On our big 4-week trip, we took several complete days of data regarding our refrigerator, and put it all into an Excel spreadsheet when we got home. It is clear that the baffle we installed did not fix the situation at all. Once we observed that, we tried other kinds of changes. For instance, for brief stints of driving, we sometimes removed the top or the bottom vent covers behind the refrigerator to see what impact that had on refrigerator cooling. No improvement. And in the second half of the trip we added a second thermometer inside the fridge to verify that the first one wasn't just giving us bad numbers. They both correlated.
The bottom line is that the refrigerator never cools while in motion on the road and always cools great while sitting still, both on propane and on electricity. I became proficient at dashing from the car into the camper to get data very quickly at each stop! And, after being on the road with the fridge temp rising, we always saw the fridge temperature start dropping right away no matter how short the stop.
So we have just dropped the Escape off at a certified Dometic repair shop and were delighted to see the repair guy taking our spreadsheet seriously and then to hear him say, "I'll be in touch with Dometic. This might take a new refrigerator," and "We'll get this fixed. I don't give up." That's the kind of positive attitude we need!
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