Anyone else had problems with Dometic RDMX21 "tropical" fridge? Had to replace original fridge with this one as only one to fit in same space. Bought the "tropical" thinking it would handle the heat better but so far have to keep it dialled up to 4bars to keep it under 6deg......and it ain't summer yet and we are in southern nsw. Freezer seems to "ice up"quickly. Also had plastic shelf snap in half in transit although it was not over loaded and had been installed by technician. Really disappointed so far. Any suggestions?
Went through same thing . Even fitted two fans and opened up venting . Ended up fitting 12/ 240v compressor fridge / freezer . Heaps better . Added extra two solar panels to be sure . Much better temp control. In my case .Try 1 or 2 fans to push are through heat exchanger?
With the old Kero fridges (same thing) if it was not getting cold enough turn a little bit to the warmer direction and you might well win. If you make fridge work too hard it spits the dummy. Personally because I grew up with a kero fridge would not buy a van with 3 way fridge. Move with technology and get a compressor fridge and add solar panels and you are way in front.
Thanks guys, have done the fan thing, vent too so maybe have to progress to compressor. All extra expense after supposedly top range. Have solar, gene etc etc
Do you have insulation around the fridge - especially over the top? Reason I ask is that with a 3 way fridge, they work on having an external heat source to vapourise the refrigerant fluid inside the coils. This means potentially a lot of heat outside the fridge, and most of that ends up at the top. You need some insulation sitting on top of the fridge, and more importantly, good ventilation to get the heat away from the fridge.
Prior to our current caravan, we had a camper. This had the roof which dropped down to bench height. By the time they put the top frame of the body on, the top vent for the fridge was about 100 mm lower than the benchtop - a perfect heat trap. They had put in a puny little vent on the top side of the benchtop, but this only came into play when the roof was up. When down for travelling, no heat could escape and the area over the fridge got quite hot. There was little I could do to change this. Our new caravan has a spice rack hiding the top fridge vent and it gets rather warm. I have 2 x 12V computer fans mounted just inside the top vent and they suck the warm air out very effectively.
Incidentally, the fans also tell me that the fridge switch (a motion sensitive switch on the 12 V supply to the fridge) is working. When I stop, I check the top vent and normally feels some warm air exiting there. After a few minutes, the exiting air has cooled down to ambient temperature, so I know that the fridge is working on 12 V and also the 12 V is isolated when the van is not moving.
I'm with everyone above. If you can afford it, rack it off for a 12v.
That was the best thing I ever did.
I disliked the 3way very much and keeping food at those temps for a few days can make your backside do funny things. among other issues of course :)
Funnily enough when I did it, some swore by their 3 way fridges and I didn't understand it. From the above, seems everyone has seen the light.
As Erad said, there's plenty that can be tried before swapping it over, but from experience and research , mixed results can be had from great to no difference.
So yo wont know til you try. A fan in mine actually increased temps for example :)
