To tell you the truth, my primary concern was that it had quit cooling well with gas, so that's what I was looking at, to get it working again.

I paid less attention to the interior temp, but when I did check, the interior temperatures were in the 32-42 range mostly. I have had the same complaint you have, that the interior temperature goes up and down radically with the ambient temp. It's just not insulated well enough.

My garage has been between 80-95 most of the time. I have a manual override switch for the fan on the back and most of the time I was doing these tests, I had that fan running. It made a big difference in the efficiency of the refrigerator in high ambient temperatures. I turned that fan off this afternoon, but left the fridge operating on gas. I just checked right now. The ambient temp is 84, the fins are at 28, and the fridge interior is 43.

I have added a little insulation on top, bottom, and back of the fridge. It might help a little. Wish there was room to add more.

Paul

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Jeffrey Vickers Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2007 9:57 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Fridge

What was the air temp in the fridge at 73F room temp? The cooling fins will get really cold but that's where the good news ends. It seems to me anyway that the Dometic really flunks out when the air temps get up past 80F. At 90F my fridge is at 50F---a 40F degree difference --- not nearly enough. What's your air temp inside to outside differential?

Jeff On Jul 5, 2007, at 6:00 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 18:25:14 -0600 > From: Paul Chubbuck <paul@TAKINGFLIGHT.NET> > Subject: SOLUTION - Refrigerator did cool, but no more! > > For those who are also having problems with their Dometics not cooling > well on propane after maintainence, but they still cool well on AC, > here's an update. > > I took mine out and apart once again. I focused on the gas nozzle and > the combustion chamber, suspicious that possibly the flame was lower > than it should've been. The previous time, I had done the alcohol > cleaning and blew through it afterwards by mouth. But when it was > worse afterwards, I wondered if I had actually introduced foreign > particles, now partially clogging the nozzle....or maybe dislodged > oxidation particles without getting rid of them. This time, I > followed the advice of Roger (see his link below) and cleaned the > nozzle in acid. He recommends battery acid. I used muriatic acid > from my hardware store. Afterwards, I rinsed in very clean water, and > used a high pressure air can to blow through the nozzle...the type you > use to clean off computers. > > I also made various attempts to seal the combustion box and chimneys > more completely against leakage. This was not yet successful. > Nonetheless, I > put it back together and now the gas is cooling again. > > One night it ran all night on propane. In the morning the temperature > of the cooling fins was 15 when the interior of the van was 73. > The next night it ran all night on AC. In the morning the temperature > of the cooling fins was 13 when the interior of the van was 72. > > That's close enough for me. I believe it is performing as well now as > it ever has. > > I'm going to make one more attempt to seal off the system better. > Imperfectly sealed, it supposedly goes out more easily, especially > when driving. > > I'm happy again with my Dometic....well, at least satisfied for now. > Good luck. > > Paul