6.7 Frig Tinkering ideas?

[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by Klem

The private company has a warranty And also want me to be a happy customer .... Can't say that about Dometic.

Good point. I think Dometic is too large and bureaucratic to care about individual customers, although there has been some progress between them and ETI. Smaller companies won't stay in business long unless they please the few customers they have.

[padlin]

Unfortunately it seems the progress between ETI and Dometic has nothing to do with current owners. They have a future financial interest in making ETI happy, not so with those who have already paid for theirs.

[Klem]

Originally Posted by rbryan4

Good point. I think Dometic is too large and bureaucratic to care about individual customers, although there has been some progress between them and ETI. Smaller companies won't stay in business long unless they please the few customers they have.

I expect large companies to try and blow off customer complaints and have learned to drill down to see if their is a chink in the armor. i wish everyone else the best of luck but I am throwing in the towel.

The company I sent my cooling unit to also works with a company that has developed a product to monitor and protect your cooling unit. It's impressive to me.

They are honest enough to ask me to not say who they are until I send it in for them to modify and test. This is the first 'almost new' RML8555 that has been offered to them.

i am ready to purchase a new frig that works for us but would prefer to simply slide this one back in. If it would work as well as it looks

[Parker]

Dometic is currently having a local RV dealer install an entirely new cooling unit in our 6.7 cu. ft. fridge. Actually, they will end up replacing everything but the box before it's over. I would describe the entire saga here, but it's probably not helpful to anyone. There have been some missteps along the way. I think when all this work is completed, we will probably have exactly what we started out with, but I'll hope somewhere along the way that an undiagnosed faulty component will be replaced with a better one. Klem's connection with an outside vendor is probably the most promising news I've heard yet.

[Klem]

Originally Posted by Parker

Dometic is currently having a local RV dealer install an entirely new cooling unit in our 6.7 cu. ft. fridge.

Hi Parker, congratulations! If you have the opportunity could you ask a question and take a few pictures of the replacement?

1. is the replacement an X20 unit? I was told the RMD8555 has the "new X20" cooling unit which they expect will work better. It may become the second generation cooling unit for the 8 Series.

Thank you, Klem

[Parker]

I'll do what I can, but it depends somewhat on the RV shop giving me access while it's in the shop. I asked the technician about any apparent differences, and he said it looked identical to what they removed. However, if the chemical mix is different, it could indeed work differently (hopefully better). I'll call tomorrow to see what I can find out.

Parker

[PGDriver]

I sure hope Dometic or someone else announces something soon. Waiting for your build to start not knowing if your fridge will work properly or not is disheartening to say the least. I would feel better about Dometic if they suspended sales of the effected units knowing there are serious problems with them. At this point I don't know what to think. We loved our 19 and fell head over heels for the new 5.0TA. I guess if things aren't resolved it will just be like a little black cloud over us on our pick up day.

[Parker]

Got to speak with the really senior RV tech who is doing the work on our fridge. He said there is no indication whether this is or is not a second generation cooling unit, but he agreed to try to track it back through the serial number to find out. I told him he could be a national hero if he determines that Dometic has indeed come out with an improved unit.

[Vicki A.]

Just received a call from the shop. Dometic readily agreed to a new control panel and heating element. Guess we'll see how things work when it runs home!

[rbryan4]

It would appear that holding Dometic's feet to the fire is getting some results. If the fridge can't keep food under 40 degrees, it isn't safe to use, and the manufacturer needs to fix it - period. Several have offered the advice to contact Dometic and keep after them until they fix the problem.

ETI can only do so much -- they're busy building trailers. If I were a current owner whose fridge did not meet cooling specs, I'd be after Dometic like a pit bull on a steak, and not let go until it was resolved. But, as Donna is fond of saying, YMMV.

[Parker]

Originally Posted by Vicki A.

Just received a call from the shop. Dometic readily agreed to a new control panel and heating element. Guess we'll see how things work when it runs home!

Excellent! Please keep us posted.

[Vicki A.]

I have had a couple of PM questions on this, so I will try to answer here.

