gene j Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 I'm sure this question has come up before, but being fairly new I haven't been able to find an answer. After our first outing with the newly purchased 92 Dolphin, the only big problem was the fridge not getting cold. On gas, and at home we tried again after making sure it was level as possible....after an overnight wait it was good and cold. The problem occurs when I switch to electric...I shut of the gas, turn the switch to electric, and after a few minutes the breaker in the plug that looks like it is probably a GFI and is located below the sink cabinet pops out. I'm assuming the fridge is pulling too many amps....is this something common? I'm figuring I will have to be off to the shop if I want this diagnosed correctly. After reading some info on dometic sites and being not that electrically inclined, it seems the correct diagnosing is beyond my expertise. Also, I'm on the older 6300 converter, not sure if that would make a difference. Would appreciate any guidance. Gene J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 It sounds like the heater element is bad, the converter should have no effect as far as the fridge is concerned. I think Greg has a few pictures of the elements do a site search and see what you can turn up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gene j Posted June 10, 2010 Author Share Posted June 10, 2010 It sounds like the heater element is bad, the converter should have no effect as far as the fridge is concerned. I think Greg has a few pictures of the elements do a site search and see what you can turn up. Maineah, Thanks for the info....I'm going to follow the directives offerd by the links I've found. Haven't been able to find any pictures of the heating element...I may be doing a poorly defined search..don't know...anyway, I'm headed for the tool shed and giving it a shot....I'll let you know how it turns out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gene j Posted June 11, 2010 Author Share Posted June 11, 2010 Maineah, Thanks for the info....I'm going to follow the directives offerd by the links I've found. Haven't been able to find any pictures of the heating element...I may be doing a poorly defined search..don't know...anyway, I'm headed for the tool shed and giving it a shot....I'll let you know how it turns out. I removed the heating element and hot wired it...it worked fine and stayed hot for an hour and did not throw any breakers on my garage circuit ( I had verified the ohms with the meter earlier) and that should eliminate the element. Put a new GFI in (20 amp). Put element back in and bypassed everything by plugging the fridge plug directly into a house circuit......threw the breaker in about 5 minutes. It appears something before the element is not functioning correctly....not sure were to go from here. Of course the gas works and I can get by with that, but its just I like everyting to work....part of the fun...any advice? Haven't found any web sites with fridge info that relates directly to what's happening to me.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gulfstream Greg Posted June 12, 2010 Share Posted June 12, 2010 I removed the heating element and hot wired it...it worked fine and stayed hot for an hour and did not throw any breakers on my garage circuit ( I had verified the ohms with the meter earlier) and that should eliminate the element. Put a new GFI in (20 amp). Put element back in and bypassed everything by plugging the fridge plug directly into a house circuit......threw the breaker in about 5 minutes. It appears something before the element is not functioning correctly....not sure were to go from here. Of course the gas works and I can get by with that, but its just I like everyting to work....part of the fun...any advice? Haven't found any web sites with fridge info that relates directly to what's happening to me.... Check the continuity (high resistance ohms) between each lead and the metal housing. There should be none. Also remember that the heater element uses allot of amps, I think around 12 amps but that could be wrong. Anyhow if you are connecting to your house with anything less than a 12 gauge cord the actual amperage use at the outlet could be substantially higher. Another thing to look at is your converter panel. Disconnect from shore power and open it up. Check all the set screws on the breakers and ground bus bar, neutral bar, wire nuts etc, make sure they are all tight. Pull your shore power cord inside and do a continuity test between the ground and the ground bus bar, neutral and the hot sides. All should be fairly low like 1 to 3 ohms at most. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 Most GFI's are good for 15 amps (some 20) but GFI's some times have issues with resistive loads. I'm a little confused with the GFI under the sink is it part of a plug or is some thing plugged into a GFI? usually the outlet for the fridge is right next to the fridge behind the compartment door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gene j Posted June 13, 2010 Author Share Posted June 13, 2010 Most GFI's are good for 15 amps (some 20) but GFI's some times have issues with resistive loads. I'm a little confused with the GFI under the sink is it part of a plug or is some thing plugged into a GFI? usually the outlet for the fridge is right next to the fridge behind the compartment door. The fridge plugs in to the outlet that is behind the unit and seen when the exterior access door is removed just as you said. The GFI is located inside the coach on the cabinet under the sink area...this is on the exterior part of the cabinet, not inside anything....it is just a regular GFI outlet like you might see in your kitchen or bathroom at home. When I am connected to shore power and put the fridge on electric it will throw the GFI after about 5-7 minutes, and I loose power to all the outlets in the coach until I reset it. I unplugged the fridge from it's outlet and plugged it in via extension cord to my garage outlet, bypassing the shore plug hookup system. It threw the GFI in the garage also after about 5-7 minutes. I then removed the heating element as I mentioned to Greg and connected the two wire from the element to a universal plug and plugged it into the garage outlet directly....it immediately got very hot and did not throw any GFI or breakers. Greg mentioned