July 22, Frozen Beer Headaches

wingssail images-judy jensen
This beer won't pour

I didn’t get a headache from drinking frozen beer; it’s from trying to keep the beer from getting frozen in the first place.

We have a new refrigerator. New insulation, new liner, new compressor, new evaporator, new thermostat. It worked great for a day or two then it started freezing my beer (plus, it’s using too much electricity).

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
New Refer

I started trying to figure out why and I found that the compressor wasn’t shutting off; it ran continuously.

Must be the thermostat.

So I changed the thermostat. It ran good for an hour then resumed freezing my beer.

That’s about when the headaches started.

I checked the control unit. It seems to work perfectly.

This was going on for about a month. We were turning it off at the switch panel and using the phone’s timer to remind us when to turn it back on. (That’s just what I needed, another alarm going off every 30 minutes.)

Persistence is as stubborn does. I dug into the manual. I searched the Internet. I read cruiser’s forum. I sent a support request to Dometic.

And I found something. It was a “maybe”. But the installation manual called for the thermostat sensing wire to be clamped to the evaporator box with half of a loop of the wire inside the clamp. I’d made one and a half loops. (If half a loop is good, one and a half is better, right?). I found some other references to the importance of the sensing wire not touching anything anywhere but at the end where it is clamped.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Right and Wrong

It was worth a try, although getting behind the evaporator plate to change it was tough, but I did it.

Guess what? It worked. A miracle! The compressor is cycling at about 50% on 50% off.

So now the feezer is 15 degrees and the refer is 35-45 degrees, and the electricity usage is reduced by 50%.

I’m happy and my headache is gone. I think I’ll have a beer.

Click here for a few more photos.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Barra de Navidad