RV Refrigerator Troubleshooting Quick Reference Guide

To help diagnose what is wrong with your RV refrigerator, you will want to pull out the owner’s manual for the refrigerator and consult the Quick Reference Guide. This will help with most RV refrigerator troubleshooting you may have to do. By doing some troubleshooting on your own, you may be able to find the solution without the need of paying a certified technician to come out and look at your unit.

If the refrigerator does not work at all, the first thing to do when RV refrigerator troubleshooting is to verify that there is 12 volt battery power available. Newer RVs needs at least 10.5 volts of battery power to run both the 120 volt electrical and LP systems. Use a multimeter to verify power at the battery and to the outside module board.

Inside the module panel check the 12-volt and 120-volt in-line fuse as well.

If your RV refrigerator troubleshooting shows your unit is not working on electrical power, check to make sure the unit is plugged in or the generator is running and connected. The quick way to verify 120-volt power is coming into the coach is to check if the clock on the microwave inside the unit is working. Your next RV refrigerator troubleshooting step is to check to make sure all of the circuit breakers at the distribution center are operational. Also check to make sure your RV refrigerator is plugged into the outlet in the refrigerator compartment.

If it does not work on LP gas, check to make sure you have gas running into the unit, verify the valves are open and check the tank levels. A quick test for proper LP flow inside the coach is to light the stove top burner. If it lights, you have adequate LP and need to check the in-line valve at the back of the refrigerator compartment.

If you have insufficient cooling on the LP mode, look at the flame in the burner assembly peep hole to make sure it’s burning a steady blue flame and not too much orange or flickering. If so, you may need to clean the burner assembly.

For insufficient cooling on both LP and 120-Volt power, check the back of the RV refrigerator cavity for proper ventilation.

If these RV refrigerator troubleshooting steps do not get your unit operating, it may be necessary to have a certified technician come out and look at your unit.