# Dometic RM 7291L Problem.



## Wooie1958 (May 28, 2015)

I have a Dometic RM 7291L fitted in the van and for the 8 years ( from new ) i`ve owned the van it`s been faultless.

However, we`ve just had 4 weeks away in France and Belgium and on the next to last day a problem started.

It`s been on gas whilst parked up for all of the 4 weeks except for 3 days at 2 different campsites when it was on mains electric.

2 days back in the evening i noticed the gas light flashing which normally means it`s out of gas so i went out and checked but the bottle was still half full.

I turned the switch off, waited a couple of minutes and turned it back onto gas and immediately got the " click, click, click " and heard the gas ignite so 
the light stayed on as normal and everything was OK.

I heard it light itself during the night and the following morning it was still working fine.

The next / last night we spent at Wissant so we would be close to the ferry.

When we arrived i parked up and turned the fridge onto gas, it didn`t ignite straight away but the light stayed lit, this was normal as it must have been 
cold enough through being on 12 volt during the drive up from Le Crotoy.

An hour or so later i noticed the gas light flashing again so i turned it off again and waited for a couple of minutes and tried again.

This time it didn`t ignite and after 30 seconds or so the gas light started flashing, i tried this a couple more times but to no avail so i turned it off.

Everything inside was still nice and cold and the frozen stuff still solid so i didn`t worry too much as we had some shade on that side of the van.

Next morning it was still the same and would not ignite so the gas light started flashing after the 30 seconds, i turned it off again.

I put it on 12 volt for the drive up to Calais, we checked in, went the boarding lane and parked up.

Just for curiosity i tried it on gas again and it instantly went " click, click, click " and lit.

Each time we stopped for a break on the way home i tried it on gas and it worked perfectly and it is doing now on the drive at home.

Has anyone any experience of this ?


----------



## andyjanet (May 28, 2015)

Dirty flue, jet not burning properly possibly has some soot fallen onto it, easy enough job for confident diy if you are not sure you tube has loads of videos to help with different fridge models covered, andy


----------



## Wooie1958 (May 28, 2015)

I should have put a bit more info in ..................  sorry folks   :sad:  .

I wasn`t getting the " click, click, click " when i turned the switch onto gas.

The light went yellow then started flashing because it hadn`t lit, now it instantly clicks as it should.


----------



## wints (May 28, 2015)

Wooie1958 said:


> I should have put a bit more info in ..................  sorry folks   :sad:  .
> 
> I wasn`t getting the " click, click, click " when i turned the switch onto gas.
> 
> The light went yellow then started flashing because it hadn`t lit, now it instantly clicks as it should.



Hi Graham, 

hope you had a good time and that the weather was better than over here in Leyland !

Sounds to me like you've got a bit of cr4p on the igniter, which is located adjacent the gas jet at the bottom of the flue.
Rust and all sorts of muck fall down the flue and clog the jet / igniter / burner assembly.
If you've got muck on the igniter then it will be reluctant to spark across to an earth (this will be the burner assembly). This is the click click noise and is the procedure that lights the gas.

Hope this helps

Allen


----------



## Wooie1958 (May 28, 2015)

wints said:


> Hi Graham,
> 
> hope you had a good time and that the weather was better than over here in Leyland !
> 
> ...




Hi Allen,

yes thank you we had a cracking time and the weather ( apart from 1 thunderstorm ) was absolutely blooming gorgeous   :dance:

Because Compass made such a good job  :mad2:  of building my van i`ll need to take the fridge completely out to get to the burner assembly properly.

If the lower vent was in the correct place i could do it without having to remove the fridge but it`s too high so out it comes when the weather allows.

I`ll strip and clean everything and see how it goes but at the moment it`s working fine and it`s difficult fixing something that is working as it should.

All being well we`re off to Scotland in a week or two and i don`t want it playing up when we get up there.


----------



## Wooie1958 (May 31, 2015)

*Still Confused*

Right, had the fridge completely out today and stripped it right down as far as you can.

It was remarkably clean with nothing untoward showing so i cleaned everything including all the contacts and sensors and put it back together.

Popped it back in connected everything up and tried it on gas,   click, click, click and away it went, lit first time.

I`ll leave it running for the rest of the today and through the night and check it tomorrow as i`ve got a thermometer in it as well.


----------



## Wooie1958 (Jun 1, 2015)

All`s well this morning, it`s still working fine with the fridge down to +2 celsius and the freezer is down to -17 celsius.

