Legacy Elite II Dometic RM2454 refer

[raptor]

Hello

I am seeking input on the Dometic RM 2454 refrigerator that is installed in the Elite II trailer. Does the refer keep the temperature at or below 40 degrees F (perishables safe). when the ambient air temps are above 85 Degrees ?

[ScubaRx]

In a nutshell, yes. We've had no problems in either of the Oliver's we've owned with the refrigerators cooling abilities in any temps. And the way they are installing them now, is even better than the way ours is. I don't think you'll have any problems.

[routlaw]

I concur with what Steve said. We have been out in our Elite II many days with temps not only in the mid to high 80's but also well into the 90's and some days this past summer in the Glacier NP probably into triple digits. We know for sure that the Flathead Valley hit 109º one day while in the area with days on either side of this a few degrees cooler yet still triple digit heat. Glacier stays a tad bit cooler but make no mistake it was HOT. I'm a bit of a gourmet ice cream maker and always like to take some along with us and it has always remained frozen, not rock hard, but frozen enough to scoop a bit easier. We keep the setting on the fridge at the mid way point which is 3 dots out of 5.

 

I will add though we still keep a cooler or ice chest along with us, if for no other reason to have some cold drinks after a long hot hike, or bike ride.

 

Hope this helps.

[raptor]

In a nutshell, yes. We've had no problems in either of the Oliver's we've owned with the refrigerators cooling abilities in any temps. And the way they are installing them now, is even better than the way ours is. I don't think you'll have any problems.

 

Routlaw,

Were you using the LP gas mode in GNP? Absorption refers cool the freezer before the frig and can work well for freezing while not adequately cooling the refrigerator compartment.

[routlaw]

Absolutely using the LP mode in Glacier, we were off the grid the entire time, no hook ups. Freezer froze, fridge kept everything very cool or cold. IOW's we had no problem what so ever with cooling or freezing. Just got back from a two week trip to the SW, same thing off the grid for two solid weeks, no generators using our 4 pack Trojans and all solar and fridge using LP. Temps were in the mid to high 80's with a day or two knocking on the door of 90. It really does work well.

[SeaDawg]

We replaced the original Norcold in our 2008 Oliver with the Dometic 2454 last year. We live in Florida. The refrigerator works in 85 plus temps. Cools faster on gas than electric, as I think is true of all the three way fridges. I usually start ours on electric in the driveway at home then it runs on gas the rest of the time we travel, as we rarely have hookups. We tend to chase the cooler weather, and camp a lot in the mountains, but it still gets hot at home, and on the highway.

I usually run mine on 4 of 5, but ours is an older Oliver, and I think the install cavity is better insulated and vented on the newer trailers.

I keep an electronic thermometer in ours with a readout in the trailer. Temps are fine, food lasts as long as it does at home.

Like others, we keep a cooler with ice for beer and soft drinks. All the little fridges (including this one) tend to lose a lot of cool air when opened frequently for beverages, and you'll get more ice buildup around the freezer if the door is opened many times a day. Keep the refrigerator loaded so air can circulate freely, and don't block the fins below the freezer by jamming up the top shelf. Again, that's true of all the small refrigerators.

Sherry

[KarenLukens]

I've seen some other people asking about the refrigerator and I just went through that section in the owners manual and pulled out a bunch of sections and pasted them into 1 sheet that everyone should know. This is my 3rd Dometic and they are great refrigerators but they do have some places that we need to watch. First is the upper door latch, they can break and Little House Customs has plenty of extra and spare parts. I've copied part of their page here-

 

"From LHC"

 

FRIDGE HINGE REPAIR/DAMAGE PREVENTION KIT

All too often we hear of the top hinge breaking on the 17" Dometic fridges. This is bad news when it happens because that top hinge is part of that quite expensive door! This stainless steel bracket is easy to install and will repair that broken hinge permanently or prevent it from happening on one that's not yet broken! The very thin profile is nearly invisible when installed. This is a must have for all 17' refrigerators.

FRIDGE SPILL CONTAINMENT TRAY

Okay, so if you’ve ever spilled milk in the bottom of your fridge, you know you want this and don’t need to read any further. If you haven’t, you still need it but are welcome to read on. This tray is sized to fit the very bottom of all 17” fridges. At 260.15625 cubic inches, it will handily contain an entire gallon of spilled milk while stealing almost zero space in the fridge. You did remember that there are 231 cubic inches in a gallon, right? OK, maybe not but I did... trust me.

