New Fridge - no power
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Forum Name: I need HELP!!!
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Printed Date: 06 May 2024 at 1:07am
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Topic: New Fridge - no power
Posted By: jato
Subject: New Fridge - no power
Date Posted: 21 Jan 2021 at 7:06am
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Just received a new 3.5 cubic foot Dometic to replace my 10 year old one that died. First thing done out of the box was to plug in to 110 and make sure everything works before the install. Unfortunately nothing works, the light doesn't even come on when the door is opened. Checked the continuity of the plug (all good) and everything appears to be wired correctly and tight. All plugs and sockets are plugged in and tight as well. Ideas? ------------- God's pod '11 model 177 '17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake "...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." |
Replies:
Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 21 Jan 2021 at 8:35am
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Good idea to test it on 120vac before going through the whole install and finding the fridge to have a refrigerant leak or something. But, You need 12v to the control boards for the fridge to work. Try connect that too and see what happens. ------------- 1994 Chinook Concourse 1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
Posted By: podwerkz
Date Posted: 21 Jan 2021 at 9:15am
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Yep, gotta have 12v on the control board...the 120v supply only powers the heating element, and only when the control board calls for cooling. With no power to the control board, nothing will work.
For testing, make sure to feed 12v to the control board input, NOT the 12v heating element input. Also be sure to check, then double check, polarity as you do your testing. You dont want to fry that new control board! ------------- r･pod 171 gone but not forgotten! |
Posted By: riotkayak284
Date Posted: 21 Jan 2021 at 12:45pm
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Hey Jato, mine is going bad. Where did you order it at? |
Posted By: jato
Date Posted: 21 Jan 2021 at 1:38pm
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It is with red-face and embarrassment I write this reply. I FORGOT (don't get old honey  ) about hooking up the 12 volt to the fridge, of course the control panel wouldn't function w/o it. Ahhhhhhh!So I go out to the back 20 acres where our 177 is safely 'hibernating' out of the elements. Glad to have 4 wheel drive going through the snow. Brought out a 12 volt battery with me and hooked it up, yahoo!! everything works as it is supposed to. So now I will have to go to the hardware store and purchase something to drill into the 2" x 2" wood that the fridge gets screwed into so it doesn't move. Getting the old one out was a bugger, had to take a hacksaw blade by itself and cut through 3 of the 4 bolts as they just turned and turned w/o coming out. I figure on some kind of 'receiver that can be pounded in a drilled hole that a machine screw can go into will work. Any other ideas? ------------- God's pod '11 model 177 '17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake "...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." |
Posted By: jato
Date Posted: 21 Jan 2021 at 1:50pm
Call Lacey Stutsman at Forest River 574.642.3119 option 4. Most likely you will leave a voicemail and hope for a return call. Best way is to e-mail, she usually gets back within a couple hours this route. Her e-mail is : https://webmaila.juno.com/webmail/new/8?userinfo=b6b3efaa3c2bafccd54140041f771a1e&randid=946530989&folder=DOMETIC%20fridge&msgNum=00001ok0:001W2O9O00002Dy9&block=1&msgNature=all&view=mailHeader# - lstutsman@forestriverinc.com Be prepared for sticker shock as mine came to a smidge over $ 1100 with shipping. Be sure to let them know right or left hand swing as I found out the hard way you cannot switch doors as you can on the ones in your home. I was told that 10 years was really good longevity for this fridge. I disagree in that this only gets run on the average 30 - 40 days/year. So after 10 years it has been running for about 1 year! If the refrigerator in my home only lasted 1 year there would be trouble. Best wishes ------------- God's pod '11 model 177 '17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake "...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." |
Posted By: riotkayak284
Date Posted: 21 Jan 2021 at 2:30pm
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Whew, $1100 dollars.... that is crazy.... My home fridge was less than that.... |
Posted By: jato
Date Posted: 21 Jan 2021 at 6:00pm
Yes, mine was a LOT less and instead of 3.5 cubic feet, the LG at home is 22 cubic feet. ------------- God's pod '11 model 177 '17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake "...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." |
Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 21 Jan 2021 at 6:29pm
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Don’t compare an RV absorption fridge to your home fridge. If you do it will just irritate you. Totally different technologies, manufacturing volumes, markets, etc. it is what it is,
Ditto on longevity. Be happy with the 10 years. The refrigerant in your RV fridge is ammonia. It is corrosive and will be eating through the fridge tubing from the inside out whether you’re using the fridge or not. In comparison, the refrigerant in your home vapor compression fridge is essentially an inert material. If your home fridge fails it will be the compressor more than likely. Again, totally different technologies ------------- 1994 Chinook Concourse 1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
Posted By: TimK182G
Date Posted: 19 Feb 2021 at 11:37am
