Quote:
Originally Posted by BipeFlier
I leave mine on all summer long.Â* My thinking is the recent problems with Dometic and I think Norcold products is fracturing of the cooling coils in the back.Â* Thermal cycling (turning on and off) will accelerate the expansion and contraction of these coils and possibly increase the possibility of cracking.
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Leaving it on (hot) all the time will decrease the thermal cycling extreams.
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Thermal cycling happens every time the burner or electric heater turns on and off. The difference is many more thermal cycles with a smaller temp change vs. fewer thermal cycles with a higher temp change if the frig. is turned off when the RV is in storage. In my past life, we did equipment life testing with both types, small delta temp/many cycles and large delta temp/few cycles. Some times one would fail and the other pass and with other equipment the exact opposite would happen and obviously the goal was to have neither fail. If the frig. manufacturers have done their job, they know the failure rate for both types of thermal stress and they have addressed any weakness in the design and manufacturering process.
For 21 yrs and 4 RVs, I have always turned the frig. off when not in use. Why waste electricity, or worse yet propane, when the frig. isn't needed?
When Dometic had their problem with failures, didn't these occur while the unit was in normal cooling mode?Meaning, small delta temp cycling. If so, then how can running the frig. continuously for even more thermal cycles improve the life of the frig.? The Dometic warning cautioned against running the frig. at all w/o the fix. The warning didn't say, if the frig. is working OK, then the owner should keep running it until the fix is installed.