 

FRIDGE BUTTON GUARD

Who hasn’t bumped the fridge control, switched to DC and run their battery down? This new version is made for us by Charlie Young. It's clear, fits the fridge well and doesn't require removal to operate the buttons. It attaches with clear VHB tape to the control panel.  [end of LHC web page additions]

 

Back to the story -

 

The first thing we did with our last trailer was to call and make an appointment at LHC to have them put the additions on that we wanted. We had Larry put the "Damage Prevention Kit" on along with the "Fridge Button guard" and it really gave us a good piece of mind because we do take off through the woods with trailer in tow and park in some amazing places. Bumping the buttons will become a regular thing without the guard installed and I highly recommend it. The new metal door hinge replaces the plastic one that comes with the fridge and will save the door from needing to be replaced if the stock hinge does break. I added the containment tray to this article because I don't remember Karen having on in our fridge :) The only problem that we had with the fridge was caused by me not knowing the voltage limits of the control panel. Even though you're running on gas and thinking that as long as the battery is putting out, it will be ok, this fridge does have it's minimum voltage of 9.6VDC. It will work a few times if your lucky and your batteries drop below that, but if you continue thinking that it will keep it up... Unfortunately that won't happen. With our Casita, we only had one Battery and it worked pretty good most of the time with the one battery. Usually over night it would drop from a full charge of 13.8VDC down to usually 11VDC overnight and this is acceptable. But then I started getting cocky and kept taking it lower and eventually found out that her CPAP machine would run fine down to 9.5VDC before it's low battery cut off would kick in... You can see where I'm going here - because the fridge was on gas, I really wasn't worried about it. So one night when we were parked boondocking I noticed that the trailer hadn't charged back up while we were driving and found that I had not plugged it in all the way because a small piece of gravel had been knocked into the 7-pin connector. So we were now going to be starting off the night at only 11.5VDC even after running the generator. The CPAP kicked off and woke up Karen,and the voltage had dropped to 8.7VDC and that's when our refrigerator problem started. I could hear the pilot igniter probe clicking on and off, trying to relight the fridge but it wasn't working at all on propane but it worked fine on AC or DC... ANd that's what we used to get home along with our cool box that we keep in the back of the car.

 

An old friend of mine up here is a Mobile RV mechanic, so I gave him a call and he came right over. Then after pulling it apart and looking things over, he found that the main relay on the board wouldn't pull in, so the propane wasn't getting the signal to start. So I ordered the new board and that was that. The Moral of the story here is - Know the fridges limitations...

 

In the attachment, I've pulled out the basics and then some from the Dometic Owners Manual. It would be best for everyone to read the entire manual and then use this page if needed as a reference, but either way, if you read this, you will have a real good understanding of your Dometic Refrigerator.

 

Reed Lukens

 

Copy it, Paste it and Save it to your Oliver Maintenance Files :)

 

 

 

 

 

[geokeg]

Another refer question.  I can not find in the provided literature about when one should operate the refer fan.  When does it need to be on or off?

 

Thanks,

 

George

[KarenLukens]

Another refer question. I can not find in the provided literature about when one should operate the refer fan. When does it need to be on or off? Thanks, George

The refrigerator fan these days is probably an option that will not be needed very often. On older models, the problem was that they would get too hot because of a lack of ventilation to the outside through the old style vent louvers in the side of the trailer. Then the fridge would heat up and you couldn't get the temp low enough inside to keep things cold. Dometic fixed this first by adding the optional fan and then later they found that a lot of it was caused by the old louvered vents, not allowing the heat to vent out. So they improved the fridge vents by getting rid of the old louvers.

 

Out with the old -

 

And in with the new - 

and the fan hasn't been needed on many rv's since then. Still though on the hottest of days, you have the fan if needed but when boondocking we really want to get the most out of our propane along with running efficient and Larry from LHC found that by using some rebar wire, he could form a latch that would pop the top of the vent out just enough to let all of the heat go straight out the top. He does it for free for you there but it's simple enough to do yourself. Basically you want to form a hook on each side of the top door that will allow you to crack the top open so that there is no place for the heat to get stopped from exiting at all. I did this easily on our Casita and the fridge ran cool from then on even in the 110° weather we sometimes get ourselves into.  So once our Oliver is finished we will easily find out if we need to make this quick little mod to it for a hot day, so we won't ever need to run the fan.