I had not yet contacted Dometic, figured I would get the same run around as the rest of you!
When the repair shop called, he did say the fridge quit working entirely, and Dometic wasn't the least bit surprised! Parts won't be here til next week and I don't want to hurry them, so I don't expect to know anything until after Christmas.

[Parker]

Originally Posted by Klem

Hi Parker, congratulations! If you have the opportunity could you ask a question and take a few pictures of the replacement?

1. is the replacement an X20 unit? I was told the RMD8555 has the "new X20" cooling unit which they expect will work better. It may become the second generation cooling unit for the 8 Series.

Thank you, Klem

The RV shop called to say the Escape is ready to pick up. They contacted Dometic on my behalf and asked about an X20 unit, and Dometic denied any knowledge of such a thing.

[padlin]

Sometimes one wonders just who it is that answers these kind of calls. With some of the answers that turn up they do not seem to be the most knowledgeable of folks.

[cpaharley2008]

They must be mushroom farmers........

[Parker]

I'm sure they contacted the same Dometic techs they were dealing with all along in getting the new cooling unit installed. My guess is that internal Dometic communications are carefully controlled, and that maybe Mel landed with someone who knows a little more about company R&D and strategy.

[Kountrykamper]

And now we probably wont know if any of these fixes or even new fridge models made any difference until May or June of next year.

[Klem]

I should know in February how the rebuild works.

And don't we have a few new trailers with the RMD8555 in them now? Hopefully one or more has headed south. Any report from them?

The Dometic person told me the RMD8555 was going to get the new X20 cooling unit. Time will tell if it's really a big improvement.

I am hoping the X20 unit (whatever improved unit is available) will find its way in to the RML8555 as a replacement... Dreaming?.

Happy Holidays to all!!

Mel

[Klem]

I reinstalled our rebuilt 6.7 single door yesterday. It's been a long process and we plan to go south in May, our February trip was postponed while waiting for parts etc. I'll be posting pictures soon.

After extensive testing in my shop I realized that the engineers may have had a different goal for how I should use it.

- The 5 bars are different temperatures. On mine 3 is 39-41F. If you go up to 4 or 5 bars the temperature set point drops which results in the frig working harder then if it was left at 3. There is no 'accelerator' pedal for the cooling unit. It's full tilt on, or off and will cycle at a rate set by the AES. More bars create more heat in back ... and performance suffers in hot temperatures.

- Remove the freezer compartment - you must consider the freezer 'optional' in warmer climates. At best you will have one large refrigerator and never a freezer in hot climates.

Has anyone used their 6.7 single door like this:
Leave the thermistor, and everything else, mounted in the factory location.
Use temp setting at 3 bars only. (39-41F)
If the refrigerator isn't cool enough pull the freezer compartment out.

In a nutshell, regardless of power source keep it running at 3 bars and remove the freezer compartment above 80 F.

Hope to hear more about the double door performance soon. I will be happy to find out I've been wasting my time and can simply swap frigs!

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by Klem

I reinstalled our rebuilt 6.7 single door yesterday. It's been a long process and we plan to go south in May, our February trip was postponed while waiting for parts etc. I'll be posting pictures soon.

After extensive testing in my shop I realized that the engineers may have had a different goal for how I should use it.

- The 5 bars are different temperatures. On mine 3 is 39-41F. If you go up to 4 or 5 bars the temperature set point drops which results in the frig working harder then if it was left at 3. There is no 'accelerator' pedal for the cooling unit. It's full tilt on, or off and will cycle at a rate set by the AES. More bars create more heat in back ... and performance suffers in hot temperatures.

- Remove the freezer compartment - you must consider the freezer 'optional' in warmer climates. At best you will have one large refrigerator and never a freezer in hot climates.

Has anyone used their 6.7 single door like this:
Leave the thermistor, and everything else, mounted in the factory location.
Use temp setting at 3 bars only. (39-41F)
If the refrigerator isn't cool enough pull the freezer compartment out.

In a nutshell, regardless of power source keep it running at 3 bars and remove the freezer compartment above 80 F.

Hope to hear more about the double door performance soon. I will be happy to find out I've been wasting my time and can simply swap frigs!

Klem would you say to leave thermistor in it' s original place , remove freezer if over 80 , and keep temp at 3 also for the 4.3 ? Pat