Dometic RM 3800 Fridge not working on 12 volts???

[tintin]

The Dometic RM 3800 Fridge  works perfectly fine with shore power connected or LP, however it doesn't work on 12 V. The green light on the refrigerator changes from green to blinking red when I cut the shore power and/or LP.  Per the instruction manual I reset with the on/off button, but it continuous to revert blinking red once it can't find LP or shore power.

Does anybody have an idea what could cause this 3-way fridge not wanting to run on 12V?

Thanks for your help!

[Rickf1985]

Is your engine running? The 12 volt is only designed to maintain the temp once it is cold and it draws a LOT of power so most are designed to run directly off of the vehicle alternator. The 12 setting will NOT cool the fridge down to temp from warm.

[tintin]

Thank you Rick! I will give it a try with the engine running.

[tintin]

I found a rocker switch under the dashboard. One side says  110 V - LPG, the other side says 3-Way. The only problem is that there are no wires attached to the three prongs on the back of that switch.  Hm?


There are a few loose wires under the dash.... sigh...

[Rickf1985]

Yep, Welcome to the world of used RV ownership. You are gonna love it. W% W% W%

That kind of sounds like a selector for selecting what version of refrigerator was installed and they probably just bypassed the switch. There was probably an option of either a 2 way or three way fridge for that RV and you got the three way.

Start it up and run the engine and see if that works, if not then it may not be hooked up. Make sure there is no switch on the top panel of the fridge that says AC-DC and then on the other side it would have AC-off-LP gas. If you have all of that then the right side will need to be on Off and the other side on DC. That is the layout for my Norcold.

[tintin]

Tried it with the engine running and the light of the refrigerator turned red. I think I found the answer in the manual of the refrigerator. Page 4 refers to the "Ignition Lock". The PO most have pulled the cables from the switch under the dash or they were accidentally pulled. On the back of the fridge there is a yellow wire going to the "Ignition Lock" terminal, under the dash I have two disconnected yellow cables with connectors and one white disconnected cable with connector dangling. Hopefully these cables are the right ones..

[legomybago]

Interesting....It must be a safety feature so your only drawing that large amount of juice from the batteries while the key is on, and/or engine running??

[tintin]

It is probably designed to have no flames burning when filling up at the gas station.

[legomybago]

 
Yeah your probably right. Wussys

[Oz]

Please stop quoting the previous post on every reply. It's not needed and I'm getting tired of removing all the visual clutter it creates.