Dometic Fridge/Freezer

[Basildog]

Our warranty claim for our useless fridge in our pile of junk HYMER thing has been rejected as apparently the design working temperatures are 7° C for the fridge and -12° C for the freezer so pretty much useless as anything but a cool box
No one tells you when purchasing a new van that actually the fridge is designed to be useless .

 

[Lenny HB]

If it gets down to 7° you are doing well. You just have accept it is an absorption fridge.

 

[Basildog]

Our Winnebago has an absorption fridge as did our Laika and they were both brilliant.
Problem seems to be they all vary

 

[dpsuk999]

I think the main problem is ‘volume’ which is apparent in a lot of motorhome issues. My fridge is 11 years old and I believe back then (2008) the people constructing motorhomes and all the internal fixtures and fittings were built to a better standard IMO. Take for example currently I’m in Croatia and the external temperature is 31.5 but my fridge is at 3.7 and freezer -16.1. I have 2 big fans on the top vent and also fitted 2 miniature fans on the internal fins. I have also renewed the heat thermal paste on the internal pipework. A lot had to do with maintenance too but if yours is under warranty then I assume it’s fairly new.

The heat thermal paste does dry out over time and I think renewing that has made a massive difference.

 

[Figaro]

That's a great setup you have
Can I ask.how the paste is replaced ?

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[Richard n Ann]

I

That's a great setup you have
Can I ask.how the paste is replaced ?

Did mine, you simply unscrew the aluminium fins, remove the old paste and put plenty of new on. You can buy it on ebay as heat transfer paste for computer processors. There's a thread about it somewhere...

Our 3 way fridge saga

My story just might help someone with 3 way fridge trouble so here goes; We've had our motorhome 3 years now and the fridge was always ok even in Spain's high ambient temperatures, until suddenly about a year ago we were in Spain, temperatures were the usual high twenties and I noticed the...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[Figaro]

Thanks, I'll look into it when home.
Mines a 15 year old vintage dometic and I'm getting -16 ish in freezer if I don't open door too often. Don't have therm in fridge.
But I'm sure it'll benefit from new paste.
Were in Croatia too

 

[Fletton]

It strikes me that this issue may be the reason why some fridges perform so differently from new....

Those with a decent amount of contact paste applied at the manuf stage as opposed to those that perhaps don’t... ?

 

[DC4JC]

Our warranty claim for our useless fridge in our pile of junk HYMER thing has been rejected as apparently the design working temperatures are 7° C for the fridge and -12° C for the freezer so pretty much useless as anything but a cool box
No one tells you when purchasing a new van that actually the fridge is designed to be useless .

I had exactly the same with our previous van, a 2015 Burstner.
I wrote and complained directly to Dometic and had the same response ' within spec'.
As you say, no better than a coolbox and to some degree potentially dangerous. As you know a lot of cooked meats say they should be stored at below 5 degrees in a fridge!
We got fed up with milk going off after a day or so, worried about the above and to top it all I couldnt stand the warm beers!
Interestingly, our current van, 2017 Carthago, has the same fridge, but it performs much better and we do not suffer from the above issues.

 

[CazPaul]

Nothing seems to be built as good as it used to be, some people still have the old Electrolux units over 20 years old working perfectly.

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[Stealaway]

Our 2012 dometic F/F works perfectly. The door broke off, but that's a totally different issue

 

[Lenny HB]

My earlier response to Basildog was in jest as he moans about everything on his Hymer, anyone who knows my posts will know that I also think Dometic fridges are a load of crap.

What is really annoying is that most of us fit additional fans and get them working reasonably well, so they can be improved but Dometic do nothing about it.

As well as fitting 2 external fans in the top grill I fitted an internal fan.

These were my test results at the time.

But in normal use it rarely gets down these temperatures, a couple of reasons for this. The fridge being tall and thin the air doesn't circulate very well and the temperature varies a lot depending on how the fridge is loaded. The sensor for my controller is about 2/3 of the way down on the back wall so probably not giving a true result when loaded (note must move it).

I one incident last year where my controller was reading 7.9° but some meat by the door catch was starting to freeze. So when people make claims for how good there fridge is I take it with a pinch of salt these days as it is very difficult to get a true reading.
The only way to really find out would be to put ½ doz sensors in it and monitor it over a period with all different loads.