some other checks of continuity that I could do on the element, like checking between each individual wire and the element housing itself. I haven't had a chance to do that yet. I did put a new GFI in, a 20 amp model just as was in there before, but the same thing happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gene j Posted June 13, 2010 Author Share Posted June 13, 2010 Check the continuity (high resistance ohms) between each lead and the metal housing. There should be none. Also remember that the heater element uses allot of amps, I think around 12 amps but that could be wrong. Anyhow if you are connecting to your house with anything less than a 12 gauge cord the actual amperage use at the outlet could be substantially higher. Another thing to look at is your converter panel. Disconnect from shore power and open it up. Check all the set screws on the breakers and ground bus bar, neutral bar, wire nuts etc, make sure they are all tight. Pull your shore power cord inside and do a continuity test between the ground and the ground bus bar, neutral and the hot sides. All should be fairly low like 1 to 3 ohms at most. I will try these and get back to you....thanks for the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wetboy Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 The fridge plugs in to the outlet that is behind the unit and seen when the exterior access door is removed just as you said. The GFI is located inside the coach on the cabinet under the sink area...this is on the exterior part of the cabinet, not inside anything....it is just a regular GFI outlet like you might see in your kitchen or bathroom at home. When I am connected to shore power and put the fridge on electric it will throw the GFI after about 5-7 minutes, and I loose power to all the outlets in the coach until I reset it. I unplugged the fridge from it's outlet and plugged it in via extension cord to my garage outlet, bypassing the shore plug hookup system. It threw the GFI in the garage also after about 5-7 minutes. I then removed the heating element as I mentioned to Greg and connected the two wire from the element to a universal plug and plugged it into the garage outlet directly....it immediately got very hot and did not throw any GFI or breakers. Greg mentioned some other checks of continuity that I could do on the element, like checking between each individual wire and the element housing itself. I haven't had a chance to do that yet. I did put a new GFI in, a 20 amp model just as was in there before, but the same thing happened. If you plugged your fridge directly into the garage outlet and that tripped, I would suspect a fault inside the fridge...perhaps the thermostat unit. HOWEVER, given that it takes a few minutes, it's JUST as possible that you are using too small an extension cord (16 gauge or less) and/or it's too long. That will make the resistance warm up the cord, and the heat in turn will increase the resistance. Within a few minutes, your 12 amp pull from the wall becomes 20+. This happened when I tried to run my AC from a 14 gauge, 50 ft cord cord. As soon as I moved to a 12 guage 25 footer, problem disappeared. Eliminate the obvious problems first, the I'd check the thermostat unit. Cheers and good luck... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 It sounds like the problem is in the element if you only used two wires to the element it had no ground reference. If the element is leaking voltage to ground the GFI will trip they are very sensitive. I have seen this on heating elements (in general) before. Try an ohm meter and check between the two wires and the element case the resistance should be very high. GFI's often have problems with resistive loads and it probably would explain the time factor it has to be hot to cause the problem. Your not tripping breakers so likely it's not over loaded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gene j Posted June 14, 2010 Author Share Posted June 14, 2010 If you plugged your fridge directly into the garage outlet and that tripped, I would suspect a fault inside the fridge...perhaps the thermostat unit. HOWEVER, given that it takes a few minutes, it's JUST as possible that you are using too small an extension cord (16 gauge or less) and/or it's too long. That will make the resistance warm up the cord, and the heat in turn will increase the resistance. Within a few minutes, your 12 amp pull from the wall becomes 20+. This happened when I tried to run my AC from a 14 gauge, 50 ft cord cord. As soon as I moved to a 12 guage 25 footer, problem disappeared. Eliminate the obvious problems first, the I'd check the thermostat unit. Cheers and good luck... Now that you've mentioned the thermostat, I have noticed that the thermostat dial on the front of the fridge will turn 360º and never hit a stop point.....doesn't seem normal. If something is wrong it looks like quite a job to get to the thermostat itself...it doesn't seem easily accessible from the back or the front. My extension cord is very heavy duty and I've been very careful to feel the temp of the cord when it is connected, both at the fridge end and the wall outlet end and it doesn't feel no more that casually warm. Perhaps the thermostat is the problem but would that not affect the gas setup as well or would it just go the the temp setting that it is possible broken at and cool to that setting? I'm going to recheck the element again following instructions from Maineah as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gene j Posted June 14, 2010 Author Share Posted June 14, 2010 It sounds like the problem is in the element if you only used two wires to the element it had no ground reference. If the element is leaking voltage to ground the GFI will trip they are very sensitive. I have seen this on heating elements (in general) before. Try an ohm meter and check between the two wires and the element case the resistance should be very high. GFI's often have problems with resistive loads and it probably would explain the time factor it has to be hot to cause the problem. Your not tripping breakers so likely it's not over loaded. Thanks for the info, I will do this and let you know what I find out. I mentioned a problem with the thermostat on another recent reply here and am checking that out also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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