 

Reed

[Overland]

Oliver provides a ton of venting - both of the vents by the door are for the fridge.  I'm sure that's a lot of why the absorption fridge works well in the Oliver.  The fridge thing is funny to me - RV and travel trailer people always say they're fine, but if you ask anyone who's used a 12V compressor fridge, they'll tell you that you're nuts to stick with an absorption.  We debated it, and decided to play it safe with the 12V.  You get a bigger fridge if nothing else, but it will use about ¼ of your battery capacity per day while boondocking, so that's the obvious tradeoff.

[SeaDawg]

We've never owned a danfoss  or swing arm compressor 12 volt refrigerator, but have used them in rentals in Australia, and were very happy with the results. Ours used very little battery power. Very common in the boating g world as well.

I'll look forward to hearing your comments after you've used yours for a year or two.

As for our 3ways, I have found the separate cooler for drinks to be very helpful. I also organize the 3way the same way all the time... Lightweight stuff on the door, leave breathing space near the fins, produce near the bottom, in plastic containers to minimize freezing lettuce, etc. I go into the fridge only a handful of times a day, if possible, to avoid dumping cold, and taking in humid air which hastens the ice buildup.

Btw, Reed, Oliver trailers have always had the plastic vent grates. Never had a problem with the hinge. (But then, I don't put heavy items items on the door, and use the counter, not the door, if I need support to get up off the floor on days when my knee acts up.)

The bottom tray Reed mentioned would be nice when defrosting and cleaning, too. I use a dishpan, but it doesn't catch everything.

Sherry

[SeaDawg]

Btw, overland, which brand 12v did you select?

[ScubaRx]

...We debated it, and decided to play it safe with the 12V. You get a bigger fridge if nothing else, but it will use about ¼ of your battery capacity per day while boondocking, so that’s the obvious tradeoff...

 

Let's assume that one has the 4 Trojan AGM's and has a total of 400 amp hours, just so I understand, is that ¼ of that total (100 amp hours) or ¼ of the usable (50 amp hours?)

[SeaDawg]

The small 12v swing arm we used in Australia drew our battery down very little, even on two night stays, with a single group 27 house battery, powering lights, as well. As we had no heater in the camper van, and a diesel no fan heater in the other, can't say that anything but lights and charging phones and tablet drew much else.

We were warned at pickup that we would have to plug in at least every other night to maintain the battery. We found that to be false, as we camped three and four nights in a row with no power or solar in the camper van, without running the battery down to an unsafe level. We did have an analog type guage, never showing less than 12.5.

The refrigerator ran intermittently, not all day. Outside temp was certainly a factor, as was how often we opened the fridge door. I was careful to check the guage several times a day.

Mind, this was a hatbox size refrigerator, but still had a freezer compartment capable of making ice twice a day, and holding several frozen items. Freezer was about half the size of the domestic. Fridge a little over half the size.

Sherry

 

[Try2Relax]

The Novakool R5810 is a 5.8cuft, which is almost the same size as the current fridge (slightly smaller). Draw from it while running is 4.4A on 12v, with a 50% duty cycle. So it should be less than 1/4 of usable battery. The interior is configured pretty much the same as the existing Dometic.

[Overland]

 

Let’s assume that one has the 4 Trojan AGM’s and has a total of 400 amp hours, just so I understand, is that ¼ of that total (100 amp hours) or ¼ of the usable (50 amp hours?)

 

Btw, overland, which brand 12v did you select?

 

We're looking at two different fridges - one is the Vitrifrigo C130.  It's 4.7 c.f. and pulls 3.78 amps when running.  So that's 90.72 amp hours if you leave the door open - half that or less in normal conditions, or so we're assuming.

 

Another option we're considering is the Isotherm Cruise 130, which pulls 5 amps, though they claim 33.3 amp hours per day, due to thicker insulation and I believe variable compressor speeds.  It's also frost free, which is nice.

 

Both units use a holding plate, which essentially freezes a block of metal when you have surplus solar, which then keeps the compressor from running so much overnight.

[Overland]

The Novakool R5810 is a 5.8cuft, which is almost the same size as the current fridge (slightly smaller). Draw from it while running is 4.4A on 12v, with a 50% duty cycle. So it should be less than 1/4 of usable battery. The interior is configured pretty much the same as the existing Dometic.

I'll have to look into the Nova Kools.  I'm curious how they get the extra volume relative to the others I'm looking at; i.e., I'd be concerned that they use less insulation.  I see that they're roughly 2" taller, so that's a good deal of it.

 

This description for the Nova Kool from Backwoods Solar intrigues me:

Running power has been reduced with new dual voltage Danfoss compressors and a new refrigerant. Single door models consume about 35 watts when compressor is running: under 3 amps 12 volt, 1.5 on 24 volt. Running time varies with temperature, but is about 30% duty cycle on a 70 degree day. When buyer glues extra 2 inch foam insulation to the whole box it will cut per day run time and energy use in half. The new Danfoss BD35F compressor uses R134A (CF3-CH2F) gas for atmospheric protection.

