New 4.3 & 6.7 fridge info

[azjack]

Today we left San Diego at 11:30 and 80*, the temp went up to 90 very soon and then 100 and 106F. We drove for seven hours using propane, half full fridge, fans in the back on blowing air up over the cooling unit. The fridge fix fan was on for the first couple of hours and then off for the last several hours, I don't think it made a lot of difference . Our thermocouple was tucked behind insulation that was installed inside the box so the fan would not cause a reading change. I had two 40 oz. blue ice containers in the fridge and the final temps were 15 and 45. I think I can live with this without having to keep my beer in a cooler because I do like it fairly chilled. I don't camp when the temp is over 90* usually, but I do need to drive through the high temp area.
Jack, home again for a while with 102 forecast for tomorrow.

[Linda]

We have always (ever since we began towing trailers many years ago) brought an ice chest along as a back-up for somewhat sensitive and unreliable RV fridges. Perhaps we (Escape trailer owners) tend to expect too much of one component of an Escape trailer because the rest of the product is so stellar!?
A small amount of research will verify that warm temperatures historically create cooling problems with any RV fridges. I personally am trying to keep all of this in perspective; I have written an email to Dometic (just asked a few simple questions and voiced my concern about their more recent products) and haven't gotten any response. They are the responsible party when it comes to their product, I think.
I am continually amazed at the time and effort Reace has put into all of this. I think he may come up with the perfect RV fridge and this will be his next business venture. I think his goal is to continually strive toward perfection; unfortunately, just when we think we have reached that goal, we humans always seem to realize that we are not there yet. I don't think Reace will ever stop trying, though.

In the bigger picture of things, an Escape trailer is an amazing product that keeps getting better. It is just too bad that the producers of some of the components don't use the same business model for their products!

Happy trails to you! Life is good......

[Jim Bennett]

I discovered on this past weekend that a good friends 2013 Winnebago 25' motorhome, built on a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis, has exactly the same fridge. He has been having terrible problems with it, and the temps were nowhere near what others have seen, with highs this past weekend of about 25°, or so. Barely luke warm in the fridge, and they were able to keep some things colder if in the freezer. They have had it back to their tech now for a third time, and they are suggesting changing out the control panel.

Conversely, we had to keep turning the temp in our 5.0 cf fridge up, as it was starting to freeze in the fridge compartment. Our fridge started out cooled, fully loaded, and we use a wee cube fan inside for circulation. The ice cream on the fifth day was still frozen and yummy.

[Jubal]

"discovered on this past weekend that a good friends 2013 Winnebago 25' motorhome, built on a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis, has exactly the same fridge. He has been having terrible problems with it,"
What size fridge is in the Winnebago ?

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by Jubal

What size fridge is in the Winnebago ?

It is the RML8555 6.7 cf model.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

I discovered on this past weekend that a good friends 2013 Winnebago 25' motorhome, built on a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis, has exactly the same fridge. He has been having terrible problems with it, and the temps were nowhere near what others have seen, with highs this past weekend of about 25°, or so. Barely luke warm in the fridge, and they were able to keep some things colder if in the freezer. They have had it back to their tech now for a third time, and they are suggesting changing out the control panel.

Conversely, we had to keep turning the temp in our 5.0 cf fridge up, as it was starting to freeze in the fridge compartment. Our fridge started out cooled, fully loaded, and we use a wee cube fan inside for circulation. The ice cream on the fifth day was still frozen and yummy.

Hi: Jim Bennett... It's good to know we are not alone!!! Do you think Winnebago would go to the lengths Reace Has? I'm sure they would just refer customers to Dometic. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by escape artist

Hi: Jim Bennett... It's good to know we are not alone!!! Do you think Winnebago would go to the lengths Reace Has? I'm sure they would just refer customers to Dometic. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

As a small business person, Reace is smarter than the large corporations. For the majority of those of us affected by these "under performing" fridges, our unit's are still under ETI's generous two-year warranty. He's in the middle of this potential problem with his supplier on one side and his customers on the other. I'm very confident that his best interests are our best interests.

[dave1]

Winnebago has dealers which deal with the customers complain. The dealer depending on its customer service level will do as little or if they care, as much as possible to get the problem corrected.
Escape is mfg direct, and willing to do as much as they can to solve the problem for us their customer. Doubt we would see Reace's level of commitment from the other fiberglass manuf. The plus side for us and Escape is a large company like Winnebago is also using the frig. Given the amount of dometic product Winnebago uses they should be able to get their attention. That plus all the work Reace is already doing with them may produce some positive outcomes.
The 2yr warranty is from dometic not escape.

