Dometic fridge not cooling in high heat

[Michael Barron]

Our Dometic fridge (an I use that term loosely) does not keep food cold. In high ambient heat 85 deg to 95 the best it can cool to is 50 deg. On a recent trip we had outside temp's in the 100+ deg. The fridge only got down to 70 deg., I had to throw out almost 2 pounds of bacon along with 1/2 gal. of milk. Last year had the same problem and the dealer just moved the thermistor to another fin and in temperatures below 80 it works fine. The freezer is not the problem.
I have tried a small fan blowing across a container of solid ice inside the fridge to no improvement, Also put the same fan in the lower section on the outside blowing up and still no help.
Am I the only one with this problem? By the way the unit is an elec/gas.

[TucsonJim]

Hi I'm curious if you're getting the same poor results on both electric and gas?

Jim

[Scott'n'Wendy]

I had to throw out almost 2 pounds of bacon

THIS IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!!!

First...what Jim said, same on a/c and propane?
It would help if you included the model of fridge. Is it one of the four door fridges? If so, door sealing may be an issue.

On my fridge I added two more vent fans for evacuating heat from the backside of the fridge, helped a lot. My fridge normally stays between 0.5*C and 4*C. Prior to the extra fans it would vary more.

[howson]

Our Dometic fridge (an I use that term loosely) does not keep food cold. In high ambient heat 85 deg to 95 the best it can cool to is 50 deg. On a recent trip we had outside temp's in the 100+ deg. The fridge only got down to 70 deg., I had to throw out almost 2 pounds of bacon along with 1/2 gal. of milk. Last year had the same problem and the dealer just moved the thermistor to another fin and in temperatures below 80 it works fine. The freezer is not the problem.
I have tried a small fan blowing across a container of solid ice inside the fridge to no improvement, Also put the same fan in the lower section on the outside blowing up and still no help.
Am I the only one with this problem? By the way the unit is an elec/gas.

I gave up on the Dometic refrigerator that came in my 315RLTS (FYI the Dometic uses absorption technology, typically referenced as an "RV fridge"). In it's place is a residential compressor technology refrigerator. There's no comparison, IMO, between the two. Compressor refers are far superior in cooling food.

The only situation where the absorption refers make some sense (to me) is a relatively small, single-door unit in smaller RVs where the owners intend on frequent boondocking (no shore power) and can't (or won't) invest in an upgraded power system with solar to power a compressor-based unit.

What's also a factor is if the absorption refer is in a slide (vents out the side) or not in a slide (vents out the roof). The latter work much better due to how the absorption refer cooling action works.

This is probably not much help...but I chased what you're experiencing for months (and did a lot of upgrades) without a successful resolution until I replaced the refer.

Howard

[ncitro]

Michael Barron Unfortunately all I can offer is I did the same as Howard. I ran my Dometic for a year in my shop before I was confident enough to sell it, and it ran like a tank. It just did not do well in my slide out no matter what I did with baffles or fans. Some installations seem to do better than others, but I could never make mine work reliably enough to trust my food in it. My residential has been amazing, cools no matter the temp outside, makes ice and filters water, and has twice the usable space.

[BobinICT]

I was going to hold off showing this until I had more testing done but, if you can receive an Amazon order and are willing to toss 50 bucks at it, this may be something to try.

I installed this about a week ago. Very simple install. Since installation I have had the fridge set at 3, on electric, and I have the adjuster set in the middle setting and, the vent fans off. The picture is one week of data and daytime temps since install have been in the mid to upper 80"s with morning sun on the fridge side.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008OSB806...roduct_details

There are a couple of YouTube videos showing the install. Included instructions are pretty vague. It's just a matter of removing the plastic cover for the board, plugging in and closing it back up.

We will be on the Texas coast in a week so there I hope to put this to the test. So far I am liking the product.

Edit to add: AC inside has been set at 85.

[Michael Barron]

Dometic fridge # DM2882RBF1 two door (freezer and fridge) same cooling experience elec. or gas. As for the The Variable Thermistor Adjuster, my fridge is not a fixed temp setting and can be adjusted, but I run it the coldest setting all the time. Don't know if this thing would work, but will contact them if I get no satisfaction from the dealer and Dometic. My personal thought is Dometic has a design flaw, but after research others have gone the legal route to no avail.
Thanks for the answers.

[JohnHamer]

I had a Dometic RM1350 installed in my 2019, 315RLTS Reflection. It worked great when the outside ambient was 85 or less. We moved to Florida where summer temperatures are always in the upper 90's and when the sun shines lower on a wall, the wall temperature could be 110. I tried everything recommended to help the fridge, replacing the four fans in the wall with higher power fans, adding insulation so the air doesn't contact the back wall of the fridge, sealing the top air space above the fridge (wood molding above freezer door was always warm), nothing helped. Dometic seemed to think it would work better with a roof vent, but that was impossible in a slide out. When I removed the RM1350 to install a home, compressor based unit, it seems the RM1350 was mounted 3 inches above the floor. Maybe if it was 3" lower, the air through the heat exchanger, could be ducted out easier, removing more heat, and allowing the unit to work better. How can the heat exchanger work efficiently when it is above the exit?
The compressor based unit works much better.

[howson]

I had a Dometic RM1350 installed in my 2019, 315RLTS Reflection. It worked great when the outside ambient was 85 or less. We moved to Florida where summer temperatures are always in the upper 90's and when the sun shines lower on a wall, the wall temperature could be 110. I tried everything recommended to help the fridge, replacing the four fans in the wall with higher power fans, adding insulation so the air doesn't contact the back wall of the fridge, sealing the top air space above the fridge (wood molding above freezer door was always warm), nothing helped. Dometic seemed to think it would work better with a roof vent, but that was impossible in a slide out. When I removed the RM1350 to install a home, compressor based unit, it seems the RM1350 was mounted 3 inches above the floor. Maybe if it was 3" lower, the air through the heat exchanger, could be ducted out easier, removing more heat, and allowing the unit to work better. How can the heat exchanger work efficiently when it is above the exit?
The compressor based unit works much better.

I could have written this post! Welcome to the forum, JohnHamer.