Didn`t actually see anything wrong but i still cleaned everything whilst it was out.

I think we`ll put it down to one of life`s little annoyances     :mad2:

Start getting the van ready for a few days away next week, weather permitting     :dance:


----------



## runnach (Jun 1, 2015)

Glad you are sorted. it seem it was suffering the law of "sod"....I had an intermittent fault on th ecar, cured it ..How ? no idea can I offer an explanation other than fixed. If I was betting I would say  apoor contact somewhere!

bon voyages

Channa


----------



## Wooie1958 (Jun 10, 2015)

Set off early and had breakfast on Southwaite Services.

Parked and because both the fridge and freezer are full put it straight on gas, immediately got the click,click,click and poooof it lit no problem.

Arrived at Grey Mare`s Tail in time for lunch, parked up and put the fridge on gas and NOTHING :mad2: 20 -30 seconds later the light starts flashing  :mad2::mad2::mad2:

I`m now seriously p*ssed off and it worked perfectly at home and at breakfast time on the way up.

Now on Moffat C&CC site on electric staring menacingly at satin`s child otherwise known as a Dometic RM 7291L  :mad2::mad1::mad2::mad1::mad2::mad1:

When we get home it`ll either get bloody shot or replaced as i can`t do with this.


----------



## andyjanet (Jun 10, 2015)

Is it an auto selection or do you have to manually change to gas, mine is a 2008 and it has an auto position sometimes this won't light and I have to move the switch to manual gas


----------



## Deleted member 13867 (Jun 10, 2015)

Hi Graham
we had a very similar problem and the cause was really hard to diagnose. on the back of the fridge is the ignition module our was grey and plugged onto this is a multiplug. The actual cause was the connectors inside this plug they are shaped and springy inside to apply pressure onto the pin it locates against. this bit of 'springy' contact had snapped at the end which meant the connection was poor to none existent. Rather than buy a new loom i took each contact out of the multiplug and soldered several strands of fine wire to bridge the gap and restore the contact i suppose a temporary cure would be to bent the pins slightly to improve the connection. The strange thing was the fridge would work o/k sometimes during the day but would generally fail in the night. Its been over a year since the repair and its never failed since.
I have added a diagram to explain
Have a great time Dave.


----------



## 1 Cup (Jun 10, 2015)

*debrery*

Could you just take the heat shield off the out side and vacume the pipe?
Get a bottle cleaner with the long handle or extention
Would this work


----------



## Wooie1958 (Jun 11, 2015)

andyjanet said:


> Is it an auto selection or do you have to manually change to gas, mine is a 2008 and it has an auto position sometimes this won't light and I have to move the switch to manual gas




It is manual change and has 4 positions  ............  Off,  Gas,   230v,   12v.

When you put it on gas it should automatically light ( click, click, click ) if needed and the light stays lit.

If it is cool enough and doesn`t need to light then the light comes on and stays on until the time it needs to ignite and you hear it click.





dr dave said:


> Hi Graham
> we had a very similar problem and the cause was really hard to diagnose. on the back of the fridge is the ignition module our was grey and plugged onto this is a multiplug. The actual cause was the connectors inside this plug they are shaped and springy inside to apply pressure onto the pin it locates against. this bit of 'springy' contact had snapped at the end which meant the connection was poor to none existent. Rather than buy a new loom i took each contact out of the multiplug and soldered several strands of fine wire to bridge the gap and restore the contact i suppose a temporary cure would be to bent the pins slightly to improve the connection. The strange thing was the fridge would work o/k sometimes during the day but would generally fail in the night. Its been over a year since the repair and its never failed since.
> I have added a diagram to explain
> Have a great time Dave.




Thanks Dave, i`ll have a look when we get home and the damned thing is out of the van although everything looked OK the other week as i disconnected
and then reconnected them after giving them a clean then making sure they were all pushed home nice and firmly.






band driver said:


> Could you just take the heat shield off the out side and vacume the pipe?
> Get a bottle cleaner with the long handle or extention
> Would this work



I did that the other week when i had the fridge out to try and find the problem last time and everything was remarkably clean.


----------



## Wooie1958 (Jun 18, 2015)

Back home now and i`ve had a bit of a play.

I can ignite it by hand by taking off the lower outside vent and reaching down with a lighted taper so the gas side of it if fine however.......

when it needs to relight it isn`t doing and whilst it`s trying ( half hearted, very feeble click ) it doesn`t actually light.

I`ve now emailed Dometic and we`ll see if they get back to me meanwhile,

i`ve spoke to some places that service motorhome / caravan fridge etc. and i`ve had the following ...........

