I just bought a new 2016 13ft Scamp! I have been afraid to use the fridge because of getting it level! I purchased a level and have been trying the fridge! I have it in my driveway! It worked previously on propane a few weeks ago! I plugged into electricity and the one part where you check for a flame when using propane got really hot! Too hot to touch so I turned it off and unplugged it! Is heat like this normal? How long does it usually take to cool down and get cold? Maybe I am just not giving it a chance!
Sun, 07/17/2016 - 22:00
#1
New Scamp Trailer and worried about the fridge!
I am no expert, by any means, but I do believe that the heat is normal. These refrigerators work different than your,s at home. They require heat to operate. Thus they can operate on either propane or electricity - either on can provide the heat required. It would make sense that the same part of the fridge that gets hot on one fuel, would get hot using the other fuel, since the same process happens. I was told that, generally, if the fridge works on one fuel, it will almost always work on the other.
Anyone else with more experience and understanding feel free to correct or confirm what I just said.
I don't know about the heat, but we thought on 110 volts ours was not cooling . The guy at the factory told us to give it 24 hrs. On 110. Sure enough it was nice and cool.
Doug
Your RV Fridge works off of heat. Whenever you are using propane there is an actual flame that produces heat, whenever you are using electricity there is a heating element that produces the same amount of heat as the propane flame does. So, yes, the area where the flame is will get very hot when running on electricity.
As far as leveling your Scamp goes, it does not have to be perfectly level for the fridge to operate, just "mostly" level, a couple of degrees off will not stop the fridge from operating (several degrees will stop the fridge). My point is that perfectly level is not required.
Usually, before a trip, I will go to the storage yard the day before our trip and turn on the fridge. Additionally, the fridge is usually the last thing we load before pulling out. We only put cold food into the fridge and we put a couple of frozen water bottles in the fridge to help it keep it's cool (we live in HOT Florida and every little thing we can do to help keep the fridge cold is necessary).
Be careful if you are plugging your Scamp into an Extension cord and trying to run your refrigerator on Electric. Unless you have a 30 Amp hookup you could damage your heating element, the reason is due to electrical resistance in the extension cord itself. Resistance will lower the voltage available for the fridge and could damage the heating element and/or reduce it's life.
To be honest, I usually run my fridge on Propane, even when connected to 30 amp power. I've tested my electric to make certain it works, but I just leave the fridge running on propane.
By-the-way, you want to get and keep a thermometer in your fridge and check it daily (twice daily), it doesn't take much to raise the temp inside the fridge and you need to monitor the temp to keep your food safe.
As Always,
Happy Scamping !!!
RE:
Be careful if you are plugging your Scamp into an Extension cord and trying to run your refrigerator on Electric. Unless you have a 30 Amp hookup you could damage your heating element, the reason is due to electrical resistance in the extension cord itself. Resistance will lower the voltage available for the fridge and could damage the heating element and/or reduce it's life.
Please explain how and why the lower voltage will harm the heating element. It seems to be that lower voltage would make the heating element run cooler, and at some point the fridge would stop cooling, but I fail to see how LOWER voltage will harm the element.
Of course there are other things in campers that could be harmed by low voltage and your caution about long extension cords, maybe with inadequate wire, etc is valid. But harming the heating element I question.
The following applies to my Scamp’s larger RM2410 fridge that does not have a control panel requiring 12 VDC. YMMV:
One thing people can do is open the fridge vent and unplug the fridge from the camper's outlet and plug it straight into an extension cord to the house. This way the converter and rest of the camper is not getting shore power and adding to the fridge load. Or turn off the breaker for the converter.
But then again, my fridge only draws 1.3 amps at 120 VAC so it would have to be a heck of a long extension cord to have much effect.
Thank you everyone for your replies! I believe that I was just to worried to ruin something and didn't even leave it on long enough to cool down!
I will take your advice and use mostly the propane. I have heard this from a couple of sources! I will also give it a good 24 hours to cool down before loading!
I guess I just need to give it a chance before I get too concerned!
Thanks again from someone that is new to this! :)
Glory A King