One thing that is really noticeable is how much quicker the fridge gets back down to temperature after the door has been opened with the internal fan.

 

[dpsuk999]

Thanks, I'll look into it when home.
Mines a 15 year old vintage dometic and I'm getting -16 ish in freezer if I don't open door too often. Don't have therm in fridge.
But I'm sure it'll benefit from new paste.
Were in Croatia too

Hi Figaro

Where about in Croatia are you? I’ve attached some pictures of the process but as Richard and Ann has said just remove the cooling fins at the back of the inside of your fridge and remove the dry old paste and apply new paste. Remember the fridges work by removing heat from inside the fridge hence renewing the heat transfer paste works wonders ?

You can also see my 2 miniature fans I installed on the internal fins which distributes the cold air around the fridge.

Dave

 

[dpsuk999]

These are my external fans I fitted:

 

[Richard n Ann]

These are my external fans I fitted:
View attachment 311115

That's great ? same as mine, you can remove the grille for extra ventilation without having the fans stuck to it ?

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[dpsuk999]

Yes, I did originally fit them to the grill which does prevent you from removing the grill if you want to increase air flow ?

 

[Lenny HB]

Yes, I did originally fit them to the grill which does prevent you from removing the grill if you want to increase air flow ?

Mine are on the grill I connected them so the cables just unplug so I can remove the grill.

 

[dpsuk999]

39 outside and fridge 4.1 and freezer -15.8. The ‘external freezer’ is a 240v waeco compressor freezer in the garage and is only -3 colder than the dometic freezer.

 

[Blue Knight]

Our warranty claim for our useless fridge in our pile of junk HYMER thing has been rejected as apparently the design working temperatures are 7° C for the fridge and -12° C for the freezer so pretty much useless as anything but a cool box
No one tells you when purchasing a new van that actually the fridge is designed to be useless .

I would be responding to my dealer to ask why my fridge temperatures were always operating in the food danger zone.

 

[Figaro]

Hi Figaro

Where about in Croatia are you? I’ve attached some pictures of the process but as Richard and Ann has said just remove the cooling fins at the back of the inside of your fridge and remove the dry old paste and apply new paste. Remember the fridges work by removing heat from inside the fridge hence renewing the heat transfer paste works wonders ?

You can also see my 2 miniature fans I installed on the internal fins which distributes the cold air around the fridge.

View attachment 311109View attachment 311110View attachment 311111View attachment 311112View attachment 311113View attachment 311114

Dave
[/QUOTE
Not got used to this new quote thing yet.
I'm in Starigrad, opposite to Pag.
Lovely place decided to stay longer here.
Going to Zadar then maybe Pag

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[dpsuk999]

We stayed on Pag a couple of years ago, Camping Strasko, was a great campsite, very big but nice. Pag is the party island of Croatia ?????

 

[SteveRallye]

We have had problems twice in the last 10 years one being that just as we decided to store our extra Xmas food in the M/H fridge it gave up the ghost within 2 days and despite being covered by a warranty they refused to pay up as the fault was a connector between the fridge and freezer and craftily the small print said did not include any connectors, the engineer who came out told us he had had this problem before despite him pleading that this connector is part of the manufacter we ended paying it ourselves. I believe it was a dometic but it was a spurious warranty with an insurance type cover were you paid out and claim it back. The 2nd time was with Dometic rejecting our claim despite to being reported at 9 mths old and they said it was misuse. The panel surrounding the door cracked at the top and we reported that to the dealer and said it was stiff from day one to get it to open on the lock for travelling catch. Hence in previous posts I mentioned having more bother with the suppliers of the goods supplied to the van than the build quality.

 

[Hils and Glenns]

dpsuk999 how much thermal paste did you need to fix your fridge please? Want to give it a go.

 

[dpsuk999]

I bought 2 tubes and used 1.5 ?

 

[Hils and Glenns]

I bought 2 tubes and used 1.5 ?
View attachment 321496

Thank you

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[jezport]

Gave my 3 yr old fridge a quick service, cleaned the jet and checked the thermal paste. Didnt need much more paste as it was pretty good. Also fitted extra vent fan, as I only had one fitted .
We went awat to the Norfolk show and the coast for a few days afterwards. I have a wireless thermometer in the freezer. Temperatures were between -12 and -19 with outside temperatures of up to 34deg