Dometic Fridge Fault.

May 24, 2014
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Not me this time, touch wood. A mate of mine has a duff Dometic RM5380 and has been quoted just shy of £1000 for a replacement. As a group, do we know anybody that can and does repair these things.

Its not working on either gas or electric, and I have told him to check firstly there is power getting to it, and check for blown fuses which he is going to do, but IF the fridge has failed, options please gents and gentesses.
 

Damian

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Mar 14, 2005
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The trouble is that a lot of places just do not want to fault find on a fridge and hope the customer will fork out for a new item, when in fact there is very little that can go wrong with them.
You are talking a gas jet, and two heating elements, 12v and 230v.

If you , or your mate as it goes, gets in touch with a good AWS engineer who knows about these fridges, and preferably has Dometic Service Agent qualification then it should be a lot cheaper , even if everything has to be changed.
If he cannot find a suitable engineer, contact Dometic and they will advise of the nearest certified engineer who has been trained by Dometic.

The very worst that can happen is loss of coolant fluid, which means the end of the fridge if it is one of those that cannot have a new cooling unit fitted. It is not possible to "re gas" any caravan fridge.


You could try their website as here: https://www.dometic.com/en-gb/uk/find-a-dealer

Input postcode, select service centre, select fridge, select motorhome fridge, select on the road then search.
 
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May 24, 2014
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Thanks Damian. We are in Derbyshire, looks like the nearest is Stockport. Its not too far away but I will contact Dometic for him and see if there is either a mobile engineer or somebody nearer.
 

jca

Jun 6, 2009
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Thanks Damian. We are in Derbyshire, looks like the nearest is Stockport. Its not too far away but I will contact Dometic for him and see if there is either a mobile engineer or somebody nearer.
East Midlands Caravan Servicing,they replace the element in fridges if that is the problem 07971 621501,but I know he’s busy at the moment.
 
May 24, 2014
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Thanks for the heads up The EM guy is nearest to us and my mate is trying to get hold of him as I type this. The only thing working as I can see is the interior light. Gas or 240v, his fridge seems dead. Cant even hear the gas igniter trying to spark.
 
May 24, 2014
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Heard last night, my mate has been in touch with the guy at East Midlands and the job is in hand. He has been told it can be repaired, its the coolant generator which luckily in this case is replaceable. I think the part is around £300 plus labour and callout, prob around £450 to £500 total, but its better than the £1000 he was initially quoted,
 

jca

Jun 6, 2009
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Heard last night, my mate has been in touch with the guy at East Midlands and the job is in hand. He has been told it can be repaired, its the coolant generator which luckily in this case is replaceable. I think the part is around £300 plus labour and callout, prob around £450 to £500 total, but its better than the £1000 he was initially quoted,
Good news,I’m sure Andy will sort it out,he is first class with all his work and will not rip him off.
 
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Just an update to this, and my mates heartfelt thanks. Finally last night the guy from East Midlands attended, and repaired the fridge for a total cost of £170. Considering they had been told a replacement fridge was needed at a cost of near £1200, he is utterly delighted with the help he received from here and has asked me to convey his thanks to all.

It was the heat exchanger in the end.
 
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Damian

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Thank you for coming back and reporting a good outcome for your mate.
As is quite often the case , it is finding the right guy to do the job and not just suggest that the whole item needs replacing.
 
May 24, 2014
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Its the same with mechanics. There are very few true mechanics around, they are more part swappers after a computer has diagnosed the fault.

Martin was positively gushing about the EM lad, which says a lot. He is not one for using 10 words when two will do.
 
Oct 3, 2013
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Not me this time, touch wood. A mate of mine has a duff Dometic RM5380 and has been quoted just shy of £1000 for a replacement. As a group, do we know anybody that can and does repair these things.

Its not working on either gas or electric, and I have told him to check firstly there is power getting to it, and check for blown fuses which he is going to do, but IF the fridge has failed, options please gents and gentesses.
Hi,
We had a problem with our fridge,before you incurr s lot of costs worth while checking the fuse in the 13A plug.For us it turned out this fuse had ruptured (blown) replaced the fuse and the fridge worked ok.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Hi,
We had a problem with our fridge,before you incurr s lot of costs worth while checking the fuse in the 13A plug.For us it turned out this fuse had ruptured (blown) replaced the fuse and the fridge worked ok.
Hello bertiboy,

I'm concerned about your report above. A fridge will normally consume less than 150W of power and a ! amp mains fuse would be quite sufficient to protect the system yet allow it to work correctly. But the lowest rated fuse you can get for the standard UK 13A plug is only 3A. and that is 3 times more than the appliance's rated power.

In practice a 3A fuse would still pass steady current probably up to about 5 or 6A before rupturing, so it raises the question of why your plug fuse blew. It must have been a fairly significant fault to cause it to blow, so the question is what caused it to blow.

With a set of symptoms like this I am very concerned that the fault is still there and it could reoccur at any time. It would be wise to get the fridge checked over, and any fault repaired.
 
Mar 27, 2011
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Just a quick Q on topic of fridge, I always go on sites with electric, should I periodically run the fridge on gas to keep it in good condition and how long should I let it run, I’ve never used gas at all on any caravan fridge.

BP
 
Nov 11, 2009
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Just a quick Q on topic of fridge, I always go on sites with electric, should I periodically run the fridge on gas to keep it in good condition and how long should I let it run, I’ve never used gas at all on any caravan fridge.

BP
Prior to leaving on a trip I would precool the fridge on gas to keep the burner free of grime and to ensure the igniters work. . Half an hour then switched to mains electric for overnight cooling.
 
Nov 16, 2015
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I do the same as OC, run the fridge on gas for 30 minutes, to pre cool it, I then know that if the site looses power it will continue on gas.
 

Damian

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Mar 14, 2005
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Just a quick Q on topic of fridge, I always go on sites with electric, should I periodically run the fridge on gas to keep it in good condition and how long should I let it run, I’ve never used gas at all on any caravan fridge.

BP

Yes you should run all gas appliances frequently for around 30 minutes to keep the burner clear of things like spiders webs and check that they are working correctly.

I always suggest that owners run the gas appliances each time they use the van and if in storage at least once per month whilst visiting the van.

There is nothing worse than arriving on site and find a power failure and your gas items also not working.
 
Oct 3, 2013
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Hello bertiboy,

I'm concerned about your report above. A fridge will normally consume less than 150W of power and a ! amp mains fuse would be quite sufficient to protect the system yet allow it to work correctly. But the lowest rated fuse you can get for the standard UK 13A plug is only 3A. and that is 3 times more than the appliance's rated power.

In practice a 3A fuse would still pass steady current probably up to about 5 or 6A before rupturing, so it raises the question of why your plug fuse blew. It must have been a fairly significant fault to cause it to blow, so the question is what caused it to blow.

With a set of symptoms like this I am very concerned that the fault is still there and it could reoccur at any time. It would be wise to get the fridge checked over, and any fault repaired.
Hi Prof,
Fuses wear out just like everything else !
 
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Mar 14, 2005
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Hi Prof,
Fuses wear out just like everything else !

Yes fuses can and do wear out, but but normally that would happen if the actual current being used was closer to the rating of the fuse.

I would be very surprised if a 3A fuse wore out with just a 0.4 to 0.6 Amp load. It's the significantly smaller load current that raises the possibility of a genuine fault on the appliance.
 

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