dometic refrigerator propane issues

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by CharlesPou

some time ago, I took trailer to authorized local Dometic Service Center, they diagnosed and said needed new circuit board and ordered it. wnen comes in, they will test, and if fixes all is well, but no guarantees.

I went on my planned trip and was successful using the refrigerator on AC function 100%. no problem when had shore power, but had to use generator whenever didn't have shore power.

actually, worked great on generator, appears to take very little power to run refrigerator on AC, generator basically idled, never ramped up at all, but had to run all day. I guess similar to DC mode, but IDK. depending on where camping could be problem with neighbors.

got call from Service Center today. bad news, Dometic sent wrong part, and appears no spares available for this refrigerator. probably need to replace refrigerator. waiting for call back from Service Center with more info and maybe quote to replace refrigerator, based upon Dometic's recommendation.

maybe time for new trailer? I anticipated this problem and have been looking at new trailers haha. will update when hear back from Service Center. cheers

I wouldn't give up based on what one service center and even Dometic says. If you are trying to replace the Dometic 3316348.900 something aftermarket like this might work. Says compatible with DM2663 which I believe is what you have.
https://www.amazon.com/Upgraded-3316.../dp/B0CDKZT31C

or better yet the one from Dinosaur that I linked earlier in the thread. Likely much better quality than anything from Amazon.
http://www.dinosaurelectronics.com/DE_3850712.html

[CharlesPou]

rubicon, thanks for reply. I already ordered the available board for Amazon, didn't work, was able to return, so they will probably send out to another. amazing, I don't know if right board and faulty, or wrong board? if you look closely at Amazon listing for that board, they say check to make sure right board, because this board is returned often lols.

I contacted Dinosaur 3 months ago via their preferred message board, never heard back, so I called today. just got off phone, and learned they can't tell me which board without part number off board. said too many revisions, not a generic board. also, they don't sell direct, so will need to find Dinosaur dealer.

so plan now is next time I talk to authorized Dometic Service Center, that has my trailer, I tell them maybe they can get board from Dionsaur? if they properly identify the board, and it still doesn't fix the issue, I'm probably out whatever it costs, a little flaky IMO. at least Dinosaur says with part number off board, they can tell if they have that board or not.

if you search the web, you will find other trailers with similar issue that end up buying new refrigerator. specifically, one on Airstream forum comes to mind, maybe was my exact same refrigerator?, I don't recall at this point. any and all comments welcomed. cheers

[SRS]

For what it's worth, I'm with Rubicon. The Dinosaur Electronics boards are excellent. I put that same board he referenced in the Dometic frig in our E17 and it works great, pretty easy to install. If your not a DIY person, have a mobile RV repair put it in. Much less expensive than a new trailer.
The board is available from Amazon for $218:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[CharlesPou]

I found pic of OEM board I took while disassembling board from refrigerator. just got off the phone with Dinosaur, says they don't make that board. so, back to square one?

I also contacted Escape about this issue, and asked what refrigerator they would recommend as replacement, and for a quote to install. I used their contact form on their website, 2nd request.

1st time I contacted Escape about this issue was approx 3 months ago and never received a reply other than receiving an acknowledgement email with a ticket number. I have received a couple or three calls from Escape customer service, and discussed this specific issue, and some other issues. they said would follow up, but so far nothing from service guys/ gals that would know anything. cheers

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by CharlesPou

I found pic of OEM board I took while disassembling board from refrigerator. just got off the phone with Dinosaur, says they don't make that board. so, back to square one?

Charles I'm confused. What's the number on your control board? I thought the number of your board is 3316348.900 per previous posts. If that is the case then the Dinosaur board that I and SRS has linked should be correct.

[CharlesPou]

this is pic of board, maybe you can zoom to see numbers? I spoke with Chris at Dinosaur, said SP-219 MAINPCBA'SA was part number. I don't think I ever gave out part number for board, I always used refrigerator number DM2663, which Chris at Dinosaur says is not specific enough to get the right board. cheers

[SRS]

Originally Posted by CharlesPou

this is pic of board, maybe you can zoom to see numbers? I spoke with Chris at Dinosaur, said SP-219 MAINPCBA'SA was part number. I don't think I ever gave out part number for board, I always used refrigerator number DM2663, which Chris at Dinosaur says is not specific enough to get the right board. cheers

Hi Charles. The part number you need is on the black cover that covers the board in you picture. That's the number Dinosaur uses. Attached are 2 photo's from my frig. One is a full view and the 2nd is of the upper left corner. The number you want is at on the first line in the 2nd photo and on mine is 3850712.01. The number on the circuit board is not useful as a part number for replacement. Your power board looks the same as the one on my Dometic. If you still have the black cover, take a photo of the upper left corner and post it. Good luck.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by CharlesPou

this is pic of board, maybe you can zoom to see numbers? I spoke with Chris at Dinosaur, said SP-219 MAINPCBA'SA was part number. I don't think I ever gave out part number for board, I always used refrigerator number DM2663, which Chris at Dinosaur says is not specific enough to get the right board. cheers

Sorry I went off the Dometic board # that you listed in post #4. We are going round and round here but I'm still convinced we are going to land in the same spot. I won't be surprised if that Dinosaur board we've linked will work.

