Dometic RC2000 fridge - questions

[alexrex20]

i dug up my Dometic RC2000 fridge, which we purchased new in 1993(!) with our pop-up camper. the camper has long since been sold, and the fridge has been sitting in storage for years now.

i plugged it into 120V AC and it got cool, but not cold. i tried searching and unfortunately there's not much info for such an old fridge. i did find, however, that the fridge cooled down much quicker when operated on propane.

this fridge can run on 120V AC, 12V DC, or propane. which is ideal? on the back of the fridge it says it pulls 7.0A on 12V DC. how quickly will it drain my car battery?

i like the idea of running it on propane, but not the idea of carrying bottles of propane to keep it going. how quickly will it empty a 1lb bottle?

thanks!

 

[Bogo]

It will drain your car battery very fast. 12VDC mode is only really good when driving or quickly stopping for an hour or two. Also it needs to be within a few degrees of upright to operate properly. It is an absorption style refrigerator. They use heat to drive the cooling cycle. The propane burner outputs allot more heat than either heating element does so it provides much more cooling capacity.

 

[Bogo]

You can get 5 and 10 lbs refillable propane bottles if you don't want to carry the standard 20lbs bottle. I don't know propane usage for the refrigerators, but it isn't to much.

 

[alexrex20]

thanks for the reply Bogo. i've never used it on propane but am hopeful that it still works.

i just need to buy the adapter hose for the propane.

 

[Lemsteraak]

These fridges use ammonia as the refrigerant in a closed loop. The liquid ammonia is heated into gas and it forms a heat pump. There are no moving parts so as long as the ammonia is sealed, it will work.

Turn the unit over and leave it for a couple hours. It will work better, not really sure why but it does, something about the ammonia liquid in the wrong place.

Your two power options are 120 for pre-cooling and propane for portability. They draw something like 4 amps or 50 watts so they will suck down a battery in no time. A one pound propane cartridge will power the puppy at full power for 48 hours.

They are also quiet, the flame that runs it is the size of a candle.

Rich

 

[85CUCV]

My wife and I used a Servel propane fridge in the house for years. It is stored in the basement for now. It also runs on 110v. Nothing wrong with it. We just needed a larger fridge when the family grew. I'd still be using it if it were larger.

Propane is the way to go on these units. As Lemsteraak stated it is not much more then a pilot light burning. Using AC or DC current powering a heating element and not as efficient I'd use 12v power for only. Propane fridges will run forever as there are no moving parts.

My 2 cents.