Dometic Fridge has no power

[Eric65]

I am having similar problem , from the white 4 connection block, the red positive wire runs to the circuit board, it has what looks like maybe ?  a diode in line there is 12 volts before and none after I am thinking that that is not the way it should be. Thanks for any input

[Darryl&Rita]

Eric,  that sounds like a thermal fuse. It trips on high temperature, like when the flame backfires outside the chimney. 

[Kirk W]

28 minutes ago, Eric65 said:

I am having similar problem

Welcome to the Escapee Forums!

I agree with what Darryl said, but am not familiar with a refrigerator having one of them like nearly all RV water heaters have. Can you tell us the make & model of your refrigerator? If you visit the website of Bryant RV you may find a service manual for the refrigerator that you have. 

[Eric65]

model # DM2652,  Dometic,  and with a second look the fuse is between there white 4 connector and goes to the metal chimney above were the pilot light is, has a push on connector and a red wire comes off the other connector and goes to the circuit board. Thanks 

[Eric65]

the fridge worked good all weekend on electrical, no propane ,after the road trip home,  about 4 hours and very dusty it stopped working I'am hoping that it is that fuse, I would assume that they are available at most RV shops Thank again 

[Kirk W]

That does sound like the overheat protection that Dometic uses on some models of refrigerators. If we are correct then any dealer with a Dometic parts line should have it but make sure that you get the right one. In addition, if the new one should fail, make sure you get the unit checked as without it you could have a fire. It is a safety device so don't wire around it. 

Bryant RV Service does have your service manual.

Dometic 12 Series and 52 Series Service manual

 

Edited May 22, 2018 by Kirk Wood

[Jason Monaghan]

I need some serious assistance.

My Dometic fridge has the gas or electric options, and i have the same problems as listed above. I have tested the 12v it read 13.57 there is continuity. i have a friend with the same RV and i tested both the upper and lower boards in his RV and they were functioning. I tested his boards in my RV they did not work.I have tested all fuses, all are functioning. There is no smell of ammonia. I did find a fuse that was blown outside of the trailer next to the battery that looks as though it powers the 12v system. With  a charged battery all lights and fans work. I have read this forum and tried everything that the group has listed.At this point i am about to pull the fridge out and look for poor connections behind the fridge.

i am at a loss

[Kirk W]

Welcome to the Escapee forums. Do you have any lights on the refrigerator display or does the light inside turn on when you open the door? If it has any kind of indications that tells us that it does have 12V power. 

9 hours ago, Jason Monaghan said:

i have the same problems as listed above.

By that, do you mean that you also have no power at all? Have you looked at the Bryant RV website to see if he has a copy of the proper service manual for your model? Which model do you have? We will be happy to assist you but more information would be helpful. The main circuit board should have 2 fuses. There will be one that is 3a which supplies 12v power to all of the control circuitry and another that is 5a which supplies only the 120v to the electric heating element. You probably also have an over temperature device on or near the boiler which is there to prevent a fire if it gets too hot and those are not usually owner resettable but there is a way for service and the service manuals should address that. Depending on when your refrigerator was built, that device may be original or it might have been an update that was added later. 

I really do not have enough information to troubleshoot but may be able to assist if you give a bit more information. 

[timinfla2]

My Dometic RM2852 fridge used to work and now it's not.  The RV hasn't moved or anything, it just seems to have failed out of nowhere.  It has been on shore power for 3 months now and still is.  

I have zero lights on the upper panel, or in the interior of the fridge.  I checked the power outlet in the outside access panel and I'm getting good power there.  I then opened up the lower board cover per the instructions in this thread and I've linked a picture here to indicate what steps I've taken: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PgkLVLiwdjuBQAgssmAFedVm9MhQKfjj/view?usp=sharing

Using my multimeter, I measured first the resistance of both the 3a and 5a fuses and then measured the resistance across both fuse terminals (blue and red arrows).  I then checked for voltage by grounding against the yellow arrow with one lead and testing the voltage on the other leads.  

I'm getting AC voltage on the 5A terminals (blue), but absolutely nothing on the 3A terminals (red).  

So I've verified the outlet is getting full AC power, the 5A terminals are powered, the fuses are all intact with zero resistance, but I'm not getting any DC voltage to the 3a terminals (red arrows).  

Can anybody offer any further thoughts or troubleshooting steps?

Thank you.

[Wrknrvr]

 First thing I would do is to unplug the unit from 110 vac. Make sure the fridge is turned off. Then pull both fuses and polish the ends where they make contact in the board . Check for dull finish on the fuse holders. If dullness is there polish the contact area.

 Next if you at the wire ends on the right of the picture that attach to the board. The white cover will open up so you can test the power to those wires. Use a little hook to open them up for acces to test power.

 

 Now plug the unit in and operate it on 110 vac. Test to see if 110 vac is going to the heating element.  And test all testable spots for 110 vac to the heating element. Then test amperage to the element.

 

 Now use two weeks ago I had a customer call and his fridge would only operate on gas. Another mobile RV tech said the contro board inside was bad. I check real quick for 110 vac as I am telling you.

 I had another board for the control inside the fridge. Installed it and still no amperage to the heating elements. Hooked the elements directly to 110 vac and the elements worked.

 Installed old control board inside. Did fuse test polish and replace.

 

 

 Finally took a pair of pliers and twisted the plug ends that plugged into the 110 vac. Installed plug back into outlet.

 

 

 Fridge is still operating on 110 vac today.

 

 Just saying if you have the system operating on 110 vac and have the fridge on auto you can unplug the 110 vac plug and it should switch to gas automatically. That is if the unit is calling for cooling operation.

 

 Safe Travels,     Vern

 

[Kirk W]

12 hours ago, timinfla2 said:

I'm getting AC voltage on the 5A terminals (blue), but absolutely nothing on the 3A terminals (red). 

Welcome to the Escapee forums! You can download a copy of the service manual from Bryant RV/service documents.

Since you have no indications on the display and you find no 12V power to or through the 3a fuse, that confirms that you have no 12V-dc power to the refrigerator and since that provides all control functions of your refrigerator it will prevent it operating in any mode. Next, I would check for 12V at the two terminal connectors just to the right of your yellow arrow. That is the source of 12V for your refrigerator and if there is no voltage there your problem is not in the refrigerator but in the power supplied to it. 

If there is a voltage there but it is below 10V-dc that still may be the problem as it won't work reliably with low voltage.

[timinfla2]

Thank you all so VERY much for all of the help on this.  I narrowed it down to the eyebrow board, I have one on order from Amazon and I'll update you on the results.

-Tim

[Kirk W]

Please do return and share once the solution is found. It helps us to assist others in the future.

[timinfla2]

Will do!  the board is on order from Amazon.  

[Jimfdoc]

On 4/6/2016 at 8:23 AM, Kirk Wood said:

The lights and all control functions of your refrigerator are powered by 12V-dc from the RV battery/12V system. That is also true for your interior lights in the RV so the first hint is if those lights will turn on and at proper brightness? Did you check for 12V or more at the RV batteries? If it is there, then you need to check for 12V at the refrigerator connections. It is highly unlikely that something in the refrigerator failed while it was turned off. An RV refrigerator must have a good 12V-dc power supply for it to be able to work from either 120V-ac or from propane. The lack of any display or refrigerator interior light tells me that it is not getting 12V power.

 

My best guess is that the problem is in the 12V supply, not the refrigerator at this point, but we need more information to do anything more than guess. Did you take any voltage readings while you were checking fuses? You should read 12V across the 3a fuse holder when you remove that fuse.

Thank You refer runs fine when plugged into a 120-volt unplug it and it won't operate there is no light have new battery with full charge, also when plugged into 120 it seems that it's still running on gas as the mechanism is still hot

[Jimfdoc]

21 minutes ago, Jimfdoc said:

Thank You refer runs fine when plugged into a 120-volt unplug it and it won't operate there is no light have new battery with full charge, also when plugged into 120 it seems that it's still running on gas as the mechanism is still hot

Took readings outside on back of reefer position f2, 5 amp fuse when removed reading is then 104 volts install fuse and get no reading

 

25 minutes ago, Jimfdoc said:

Thank You refer runs fine when plugged into a 120-volt unplug it and it won't operate there is no light have new battery with full charge, also when plugged into 120 it seems that it's still running on gas as the mechanism is still hot

 

[Kirk W]

42 minutes ago, Jimfdoc said:

Took readings outside on back of reefer position f2, 5 amp fuse when removed reading is then 104 volts install fuse and get no reading

1

The 104V is very low as shore power should be 120V, +/- 10% or between 132V & 108V. The fact that there is voltage with the fuse removed and none with it in place tells us that the fuse is good. 

[Kirk W]

Have you made any progress?

[timinfla2]

My upper eyebrow board went bad - after troubleshooting everything else, I replaced it and it works fine.  Hope this helps anybody.

[Pat & Pete]

On 9/13/2018 at 8:31 AM, timinfla2 said:

My upper eyebrow board went bad - after troubleshooting everything else, I replaced it and it works fine.  Hope this helps anybody.

We had the same happen . I simply cleaned and tightened the contacts for the eyebrow and everything was as it should be .

It's still doing fine after a couple of years of daily abuse .

Edited March 8, 2019 by Pat & Pete

[Njc]

Mr wood I need your help. I have a ndr1292 I had the cooling unit replaced was fine now no 12v power to brow board. I have 12.9 volts to terminal block. Replaced control board at back of fridge still nothing replaced brow board still nothing. I have 12 vdc when unit is off and turn it on it drops to 5.5. I unplug brow board at the brow board and get my 12vdc back so it's not the harness. The only thing I can think of now is I was sold a bad board but both? I'm lost unless I have a bad 12 supply and get the voltage drop under load?

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, Njc said:

I have a ndr1292

I suggest that you start by visiting Bryant RV Service site for a copy of the service manual. Based on what you have done I would suspect the power supply section. 

parts manual

[Jody W]

Dometic fridge model RM2862

I have been having an intermittent issue with this fridge.  My rig actually has two of these fridges, side-by-side. One of them is being super finicky. I'm replying to this topic because it's where I started since I've had no power to "brow board" for the last three days. Until today, I didn't know there was such a thing. 

The previous (and persisting) issue is that the fridge won't run off of LP most of the time. It will switch to Gas, run from 1 to 10 minutes on gas, then kick off, never to start back on gas again (unless reset).

This time, we pulled into our spot, kicked on the generator and the "brow" panel lights went out. I swapped the control board (the one on the back of the fridge) and nothing changed. I came here to figure out my next step and started looking at my fridge "brow".  There is a "climate control" switch in the freezer. I turned it off and turned the fridge on and it started working (on AC).  I turned the gen off and now we're back to lights but no LP functionality. 

I feel like something is going out, but don't know how to troubleshoot an intermittent issue. I'm happy to provide more info, but I'm a novice at these types of electronics. 

[timinfla2]

I was so tired of getting nickel'd and dime'd by my RV Fridge that I ripped the whole thing out and went with a Magic Chef 4.5CuFt residential version.  I've lugged this thing everywhere and so far from what I've seen, all of the hooey that they give you about residential appliance not being built for the rigors of the open road is hogwash.  It runs fine.  

Yea, I lost the ability to run the unit on propane but I still have a gen if needed and if I"m boondocking, well, propane runs out too so it's mostly collers and iceboxes. 

I usually like to repair most things but at a certain point it was clear that I was becoming pennywise and pound foolish so I am happy with my decision.  It's almost a perfect fit, and didn't take much coaxing at all to slide in.  Word of warning, you WILL want to get some angle brackets to secure the unit to the framing/cabinetry as these units don't come stock with attaching hardware.  

I hope this helps somebody!

 

 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Magic-Chef-4-5-cu-ft-Double-Door-Mini-Fridge-in-Black-HMDR450BE/305026502?cm_mmc=|THD|mid=sOiOIduhD|dc_mtid_890389n25185_pcrid_247809693042_pkw__pmt__product_305026364_slid_&gclid=Cj0KCQiAn4PkBRCDARIsAGHmH3eox4rdJBm_8KtXdSz5XnEJN9F1bXtExG6KDor4gA2Kod13moaY620aAsx3EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Pat & Pete]

1 hour ago, Jody W said:

Dometic fridge model RM2862

I have been having an intermittent issue with this fridge.  My rig actually has two of these fridges, side-by-side. One of them is being super finicky. I'm replying to this topic because it's where I started since I've had no power to "brow board" for the last three days. Until today, I didn't know there was such a thing. 

The previous (and persisting) issue is that the fridge won't run off of LP most of the time. It will switch to Gas, run from 1 to 10 minutes on gas, then kick off, never to start back on gas again (unless reset).

This time, we pulled into our spot, kicked on the generator and the "brow" panel lights went out. I swapped the control board (the one on the back of the fridge) and nothing changed. I came here to figure out my next step and started looking at my fridge "brow".  There is a "climate control" switch in the freezer. I turned it off and turned the fridge on and it started working (on AC).  I turned the gen off and now we're back to lights but no LP functionality. 

I feel like something is going out, but don't know how to troubleshoot an intermittent issue. I'm happy to provide more info, but I'm a novice at these types of electronics. 

I've found that loose connections can cause 'headaches' .

Here is a diagnostic manual for your fridge :

https://www.fourwh.com/NewDometicRefrigeratorManual.pdf