[SRS]

Originally Posted by CharlesPou

this is pic of board, maybe you can zoom to see numbers? I spoke with Chris at Dinosaur, said SP-219 MAINPCBA'SA was part number. I don't think I ever gave out part number for board, I always used refrigerator number DM2663, which Chris at Dinosaur says is not specific enough to get the right board. cheers

Hi again Charles, attached is a photo of the original board from my Dometic frig which I still carry just in case. It is identical to the one in your photo so Dinosaur should have a replacement and the one I referenced in post 23 is likely the correct one. If you have the number from the black plastic cover that I reference in post 27, you can call Dinosaur Electronics or just go to their website and verify which replacement board will work with your frig. Just a thought, but maybe the RV repair you went to would rather sell you a new frig than a less expensive board?
Good luck

[CharlesPou]

hello SRS, I see your OEM board looks like mine. Dinosaur tech did say I could find number on board or black cover. I don't have trailer at the moment, at authorized Dometic service center, so depending on when I get trailer back I'll check black cover for that number, possibly call Dinosaur again.

question: what refrigerator do you have? the Dinosaur board I think you got is for Dometic DM2652, not my refrigerator, I have Dometic DM2663, I think but all starting to run together now?

if you look close at your OEM board, I think your number is different from mine which is SP-219, I think yours might be SP-216?, but not sure, just doesn't look like "219".

next question: why did you change out your board?, what was issue with your refrigerator?

if you search web for board for my refrigerator, DM2663, Dinosaur board doesn't come up best I can tell. what does come up is board I ordered from Amazon, which I returned because it didn't work.

thanks for all the comments, very helpful, maybe can get to bottom of this, but have my doubts at this time. cheers

[CharlesPou]

OK, looking at Dinosaur website and see clearly need number from black cover to identify board. on second thought, tech guy at Dinosaur maybe gave me bad info, that number was on board too, because it appears number is only on black cover? actually, he was probably tired of talking to me lols.

so, just waiting to see what authorized Dometic Service Center says next, and will proceed accordingly. maybe no worries about letting these guys install a new refrigerator, when all I need is a board. if, when I get a quote from them, I'll probably get 2nd opinion, before pulling trigger, IDK.

my next trip is coming up in approx 30 days, and can go with lame refrigerator if need too, so no hurry to fix. cheers

[CharlesPou]

rubicon, I got initial p/n from web search "board for DM2663", that's where I got number. ordered that board from Amazon, and didn't work. funny thought, I wonder if Dometic is doing the same, ordering board from Amazon, and sending to the service center?, it's possible, haha. cheers

[SRS]

Originally Posted by CharlesPou

hello SRS, I see your OEM board looks like mine. Dinosaur tech did say I could find number on board or black cover. I don't have trailer at the moment, at authorized Dometic service center, so depending on when I get trailer back I'll check black cover for that number, possibly call Dinosaur again.

question: what refrigerator do you have? the Dinosaur board I think you got is for Dometic DM2652, not my refrigerator, I have Dometic DM2663, I think but all starting to run together now?
if you look close at your OEM board, I think your number is different from mine which is SP-219, I think yours might be SP-216?, but not sure, just doesn't look like "219".

next question: why did you change out your board?, what was issue with your refrigerator?

if you search web for board for my refrigerator, DM2663, Dinosaur board doesn't come up best I can tell. what does come up is board I ordered from Amazon, which I returned because it didn't work.

thanks for all the comments, very helpful, maybe can get to bottom of this, but have my doubts at this time. cheers

Question 1: I have a RM2454 (4 c.u. model) and my trailer is a 2022. I wouldn't necessarily expect the number on the PCB boards to match. According the the Dinosaur Electronics website, the 2663 takes either the board I referenced previously, or their 3850415.01. That board looks very different from the photo you posted previously. Many of their boards work in other Dometic models so the fact that we don't have the same model frig is unimportant. The number on the black cover is the only sure way to know if Dinosaur has a replacement and that's the number they will ask you for.

Question 2: After I got my trailer, I was doing some mods and decided the replace the cheap propane regulator with a Marshal Excelsior. I didn't know they ship with a WC pressure of 14 inches. The RM2454 requires 11 inches. The higher pressure made the fuel mixture too rich so the flame would essentially snuff itself out, however, it wasn't consistent about how long it would run before going out and the Dometic boards, once they fault, the only way to restart the frig is to turn it off and back on. Since my trailer was new, I couldn't figure out what the problem was and the local RV place I went to was no help at all and they charge $200/hr. So I got a Dinosaur board and a digital gas measuring device. While the trailer was winterized, I replaced the board and then I check the gas pressure, immediately realizing what the problem was, too much gas. Adjusted the regulator to 12 inches WC without a load and it has been working great all this year. I decided to keep the Dinosaur board because it will continue to attempt to restart the gas even after going into lockout.