1, It`s fooked and because it`s 8 years old parts are no longer available so i need a new one and the cost is the thick end of £1,000 fitted.

2, Bring it in, leave it with us and we`ll ring you when it`s done, couldn`t even give a rough quote as they`d no idea how long it would take
or what it might be as they`d never come across this sort of problem before and would have to do some investigation.

3,  Can`t do nowt, either make do and just use it on 240v and 12v, get a secondhand one or buy a new equivalent model whatever that is now.


To be continued .............................


----------



## Wooie1958 (Jun 18, 2015)

Hi David, i had the fridge completely out just after we got back from France a short while back when this problem started.

Stripped everything right down, checked and cleaned it all before putting it back in the van.

It was remarkably clean considering it`s 8 years old and after putting it back in the van i tried it and it worked perfectly.

Had it running on gas for a couple of days and checked it with a fridge thermometer.

Both the fridge and freezer compartments got down to their correct temperatures and stayed there, i also heard it light itself several times.


----------



## n brown (Jun 18, 2015)

i looked at a mate's recently and the electrode was leaking,so instead of a nice fat spark at the end ,a feeble spark was coming out the side. still clicking,but not igniting . change of electrode sorted it
if it's the spark module knacked,it's cheap to get a manual piezo sparker,about a tenner


----------



## Wooie1958 (Jun 18, 2015)

The manual piezo idea won`t work as it only lights when it`s needed and doesn`t have a pilot light.

Once it`s down to temperature it goes out and relights automatically when the temperature rises.


----------



## n brown (Jun 18, 2015)

i may not be up to date with these modern fridges- do they have pilot lights now ?.seems a bit mad


----------



## n brown (Jun 18, 2015)

exactly as i thought. people often mention pilot lights,and i assumed they meant the actual burner flame,but i don't think the technology has changed for decades except for automatic ignition. 
so in fact, one of these 17mm Push Button Piezo Spark Ignitor Generator for PARRY Catering Gas Appliances | eBay for the sake of drilling a hole, could solve the problem


----------



## n brown (Jun 18, 2015)

i didn't mean it would relight automatically, but as a substitute form of ignition, one up on sticking a lit taper through the bottom vent !


----------



## n brown (Jun 18, 2015)

just sunk in -if it's got auto ignite ,then it has a 12v gas valve - presumably with no manual override . ta got it now [i think]


----------



## Mastodon (Jun 18, 2015)

Had a similar problem- gas going out randomly or not lighting. Fooled around cleaning and checking stuff. No joy. Replaced the ignition unit ( white or grey box), fixed.


----------



## Wooie1958 (Jun 20, 2015)

After a few posts on here and a several e-mails to Dometic i`ve ordered a new  *Dometic Burner Control Device*   .................. OUCH  :scared:

The wiring loom checks out OK and given the sequence of events / what happens after i light it by hand it all points to the little box    :sad:

I`m well over £100 lighter now      as i noticed one of the hinges on the freezer compartment was cracked and one of the control knobs was also split.

I`ll let you know the outcome.


----------



## pughed2 (Jun 20, 2015)

*dometic fridge problems*

wooie...........if you get the same problem crop up again with the starter light, loads of people including me have had that fault and its a pain to clear. actually you can still continue to use fridge more or less as normal, all you do is disconnect the 12v connector leads to the ignition box which is usually in the lower external van panel on rear of fridge, which stops the ignition light flashing. when you want to ignite the gas, simply connect the igniter leads, light the gas in usual way, checking that flame is lit, then pull off the igniter leads from the igniter box. this mean that your igniter light will not flash when the gas runs out, so you have to check that when it happens another way....eg is the cooker still with gas?............just for safety I recommend a carbon monoxide detector in van.........cheers, steve bristol


----------



## Wooie1958 (Jun 24, 2015)

Zippedee fekking do dah, zippedee fekking day, my o my what a wonderful day   :cool1::banana::dance:

The new Burner Control Device came this morning, i`ve put it on connected everything up and tried it    :hammer:

In the 8 years we`ve had it from new it`s never clicked so positively and fast, it`s like a blooming gattling gun     :scared:

Once the air had bled out ( a couple of seconds ) POOOOF away it went and has now stayed lit for a couple of hours.

I`ll leave it on overnight with the thermometer in it to check the temp gets down to the correct levels in both the fridge and freezer compartments. 

Thanks to all who contributed    :wave:


----------

