Dometic Royale fridge not switching to gas!?

[Newell Boss]

my refrigerator does not switch to gas when I disconnect 50 amp service. When 50 amp service is connected I can manually switch to gas. Even when I disconnect the fridge power chord, it will switch to gas. I checked the 12vdc on the fridge circuit board and I loose it when I disconnect 50 amp service. Any ideas?

1981 Newell Coach

[The Newell]

IF you lose 12 volts when you disconnect 50 amp service, that has NOTHING to do with the refer. IF you have no 12 volts then the refer is DEAD and OFF. Either you have a 12 volt disconnect switch OFF or your batteries are dead or not connected correctly.

[NewellCrazy]

An RV refrigerator uses 12V-dc power for it's control circuits no matter what power it is using to supply the heat for the coolant system. It is that use of 12V power which allows it to shift from one source to another.

The symptoms that you have clearly indicate that you are loosing 12V power to the refrigerator when you unhook the shore power plug. The first thing that I would do is to unplug the cord and then check to see if you interior lights still work. If they do not, that then tells us for sure that there is no 12V to anything, and not just to the refrigerator. Once we know that, it will mean trouble shooting to see why you are loosing 12V power when you disconnect.

Very likely it is a battery related problem since you clearly do have 12V from the converter with shore power.