Dometic fridge in my Lance 1062 cannot keep up once it hits 95, on propane or shore power

Jun 6, 2025 · 4:20 PM#1

2016 Lance 1062 on a 2014 Ram 3500 single rear wheel. the fridge is the Dometic 2 way, sticker inside the door says RM2652.

last weekend we were out at Ocotillo Wells, which i know, june, my own fault. 103 in the afternoon. the fridge was at 34 when we got there friday night. by 3 pm saturday the thermometer in the door said 50 and the freezer was soft. overnight it pulled back down to about 38. same on propane and same when i plugged into the generator.

things i already did: leveled it with the bubble on the counter, blew out the burner with a can of air, flame is blue. it does light every time. is this just what these fridges do in real heat, or is mine on the way out? i do not want to spend 1,500 on a cooling unit if the answer is a fan.

Jun 7, 2025 · 8:05 AM#2

almost always it is airflow before it is the cooling unit. an absorption fridge makes cold out of heat, and all that heat has to leave out the top vent on the outside wall. at 103 with the sun on that wall the air behind the coils gets stupid hot and the whole thing stalls.

on my 2009 Lance 992 i put a 12 volt fan up at the top vent, blowing out, on a little thermostat switch so it only runs when the back of the fridge is over about 100. maybe 30 dollars in parts and an hour. it was the difference between warm beer and cold beer in Moab in july.

question for you though. when you were parked at Ocotillo, which way was the fridge side of the camper facing in the afternoon?

Jun 8, 2025 · 7:30 PM#3

two cheap things on the inside too. one of those battery fans that sits on the fridge shelf, D cells, maybe 12 bucks, moves the cold air around so the door shelves are not 10 degrees warmer than the back. and start it a full day before you load it, then only put cold food in. a case of warm soda from the gas station undoes hours of work.

we are at 7,200 feet here and mine has the opposite complaint, the flame gets lazy up high, but that is a different thread.

Jun 13, 2025 · 9:10 PM#4

lance_owner_since_09 wrotewhich way was the fridge side of the camper facing in the afternoon?

southwest. full sun from about noon until it went down behind the hills. so that answers that, i parked the hot side of the fridge into the hottest part of the day like a genius.

ordered two 80mm fans and a thermostat switch, and the inside fan. will report back.

Jun 20, 2025 · 12:45 PM#5

while you are in there with the vent cover off, look at the flue. there is a twisted metal baffle that hangs down inside the tube above the burner. if it has dropped or rusted the heat goes straight up the chimney instead of into the boiler and the fridge works half as hard as it should. it pulls out from the top.

also look at the back of the cooling unit for yellow powder or a crust on the boiler, and sniff for ammonia. if you find either, the unit is leaking and no fan saves it. if it is clean and the flame is blue you are probably fine.

Jul 2, 2025 · 6:40 PM#6

results. two fans at the top vent wired to the thermostat switch, the battery fan inside, and the baffle was sitting about an inch low so i hung it back where it belongs. no yellow crust, no smell.

went to Borrego Springs for two nights last week. 104 on the bank sign at 4 pm. parked with the fridge side to the northeast this time. fridge held 39 to 41 all afternoon and the freezer stayed hard. fans kicked on around 11 in the morning and ran until dark.

the install clearances for the vents are in the manual for my model, which you can pull up on dometic.com if yours went missing like mine did. that is where i found that the top vent wants a clear gap behind the coils, and mine had a wad of fiberglass insulation stuffed in there by somebody who meant well.

Jul 15, 2025 · 7:20 AM#7

glad it was the cheap fix. for anybody finding this later who decides to rip out the absorption fridge and go 12 volt compressor instead: count your batteries first. most of the 1062s i see came with a single group 27 under the step, and a compressor fridge will flatten that by morning if you are not driving or on solar. i have had two customers this year call me from a campground with a dead camper battery a week after the fridge swap.