the problem on the first trip with the '14 179. After four days we found that we usually had a metal water bottle (Clean Canteen) right up against the latch when the door was closed. When we took it out of the fridge and replaced it with a plastic bottle, the problem stopped. So you might check to see if anything metal is touching the latch.
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Tanager
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Doc
Newbie Joined: 18 Mar 2015 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1 |
Posted: 24 Mar 2015 at 11:35am |
Our first trip with our Pod the fridge wasn't working as gas was not thoroughly on so ice melted and water drops in fridge around door latch. Solution was to leave fridge off and open overnight. 6 months later after three weeks camping in Florida it started beeping again. Defrosting cured it drying the interior especially around the latch area with a hair dryer. Now the hair dryer is a standard item we carry with us.
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techntrek
Admin Group - pHp Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Location: MD Online Status: Offline Posts: 9062 |
Posted: 24 Mar 2015 at 8:33pm |
Welcome. Good info.
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Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual
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pproducts2
Newbie Joined: 01 Apr 2015 Location: Killeen, TX Online Status: Offline Posts: 2 |
Posted: 04 Apr 2015 at 11:36pm |
Mine was doing the same thing and I noticed the door had water on it on the outside of the door opposite the latch. It was actually running down the front of the door. So I pulled the cover off of the door and could fill the cold air coming through the door around the latch. I put a small piece of foam next to the latch to plug the hole to fix the problem for now. Forest River probably needs to issue a recall and replace the latch. I was actually getting a puddle of water on the board below the fridge. I dried out the switch on the inside and seems to be working ok for now. So to sum it up hot air is coming in around the latch and causing the switch to have condensation on it. I saw another post about a water leak at the bottom of the fridg it was probably related to this problem.
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pod1
Newbie Joined: 22 May 2015 Location: Kentucky Online Status: Offline Posts: 9 |
Posted: 15 Jun 2015 at 1:36pm |
Trying to figure out why my fridge won't light with gas.. it tries like 2 to 3 and nothing. Any info will be appreciated
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Pod1
2016 RP179 2010 Ford Escape 2000 F150 |
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ToolmanJohn
Senior Member Joined: 23 Apr 2014 Location: Connecticut Online Status: Offline Posts: 451 |
Posted: 15 Jun 2015 at 5:27pm |
1) Make sure propane gas supply is on (make sure you aren't out of propane) 2) Light a stove burner to get gas flowing (the fridge uses very very little , it will take a much longer time to get gas flow if left alone) If the stove won't light, you are out of gas. 3) Now let the fridge try and light up on gas. All I can think of.
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2017 ATC 7X20 Custom Toy Hauler
2013 R-Pod 177 (SOLD) 2013 VW Touareg TDI |
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pod1
Newbie Joined: 22 May 2015 Location: Kentucky Online Status: Offline Posts: 9 |
Posted: 15 Jun 2015 at 8:12pm |
Thanks john I will try.. I just bought the pod and the tank is full I will light the stove and then try the fridge!
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Pod1
2016 RP179 2010 Ford Escape 2000 F150 |
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