Last night I found the weirdest fridge quirk ever with the Dometic fridge in our 2018 Swift.
Yesterday was a hot one where we are staying and as a result, I had a lot of windows and doors open all day meaning that at bedtime, I noticed a number of flying critters in the caravan and could hear that incessant whine of a mosquito. I got out our fly zapping bat (looks like a tennis racquet but electrocutes a fly when it touches it) and switched off all the lights apart from the one above the kitchen, and as the flies moved towards the light, I zapped them with the fly zapper, very successfully ridding us of quite a few insects that would have feasted on us during the night.
However, every time I pressed the button to activate the fly zapper, the fridge beeped and as I watched to see what was making it beep, I realised that every time I zapped a fly, it was as if I had pressed the setting button on the fridge once and it cycled to the next setting on the panel. I was able to use the zapper to make the fridge cycle from electric to auto to car to gas and back to electric again with the zapper! Weird!
May I ask which zapper you are using please, as I could do with one myself?
Thanks in advance!
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
I know the zapper you have as we have a couple. I note your caravan is a Swift and you have the command control unit which can receive signals from phone etc. .When Swift talk forum operated there were lots of cases where the Dometic fridge was bleeping during the night and any time. Disconnecting the fridge connection lead from the back of the command unit stopped it. May be worth a try as the command may be receiving a signal when you use the Zapper.
DK, I have just had a look and there is no brand name on the zapper. I am pretty sure we picked it up in a French supermarket a few years ago but there are lots similar on Amazon.
This is it.
It’s a pretty good zapper and I like that you can hear a slight electrical buzz when you press the button which confirms that the batteries are working. It takes 2 AA batteries and we have been on the same set now for a couple of years.
Birdman, I know what you mean about the fridge and the command control panel as we were one of the early folks who were having endless problems with it when Swift introduced it so we disconnected the fridge from the command system a few months after we bought it and it has worked perfectly ever since.
It’s not actually a problem as such, I just need to remember to check after zapping flies that the fridge gets put back onto electric, it’s just a weird anomaly!
Hi. could I just ask we have a dometic 3 way fridge and the main fuse is 15 amp but the plug behind the fridge is a 3 amp do you know if yours is the same were new to caravanning our first time out and our fridge is not working
Thanks Pixie_Hez and Mrs. Bonce for your recommendations.
So far I have relied on Bean the dog to chase the flying critters, and he is pretty go at it.
However I do need to get one of those zapper thingy - the one I had died which is fine as it was very good in the first place (bought when my late partner was still alive back in 2007/8)!
Good idea to get a newer model that can be charged via USB as I have a few USB ports in the van!
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
As trog100 points out, not that weird if you understand electronics! An awful lot of cheap and nasty Chinese manufactured stuff emits all sorts of radio frequency 'noise' that can interfere with other electronics that it's not meant to interact with! It's a fairly expensive process for a manufacturer to design/test/comply with regulations, so cheap generic product producers just don't bother, and their products can be a nuisance/hazard to other equipment.
It's unlikely to do any permanent damage to your fridge, but may unknowingly reset it in such a way it doesn't work how you want/expect! Who thought swatting a fly could make your beer warm and your ice cream melt!
Quote: Originally posted by Bigalw on 13/7/2022
Hi. could I just ask we have a dometic 3 way fridge and the main fuse is 15 amp but the plug behind the fridge is a 3 amp do you know if yours is the same were new to caravanning our first time out and our fridge is not working
Sorry Bigalw, I don’t know. We had a lot of trouble with our fridge early on which turned out to be caused by Swifts command control panel (not the panel on the fridge itself, but the control panel in the caravan which controls all the electrics). I think this problem was unique to 2018 Swift caravans and was resolved by disconnecting the command system from the fridge.
Quote: Originally posted by Bigalw on 13/7/2022
Hi. could I just ask we have a dometic 3 way fridge and the main fuse is 15 amp but the plug behind the fridge is a 3 amp do you know if yours is the same were new to caravanning our first time out and our fridge is not working
If the 3A fuse hasn't blown the fridge should still work.
How long did you leave it on they take a long time to cool down and they don't make any noise.
If you put your hand on the fridge air outlet on the outside of the van if it is working the air will be warm.
saxo1
Quote: Originally posted by Bigalw on 13/7/2022
Hi. could I just ask we have a dometic 3 way fridge and the main fuse is 15 amp but the plug behind the fridge is a 3 amp do you know if yours is the same were new to caravanning our first time out and our fridge is not working
Welcome.
TBH you would probably get a better response to your query if you had started a new post as it's a bit too far off topic from OP.
Also to answer your question more specifically, we'd need details of your outfit and the fridge model fitted.
As a very general answer, a 3A fuse in what I presume is a mains plug for your fridge is perfectly adequate, typically fridges are only rated at 125/135W for the smaller ones or 190W for the larger ones, and 3A would be adequate for up to 700W. The 'main' 15A fuse (Which I would assume is actually a MCB on the main electric control board) will almost certainly cover other devices as well as the fridge. If MCB, ensure it is in the set position and has not tripped out.
As to fridge not working, firstly the fridge will need a 12v supply from the leisure battery (or from a EHU via the battery charger) to power the control panel before it will work on ANY of the power options! Ensure that you have your onboard 12v systems up and running.
Assuming the fridge control panel shows some signs of life, absorption type fridges of which yours is, are VERY slow to chill down, you should begin to feel a LITTLE chilling on the heat exchanger fins in the back of the fridge/in ice box after 30-40 mins, but it usually takes 5 or 6 hours before the fridge is truly chilled.
If no luck on mains, try it on gas, if it works on gas OK, that confirms that the refrigeration system (which is common to all 3 power sources) is functional.
Common misconception is that the 12v operation is from the leisure battery, IT'S NOT! 12v operation is ONLY from the caravan towing vehicle/MH 12v supply when the engine is running (but still requires the onboard leisure battery 12v supply for control panel!), so if you are prepared to have your car hitched up with engine running/MH engine running, for an hour or so, you can check the function of the refrigeration system on 12v instead of gas.
These are very reliable fridges in general, failure points are the 12v or 240v cartridge heaters after usually many years use, or rarely the control panel electronics develop a fault (usually some error codes shown in form of flashing lights/digital display number), on gas the burner can get blocked with bugs or soot if heavily used on gas. Exceptionally rarely they develop a vapour lock in the refrigeration system (proven by no chilling on any power source!), this can often be rectified by removing fridge (a right PITA job usually!!!!- exhaust ALL other options for fault finding first!) and leaving it inverted for an hour or so, then refitting and leaving for another hour or so for coolant to settle before powering up. Beyond that, very little left to go wrong, no moving parts like compressors to fail.
And one final point, they do not operate well unless close to perfectly level, tolerance of only a few degrees from absolutely level! Performance can be compromised the further you get from level, until they won't work at all!
If none of the above assists, then you are into fault finding, and I'm always cautious about advising amateurs to 'tinker' with main electrics! - your first mistake may be last ever mistake!
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Topic: Weirdest fridge quirk ever.
via mobile 13/7/2022 at 10:19am
