Dometic Fridge repair

[Crazylegs]

Could anyone recommend a 7651 Dometic fridge repairer ?
Ours works on 12v and hook up, but stopped working on gas in Germany last September, since then not one, but two mobile guys have cleaned the flue/ burner/ pendulum etc. The burner ignites and has a strong flame but the fridge doesn’t cool.
Both guys didn’t want to go beyond this point as a window would have to be removed to get the fridge out of the van. With a replacement costing close to 2k surely a repair must be an option. We are based in the south but within reason we would travel to anyone who knows their onions.

 

[Vikdikdok]

Any possibility of disconnecting and standing the fridge on its head for 24hrs - sometimes this works (it did for me

 

[Larby]

I took my fridge out via the passenger door.

 

[Crazylegs]

Any possibility of disconnecting and standing the fridge on its head for 24hrs - sometimes this works (it did for me

I have read this but both guys tell me it’s an old wives tale. If it did work it would only be a temporary fix although obviously not in your case. How long has yours worked after inversion? Perhaps it’s a pain breaking the seal to do this, but once we are home it may be worth a try.

 

[TinaLes]

Hi Crazylegs sorry to hear you woes on your dometic FF.
If its working on 12V & 240V hook up, then surely that proves that the condenser is working, and has not lost its gas?

If the Gas burner has been serviced, checked & cleaned properly, then I cant see any reason why the whole fridge has to be removed from the van.
Does the gas burner ignite & stay on long enough to do its job in providing heat to get the Fridge Freezer to cool?

Have you sourced the local mobile Dometic gas engineers in your area?, I contacted Dometic and they provide a list of all their "approved" engineers in the South, Great I thought, but they were fully booked for 6 weeks plus, so I chucked it back to the dealers as it was so new.
They then called out their "independent" Dometic engineer who arrived a week later to the dealership workshop.

When we first got our van, we had a problem in that it would not work on any supply gas or electric, the cooling unit was diagnosed as being faulty needing replacement, however when the engineer returned to fit the replacement cooling unit, the van had sat on a flat/level car park at the dealers for a week, and low & behold he found as it had been left on hook up, the FF was working perfectly.
This clearly showed that our drive was too steep to store the van without screwing up the FF in its operation, so I constructed some ramps to keep the van level at all times when stored at home, fingers crossed no problems since.
Good Luck.
LES

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[2 Jabs]

You only need to stand the fridge on its side. The idea is to let the gas/liquid congregate. As part of the fridge cycle the refrigerant changes state and sometimes after being moved the “reservoir” can get low. Letting it regroup can work, provided that is the problem.

 

[TheBig1]

If the fridge works well on EHU, it is working effectively. However the heat from the flame is not warming the heat exchanger. It's been brushed so the flue must be clean(ish). Have you checked the baffle and diverter at the top of the flue are in place? They restrict the upward flow of air and fumes just enough to allow the heat transfer.

Getting the fridge from the van is not easy. Just unbolt the passenger seat and it will fit through that door with space to spare

Inverting an older fridge does work, by recombining liquid and gas and in some cases dislodging minor blockages. But it can disturb rust and allow the fridge to spring a coolant leak. That is usually fatal to an old fridge as coolant units for those models are no longer available

 

[Crazylegs]

“If the Gas burner has been serviced, checked & cleaned properly, then I cant see any reason why the whole fridge has to be removed from the van.
Does the gas burner ignite & stay on long enough to do its job in providing heat to get the Fridge Freezer to cool?”

When on gas the freezer works, but the fridge doesn’t.

 

[jockaneezer]

When on gas the freezer works, but the fridge doesn’t.

You should try replacing the heat transfer paste on the back of the fridge unit's cooling fins, sounds like this might be the problem ?

 

[Scattycat]

Could anyone recommend a 7651 Dometic fridge repairer ?
Ours works on 12v and hook up, but stopped working on gas in Germany last September, since then not one, but two mobile guys have cleaned the flue/ burner/ pendulum etc. The burner ignites and has a strong flame but the fridge doesn’t cool.
Both guys didn’t want to go beyond this point as a window would have to be removed to get the fridge out of the van. With a replacement costing close to 2k surely a repair must be an option. We are based in the south but within reason we would travel to anyone who knows their onions.

Do you have external winter covers on the fridge vents? Leaving them on when the weather is warm stops the fridge working properly

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[autorouter]

Inverting the fridge or renewing the thermal paste only has an effect if the cooling circuit isn't working properly. However the OP says it is working OK on 12V and hookup, so the cooling circuit must be working properly.

That means there's something wrong with the way the gas flame is heating the cooling circuit. The OP has done some of the usual checks to see if the flame is working, and all looks OK. So it's not flame failure.

Maybe check the gas jet to make sure it is the correct size. Too much heat will cause the cooling circuit to stop cooling.

 

[Off da Grid]

If the gas flame is making a roaring noise it should be ok if not the jets probably blocked.

 

[Crazylegs]

Definitely roaring, it all looks good, top of the flue not very warm though, the jet has been checked and is correct and clean as a whistle.
Thanks for all suggestions, I just need to find a good fridge technician, surely it’s repairable.