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Offgrid any thoughts on what may be wrong with my fridge? It's a dometic 3 way and it works perfectly when hooked up to shore power and if propane. When I switch to 12 volt, it just won't work. I thought it may have been the battery since the previous one I had was junk so I got a new one toward the end of the summer. Fully charged, it still won't work. All of my other 12 volt systems perfectly. Checked all the 12V fuses, nothing blown. Not sure why it isn't working. ------------- 2018 R-Pod 182G 2014 GMC Sierra 1500 |
Posted By: jato
Date Posted: 19 Feb 2021 at 3:51pm
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Check your 12v connections behind your fridge, maybe one of the wirenuts or connectors vibrated or worked loose. Also check to make sure the wires are firmly attached to the fridge connectors. On mine there are only 2 12v wires that split into 4 wires that connect to fridge. ------------- God's pod '11 model 177 '17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake "...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." |
Posted By: TimK182G
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2021 at 3:55pm
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Thank you. I'll check again when I take it out of winter storage. I believe I checked that last summer but can't hurt to try it again. ------------- 2018 R-Pod 182G 2014 GMC Sierra 1500 |
Posted By: jato
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2021 at 5:25pm
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TimK Worst case scenerio - purchase a new fridge - from yours truly. Look under the General Camping tab, in the campers flea market. Brand new $ 450 and you pay for shipping. ------------- God's pod '11 model 177 '17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake "...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." |
Posted By: TimK182G
Date Posted: 22 Feb 2021 at 11:26am
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^^^^^ Thank you for the offer. The fridge still works perfectly on 2 of the 3 modes so it's probably something stupid that is causing it not to work in 12 volt mode. ------------- 2018 R-Pod 182G 2014 GMC Sierra 1500 |
Posted By: lostagain
Date Posted: 22 Feb 2021 at 12:15pm
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TimK, this may be a really dumb question, but have you confirmed that your 12vdc power supply to the refrigerator cooling function is live? It's been a while since I installed the replacement refrigerator in our 172, but when I did, I replaced the conductors for the 12v refrigerator operation [as opposed to the light weight wire to run its circuit board] with much heavier wire. If my memory serves me well, the 12v power to for the refrigerator computer is not on the same fuse/circuit as the 12v power to run the cooling function of the refrigerator. So you may have 12v to the refrigerator's circuit board, but no power to the circuit for the 12v cooling operation. You may want to trace the heavier cooling function wire from where it connects at the junction block on the refrigerator all the way back to the 12vdc fuse panel, making sure there is continuity and that the fuse is ok. ------------- Never leave footprints behind. Fred & Maria Kearney Sonoma 167RB Our Pod 172 2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost |
Posted By: riotkayak284
Date Posted: 28 Feb 2021 at 5:54am
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So mine now works on AC, had to replace the Brow board, still no propane or battery. Any ideas? Beating my head against the wall with this thing. |
Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 28 Feb 2021 at 6:20pm
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So after the brow board replacement the propane mode quit operating? It had already quit working in 12V mode? Did you confirm 12V is available for the heating element as la suggested? Have you confirmed propane is on and available?
I’ve never tried this but you might want to see if you can get the fridge into service mode and try to force it into each mode of operation and see what happens. http://bryantrv.com/docs2/docs/Service%20Manual,%20RM8xxx.pdf ------------- 1994 Chinook Concourse 1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
Posted By: riotkayak284
Date Posted: 01 Mar 2021 at 5:37am
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So before nothing was working, now I do have AC working. |
Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 01 Mar 2021 at 8:10am
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Ok sorry, two different problems from two members, got me confused. You have 12V to the controls or nothing would work. The 12V mode is easier to troubleshoot than propane, all it is is a heating element similar to the 120 Vac one but lower output, so I’d start there. Did you confirm you have voltage available to that as lostagain suggested? Also you can try the service mode and see if that tells you anything. ------------- 1994 Chinook Concourse 1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
Posted By: riotkayak284
Date Posted: 04 Mar 2021 at 8:22am
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Thanks OG, verified both..... These fridges are VERY difficult to troubleshoot. |
Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 04 Mar 2021 at 8:45am
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Ok. Take a look at page 43. You can see the dc heating element (upper left) and it’s connections. You can check to see if it’s burned out or not. Should be around a 1 ohm resistance IIRC. You could also try bypassing the control board by connecting the dc heating element directly to 12v and see if that gets the fridge cold.
http://bryantrv.com/docs2/docs/Service%20Manual,%20RM8xxx.pdf ------------- 1994 Chinook Concourse 1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |