Dometic 2193 Not cooling

[Frio Freaks]

Hey all!  Maybe someone can shed some light for us.  Our camper has been stored for almost a year and we are getting back into the swing.  We've had the camper out and fully operational for almost 4 days now with the fridge running.  The fridge however, is not cooling properly.  It's cooling but not like it should.

Yesterday it cooled down into the low 50's high 40's during the day and then it was at about 37 around 4:30AM this morning.  Now at almost 2PM it's up to 49, which it has held for about 30 minutes.  The fridge areas on the outside of the camper were getting direct sunshine for a few hours this AM as well.

Have a 12V fan installed in the outside compartment as well, blowing air out of the compartment.

Outside temps have been in the 90's during the daytime and 70's during the overnight hours.

Any help on what to do or look at would be greatly appreciated as we leave for a 10 day trip next Friday.

[WolfPack]

Hi when the frig is it running off of propane or 120 v ??

[austinado16]

Seems like there's a statistic somewhere that says these fridges are only good for about 50 degrees below the outside air temps.  So when it's in the 90's outside, they really struggle to stay in the 30's.  Some people build shades for the louvered area to keep it out of the direct bake of the sun.  Your 12v fan helps somewhat.

A few things I've learned:
1) the fridge has to be level. If it's not level the amonia liquid doesn't travel through the tubes effeciently and will also puddle up in areas creating crystals which then block the internal orifaces in the refrigerant tubes.

2) you have to have a good flame.  Altitude and a dirty jet oriface can adversely affect how hot the flame is.  

3) propane pressure also affects flame quality.  You need 11 inch column of pressure out of the low pressure regulator on the propane tank(s).  Screwing the adjustable pressure screw "in" will raise the pressure.  Pressure is tested using a Manometer, which I've posted instructions for how to build.  Search the "Mr. Fix it" forum using my name and you should find it.

4) how you take fridge temp makes a difference.  The air inside the fridge may be warm, or warm up after the door is open, but the food and drinks stay cold.  So if you're testing temps, check a food item.  An infrared temp gun is great for this.  Those need fridge thermometers are good too.

My fridge has been marginal like yours since we bought our camper used 2 years ago.  It'll get down into the low 30's or even high 20's here at home, at sea level, but by the second or third day up in the mountains at 7,000' it's in the high 30's at night and low 40s or even 50s in the day.  My guess is that it was operated out of level alot by the previous owner and is damaged inside the refrigeration tubes by amonia crystals......because I've set the propane pressure, cleaned the oriface, replaced the burner, installed an airflow baffle, taken the fridge out and redone the insulation in the cabinet around it, tipped the fridge upside down and tapped on the coils, painted the coils flat black, and installed a 12v fan in the upper louvers to vent the heat better, and put a fridge cube fan inside it.

[Dray]

My advice would be to use an ice chest or two.  Ice chests work better than my fridge ever has.

[Crowbar4]

Many of the dometic cooling units are junk from the factory.  When they weld the pipes together sometimes the slag fills the tube inside.  They don't flow test the cores to be sure this didn't happen.  For my customers with this problem I replace the cooling unit with a high quality after market one.  Which by the way is much cheaper than a replacement from dometic.  You will never have cooling problems again.

[austinado16]

Where can you get these aftermarket units and are they available for these small cube size refrigerators?  If it is just the refrigeration portion that's available is the replacement process pretty straight forward?

I'm interested in more info.  Had my camper out for about 4 days total (turned fridge on propane on Wed. afternoon and camped Thursday night through Sunday afternoon) and the fridge performed great. But I know that was because the night time temps were 52-53F and the daytime temps in the shade were maybe 67-70F.