All the units above use the same compressor, so the amp discrepancy is curious.  I'm assuming that they are reporting current draw at specific RPMs, so either they are being more or less conservative with their reporting, or with the max RPM at which they run.

 

 

[Try2Relax]

Overland, I don't know if you've seen this yet, it provides good information on their unit.

 

http://www.ra.danfoss.com/TechnicalInfo/Literature/Manuals/06/application_guideline_bd_solar_09-2005_pa100a202.pdf

 

 

[Overland]

Ah, some light reading for tonight. Thanks!

[Try2Relax]

I'm happy to report that I have finally replaced the stock Dometic with a NovaKool 5810.

 

The swap out wasn't too complicated, however getting the Dometic out (the door) proved to be fatal (for it).

 

The 5810 is a larger volume, but smaller footprint, width and depth are almost perfect the height is approx 4" shorter, which is also perfect for the space and my process.

 

Upon removing the old one, I sealed off the two exterior vents and layered 5 sheets of reflectix, to cover the entire exterior wall, I also ran 2 new higher gauge wires for power. The 5810 comes with a 40mm fan mounted directly over the compressor, which is controlled to turn on when it runs, I removed this and replaced it with two quieter high volume fans mounted on top of the unit to draw the air from the rear of the unit.

 

The extra 4 inches of height allow for the unit to be mounted on 2x1" aluminum channels and leave the remaining space at the top, this the fans draw the coolest air in the trailer in the bottom, up the back and exhaust it out the top, this exhaust air is barely even warm, so it does not really add to trailer temp.

 

Performance wise, it is a WORLD of difference. One day I let the trailer cook, inside temp 94° held steady at 38° and 19°, cycling on and off as necessary. Unplugged it for a week to see how it affects the battery, no problem handling it, where it's parked is a late sunrise and early sunset, due to hills and trees, morning voltage 12.8 and bluesky monitor indicating 23 amp hours from full.

 

The temp hold is rock steady, all of this was done with a completely empty fridge, so once there's mass in it it should run less and hold even better.

 

Max indicated current draw is 4.3 amps on the system.

 

Personally, I would consider this a completely worthwhile investment and effort.

 

[SeaDawg]

That's a beautiful install. Glad you're getting good results.

We've rented campervans with the swingarm compressors, and were very impressed with their performance and efficiency, even without solar.

When the dometic quits, we'll be doing the same.

Sherry

[Overland]

It looks awesome and I'm glad it's performing well.  We ended up going with the Isotherm so I will be curious how it stacks up compared to the nova cool.

 

Is the venting part of the install kit or is that just to fill the gaps?  On ours, Oliver is planning to give us a 4" round vent at the bottom rear, by the trailer door, and another in the bottom right of the microwave cabinet.  That should give us diagonal venting across the back of the unit.

[Try2Relax]

Those are just to cover the gaps, found a company that creates to spec, size and gaps style and two coats of powder coat.

 

So are they not cutting the regular vent access in the side? Are they mounting a fan near the exhaust vent to draw the air across?

[Overland]

There shouldn't be any exterior vents.  I've thought about a fan, but isotherm doesn't require one per their installation instructions.

 

 

[SeaDawg]

Well, I may have gumped myself in an earlier post saying we'd replace our dometic 3way with a 12 v compress fridge when the dometic dies... I think the cooling unit is dead. Only months after replacing the eyebrow board...

So, if the tech reaches the same conclusion, I think we'll move on to 12v Marine refrigeration.

Randy, I love the way your Novakool looks. Has it worked well for you?

Our friend who has worked his whole life in the yacht building industry is keen on Isotherm and vitrifrigo. No negative comments on Novakool, just no experience with them. I'd love to install drawers, one fridge, one freezer, but it doubles the replacement cost, and then some.

Looks like the Isotherm c130 would also be a pretty good fit in the Oliver. They also offer a Smart Energy Controller as an attachment, with s cabinet space for it in the classic series.Controller

I'm torn. Guess I will take some time to make a decision. Camping season is almost over for us, anyway.

Back to living out of a cooler for awhile...

And, yes, I know I can have the cooling unit replaced if it is indeed the culprit. But, when that cost gets me a third or halfway to the 12 v Danfoss compressor fridge I'd rather have, it's a good time to make that decision.

Sherry