The importance of a level refrigerator

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Sent: 6/20/2005 4:39 PM

We have a brand new Dometic, and we love it!  It works off of 12, 120, and propane, and works great on all three. 

I just wanted to caution y'all about the importance of keeping it fairly level, though, in order for it to work properly!

We stopped in a campground on Lake Gaston in Roanoke Rapids, NC.  Its a very nice Outdoor World campground, and we highly recommend it.

However, thier campsites, which are built into hills, are far from level...lol.  I figured it would probably be good enough for a new fridge, so I didn't bother leveling out the rig.  BIG mistake!  The fridge got warm, and all the food was ruined!

We ended up using every block of wood we had, plus a neighboring campers Lynx blocks!  To achieve level, the front tires on the Ark were over a foot in the air!  The fridge cooled right down after that, and worked great.

Most of y'all probably already know this, but our fridges don't work like a home fridge.  The reason they use these chemical/heat fridges in motorhomes is that they can run off of propane, and shaking them around while driving doesn't hurt them.  When they aren't level...that's a different story!

In a nutshell, our fridges have a boiler that heats up to make a water/ammonia solution go into vapor.  The vapor travels up the tubes, and hits pressurized hydrogen gas.  The reaction causes the cooling.  The ammonia then returns to a liquid state, drips back down the tubes, and goes into the boiler again. 

When the fridge is WAY off level, the liquid in the boiler and holding tubes sloshes to one side, and BLOCKS the gaseous ammonia vapor and hydrogen!  THIS is why they won't work when extremely un-level.  When driving, its all sloshing about, and nothing gets blocked.  THIS is why they work when driving.

Anyhow, they don't have to be perfectly level to work...but they can't be so far off that the tubes are blocked.  We got one of those round surface levels, and put it in the freezer.  It looks like a clear plastic dome, with a circle in the middle.  When the bubble is inside the circle completely, you are perfectly level.  Again, you don't have to be perfectly level, and we've found that as long as the bubble is at least touching the circle, the fridge works.  If its not touching, the fridge doesn't.

Kev and Patti Smith

[mightybooboo]

Sent: 6/20/2005 7:56 PM

First time ever my fridge wouldnt cool  was last week.We use a bubble level that sits on the glass shelf.PO told me as long as bubble touches center ring line,it will  work.
Last week I couldnt get rig leveled,front too  high.And refer would only go to 50 degrees,next morning it was still 50,moved to a level spot.Next morn' it was 38!

BooBoo

[Stripe]

And here is a photo of the tool that Mightybooboo speaks of.