[Kingfish]

While locating parts for my Dometic RM8551 fridge I found that the Manufacturing Number rather than the Model Number is more important. It can be found on a sticker inside the fridge.

[CharlesPou]

SRS, good comments, thanks for sharing. cheers

[CharlesPou]

after long slog, my refrigerator may be fixed, I have trailer back and checking it out now. official Dometic service center was finally able to get the correct board from Dometic. meantime, I had lots of anxiety trying to figure out what to do: sell this one and start over with new trailer?, have new refrigerator installed?, just go with what I have a/c shore power only?

Dometic service center after the 1st board from Dometic didn't work said I needed to install new refrigerator, gave me a quote for approx $3,900 total price, installed. I said I wanted to pickup trailer and think about it. everything with RV service centers takes days, and this one is no different, so I had to wait until the next week to pickup. then they called and said they were getting another board from Dometic and were pretty sure this one would work. so I waited again until the next week and picked up the trailer yesterday, yay!!! so far it seems to be working on propane, I'll check AC later.

so, then I called Dinosaur Electronics to verify whether they had board for this refrigerator or not. continuing the comedy, I didn't get back the old board or black cover, so all I had was the info for the new Dometic board. the magic number is SP-613A, and Dometic tech support guy said that was the correct number they wanted, and no Dinosaur does not make this board. i guess good to know?

so all's swell that ends well lols. I was pretty happy with this RV service center and would use them again and recommend them too, but was expensive. in effect, I paid them to identify the board and buy it from Dometic. the rest, trouble shooting, swapipng out the board, I could do, but ended up paying them for all the above. cheers

[Rossue]

I've posted before that one doesn't need to go to an "Authorized Dometic Service Center". This fridge was not even under Factory Warranty however, if it was then you still don't need the "Authorized" in front of the shop you hire. They just have to have a business license. The only difference is you pay the shop and get reimbursed by Dometic.

When I installed my RMD 10.5 XT I thought it had a problem- turned out to be Operator Error as it did not switch from one source to the other like the RMD8555 and my call to Dometic got interpreted as though I was a shop and I went down a rabbit hole. They sent me a new mother board and it didn't make any difference. I got an appointment at an Authorized Dometic shop nearby and they tried to rip me off. The tech was like the Wizard of Oz- no one could talk to him beforehand- you just had to drop off the trailer and wait. Two hours later Oz called and said they needed to pull the fridge out and "run it through it's paces". And that'll be $500- and I needed to pay them, not Dometic. I went to pick up the trailer and thanked them for wasting my time.

Finally Dometic found a mobile tech and normally they won't pay the trip charge but did due to all the frustration beforehand. He came over and although he had never seen this type of fridge made in Germany he quickly saw that when changing from say propane to electric you had to then confirm that choice with another operation on the control panel. Doh!

Point is I see the same yet way worse with the example above: $3,900 installed for a new fridge to replace a what- 5 year old one? Hmmmm- I sure wouldn't go back to that shop for anything. Good mobile mechanics are to me priceless & well worth an $80 trip charge to avoid having to hitch up drop off then hitch back up and travel home. And hope nothing happens to it while at the shop, cause they've got the disclaimer that they're not liable.

[CharlesPou]

hello rossue, thanks for sharing your experience. I'm sticking with my story, no regrets, unless stops working haha. plus, I was driving my wife nuts and she was ready to pay any price just to get it fixed lols.

actually, getting my refrigerator fixed saved me a ton. I was thinking seriously about dumping my trailer cheap and buying a new one, last time I talked to Escape, could have new one delivered cheap by Dec, probably Jan 2024 now. I figure getting it fixed saved me approx $20,000 with that scenario lols. next I was considering smaller trailer, Escape 17B, maybe only another $10,000. then I started looking at Scamps. actually like them, never had one, and don't want another Casita. Bigfoots are too wide IMO. so, i figured Scamp 16 Standard layout 6 could be breakeven, maybe, but that's new, seems to be a few used ones and could maybe be a few thousand $'s ahead?

so, right now my trailer has been a little naughty, I'm a disappointed in her. I still love her, but will take sometime to trust again.

today, I started working to fix the fumes from the hot water heater, and made good progress. I have a thread on that one, and will be posting to it soon. after that, maybe focus on getting furnace to work at altitude. I feel very fortunate to have avoided some of the other Escape catastrophes: black water tank leak, grey water tank rupture, ... I've been camping in trailers long enough to know what to expect (stuff breaks) and overall I'm still very happy with my 2018 Escape 21. cheers

[oldwave]

Trailers are rolling earthquakes. Things will break no matter what the model. Still 3900 for a new frig installed seems way high. Are they charging 1900 in labor ?

[CharlesPou]

hello oldwave, I don't know, I didn't get a new refrigerator. their hourly rate was approx $200 hour, with my trailer maybe needed to take out door frame and reinstall. I guess they were probably pricing the refrigerator at msrp. anyway, the quote didn't add up for me either. my plan was to pickup trailer, call around for other bids, and go from there. fortunately, they were able to repair for a lot less, and I'm pretty happy to have my trailer back with a functioning refrigerator. cheers