fridge not working

periana

periana

Free Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2019
Posts
38
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8
Location
Periana spain
Funster No
62,700
MH
2004 eura mobil
Exp
two days!
help we got our motor home back from having solar pannel fitted and now i cannot get the fridge to work we never tried it before we brought it well we did turn it ti gren light came on but nothing now happens.

its a dometric rm 7401 tried with 240 v green light comes on and nothing! tried with gas beeps for 20 secs then flashs red tried on 12v still nothing.. help
 
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I suspect you need to be hooked up to get it working on 240V. Have the gas taps open to supply the fridge and gas in the bottle when selecting gas and suspect it will only work on 12 V when the engine is running.
 
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been on 240 for over an hour as i said green light comes gas full bottle but glows red and 12 volt nothing
due to drive Sunday 2000k south Spain to cherburg!!
 
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If it works on 240 but does not cool the fridge I would advise you get it looked at. It could be the heater eliment which has failed and is easy to replace. However, you appear to have multiple faults ! When on gas does it spark and then light? Can you see or hear the flame burning ?
 
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just get clicking for 20 seconds which it says in the manual then red light flashing. apart from the green light coming on get on sounds of motor runing up.

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The clicking is the igniter trying to light the gas. It sounds to me that your not getting any gas to the burner. Although you have gas in the bottle it needs to be turned on. Both the bottle and the main valve. This is likely to be next to the gas valves that cover your oven and hob,so have a look for these and make sure they are turned on if turned off. Check your oven and hob Controlls are off so you have no escaping gas.
 
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Do other gas appliances such as hob work/light?

Apart from gas bottle there will be another isolation valve in the MH somewhere, also the gas regulator may need the little green button pressing in if it is he CS version to get gas thru.

On 240V it will take a while to get cold, give it 2 or 3 hours to see if any change.
 
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no tried every thing even checked the fuse box stuffed trying to find dealer near by but far and few here
 
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Ask the people who fitted solar if they did anythin g, can they not help?
Must be something simple if it was working before.
Cheers, Dave(y)
 
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It's likely that the isolation valves are separate for each service. One for oven, one for fridge etc., so possible the oven one open and the fridge one closed. The igniter is definitely working hence the clicking and it's odds on the gas is not getting through.
 
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davejen said:
Ask the people who fitted solar if they did anythin g, can they not help?
Must be something simple if it was working before.
Cheers, Dave(y)
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The OP said he had never tried it since he bought it ???

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It could be something as simple as the wind being in exactly the wrong direction. I only say this as when we were at the norfolk show (no EHU), I couldn't get the fridge to stay alight. I even took it to bits and couldn't see anything wrong.
I went to the dometic stall to book a service, but they were reluctant to say the least. Anyway, we bought a windbreak at the show and erected it and lowered the awning, and hey presto the fridge worked perfectly after that, so it must have been blowing out.
You could turn the van around so the vents in a different position.
Hope you get it sorted, nothings worse than warm beer.
 
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We had a similar problem with our Dometic fridge not working on gas recently, not automatic, the fuel source needs selecting.
We selected gas, but the red warning lit up and the warning beeper sounded. The gas was on, but we had had it turned off while on the ferry. It was as simple as pressing the warning light to reset. Something ekse to remember after having gas supply off.
Might be worth trying.
 
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PhilandMena said:
The OP said he had never tried it since he bought it ???
Click to expand...
I must start reading posts a bit better!!!!
Cheers, Dave (y)
It always amazes me when people with little or no experience buy a motorhome then want to set off to who knows where within a couple of days or so........
 
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You need to know a bit about how the 3-way fridge works. It's a bit more complicated than a simple compressor fridge like you find in a house.

The cooling circuit contains a complex gas/liquid mixture. Heat applied to the lower corner heats the mixture, which then circulates and magically produces cooling.

The heat can be a 240v heating element, a 12v heating element, or a small gas flame. There is a circuit board that controls the switching between the heat sources, either manually from the switch, or automatically when switched to 'Auto'.

You say that there are green and red lights on the fridge, so that points to the supply to the circuit board being OK.

A nice simple test is to switch it to 240V, then see if the element gets hot. Usually there is an outside vent, easily removable, near the bottom of the fridge. You should be able to feel some heat at the lower corner of the circulation pipes.

If there's heat in the circulation pipes, but no cooling, then first check that the fridge is level (no more than 5 degrees of slope). If it's level but still no cooling, then it's not looking good - replacing the circulation pipes is expensive.

If there's no heat in the circulation pipes, maybe the heater element has blown, or there's a bad connection, or the control board is faulty. To be honest, if all three heat sources don't work it's looking like a bad connection (likely) or a faulty control board (unlikely but possible).
 
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swiftsteve said:
It could be something as simple as the wind being in exactly the wrong direction. I only say this as when we were at the norfolk show (no EHU), I couldn't get the fridge to stay alight. I even took it to bits and couldn't see anything wrong.
I went to the dometic stall to book a service, but they were reluctant to say the least. Anyway, we bought a windbreak at the show and erected it and lowered the awning, and hey presto the fridge worked perfectly after that, so it must have been blowing out.
You could turn the van around so the vents in a different position.
Hope you get it sorted, nothings worse than warm beer.
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Hi swiftsteve,

The vent covers are made for exactly this type of situation. They only cost a few quid and are really easy to fit.

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Motorhome-dude said:
Hi swiftsteve,

The vent covers are made for exactly this type of situation. They only cost a few quid and are really easy to fit.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, do you know where to buy them?
Forget that, I just found some on fleabay. Do yo think they are safe to use even in summer?
 
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Summer use - Yes and no.

Yes, they are completely safe BUT in hot weather you need to remove them to get extra air flow to the fridge. If the back of the fridge gets warm, it doesn't cool as efficiently. That's why loads of people complain of fridge problems in Spain. You've probably heard of people making fan systems to get extra air flow in warmer countries. We don't normally suffer like that in the UK. It's usually too cold and too wet and too windy for our fridges.
 
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periana said:
help we got our motor home back from having solar pannel fitted and now i cannot get the fridge to work we never tried it before we brought it well we did turn it ti gren light came on but nothing now happens.

its a dometric rm 7401 tried with 240 v green light comes on and nothing! tried with gas beeps for 20 secs then flashs red tried on 12v still nothing.. help
Click to expand...
I had a very similar fridge so I'll try and run you through the most obvious problems.

1. 240v - plug in EHU cable. Check zig board that all breakers are in the 'up' position.
2. 240v - check main consumer unit (small version of house style electric) that all breakers are in the 'up' position
3. 240v - presuming above is all fine, run fridge and feel the outside vent. This is where the heat is exhausted. You should be able to feel a little bit of warm air coming from the vent outside if you put your hand very close to it.

1. Gas - you WILL have an isolation valve specifically for the fridge. Find it and turn it clockwise.
2. Gas - turn on fridge and listen very carefully for 'clicking' noises at the back of fridge. Is it clicking?
3. No, it isn't clicking - remove vent panel and vacuum the gas burner section.
4. Yes, it is clicking, vacuum the gas burner section and try again.
5. 12v - check zig board that all breakers and switches are turned on.
6. 12v - feel outside vent for heat exhaust (as above)

We could get into changing spark ignition and heater elements but I've got a sneaky suspicion it's something very simple if it won't work on any settings. They're all basically independent so a solar panel install shouldn't kill all three settings unless they were absolute idiots!
 
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