Dave

[padlin]

Have the folks that have issues been notifying Dometics? One would think the more complaints the more the chance they will address the issue.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by escape artist

Hi: Jim Bennett... It's good to know we are not alone!!! Do you think Winnebago would go to the lengths Reace Has? I'm sure they would just refer customers to Dometic. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

Our friends bought their motorhome in the US at Camping World, built to Canadian standards. The local dealerships are supposed to cover all warranty issues, but one has to wonder how much commitment they would give. Winnebago is way too big of a company, with hundreds of sellers, to be able to effectively put in the efforts that Reace has, but you would at least think they would be trying, after all I imagine that they buy a ton of Dometic product.

[dave1]

I have and dometic simply referred me to an authorized service center in my area. Didn't even ask what model or problem was. So dometic is getting their problem reports from their service center dealers.

Dave

[dave macrae]

I highly dought that the other rv manufacturers have gone to the length of following domestics specs that Reece has . This will take sometime to resolve .

[float5]

In the book, "Living Aboard Your RV," by Janet and Gordon Groene, they say that RV refrigerators are the absorption type, not the compressor type used in your house and the RV ones are comparatively inefficient, can only be at 40-45 degrees below ambient temperatures. That was my understanding already. They give a bunch of information on possible fixes but obviously don't expect much. I don't either.

We use a cooler in the car and ice packs while traveling until we can stay put.

[LeonW]

Do those of you who are having fridge problems in the hot weather (or at least very warm weather) us AC in the trailer, and does it make a difference? The reason I ask is that I think on one of Reace's post on this topic (#81) suggested that inside cabinet temp had an effect on the fridge performance. I realize that you can't have AC on unless you are by the current bush or have a generator, but wonder if any of you in warmer weather have seen an effect.

My hope is that Reace gets something figured out before construction of the Skylark begins in a couple of weeks. But I am not optimistic.

[dave macrae]

I would consider our fridge to be ok . We can maintain respectable inside fridge temps on setting 5 ( the highest ) at around 30 Celsius with a battery operated fan inside . And yes we experienced the difference with being plugged in and having the ac going inside . Made probably as much as 2-3 degrees C difference

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Floating Cloud

In the book, "Living Aboard Your RV," by Janet and Gordon Groene, they say that RV refrigerators are the absorption type, not the compressor type used in your house and the RV ones are comparatively inefficient, can only be at 40-45 degrees below ambient temperatures.

Yes, we're talking about absorption refrigerators, and specifically the type used in RVs (there are other variations of absorption refrigerator).

Efficiency is not the same as effectiveness. These appliances are less efficient than compressor-type refrigerators, so they use more power. They can still be very effective, producing sufficient temperature difference.

If the maximum of 45 degrees (Fahrenheit) were true, ice cubes would melt in our RV freezers at cool ambient temperatures. The evaporator plate certainly runs more than 45 deg F below ambient temperatures.

[azjack]

I'm having my house air recharged right now and will have a new A coil installed later when the OAT is cooler as we won't have air for at least a day. I wish my refrigerator could just be charged and go, but I believe Reace is doing everything possible and I have also tried some of the same attempts to solve the problem and I'm happy when I've seen a slight improvement. I looked at a Dometic that was in a 32' trailer that we also rented last weekend for the kids. The walls on that fridge looked to be at least three inches thick and it worked fine in the 65 to 80 temps.
Jack

[Ron in BC]

[QUOTE=Zardoz;61825

our unit's are still under ETI's generous two-year warranty.
[/QUOTE]

As was previously stated, the warranty is Demetic's not ETI's and there's nothing generous about it. It's really a one year warranty unless you take it to a dealer after one year and have it serviced. Paying for a second year of warranty is like buying a service plan, it's not a "two year warranty".

Ron

[Zardoz]

"A full two-year warranty is included on the completed Escape trailer." (quote from ETI website [The Escape])

Maybe I misunderstood.

[cpaharley2008]

The warranty is 2 years on the trailer, not necessarily the appliances installed within the trailer. Similar to a condominium, you just own the inside, the association owns the outside, each is separate, here the warranty on the trailer is separate than on each appliance.