About Us -- Dometic & Norcold Fridge Defend by ARP

Paul & Mao at the Impossible Railroad

WHO ARE WE?: We are RV'ers just like you. We have been using Dometic and Norcold products for 60 years. Our camping experience taught us that if we have a reliable fridge, we are happy campers!

THE ARP CONTROL: Our approach to solving the problems with Dometic and Norcold RV refrigerators was so novel that we were awarded a patent for our efforts. Our patent name is the Absorption Refrigeration Protective Control.

THE FRIDGE DEFEND SOLVES PROBLEMS: Not understanding marketing, but being the best at solving problems, we named our product the ARP Control, the same as our patent. But the name ARP did not tell our customers what our product does! The ARP defends your fridge from premature failure while increasing efficiency and safety. Thus the Fridge Defend was coined by one of our customers when she exclaimed "I refuse to travel without my fridge defended by the ARP ".

Paul teaching RV refrigerator control at QIA in Quartzsite, AZ.

Our family history says it all! We have camped in Baja California throughout the 60s, we have been around with our fridge! Our family operated an M16 Dometic RV Fridge which was manufactured from the late 1950's to the early 1960's for 35 years! The refrigerator was replaced with a larger and more modern unit in the 1990s due to an unfortunate event. Paul operated the M16 off-level for just a short time!

About Us -- The Short Story?

Puerticitos Baja, Norte

To make an about-us long story short, most people are aware that the refrigerator in an RV needs to be leveled in order to operate properly.  The Dometic M16 was always leveled before lighting the LP gas heat source which drives the RV fridge process. The M16 did not have a self-igniter feature; therefore the refrigerator could not be run while driving.  That is, until I installed an automatic igniter in the 90s. Needless to say, I parked off-level, I forgot about my refrigerator running while I was driving .  Our faithful 35 year old family fridge cooked, and I was to blame! Coming from a family of scientists, I was humiliated!! :(

Sea of Cortez c1964

Eskimo RV Fridge I installed a new and larger fridge that ran while driving! Its user manual clearly stated that I could park off-level for up to 2 hours .  Wow, what a value, these new fridges are safer because they can be operated at more extreme angles and while driving! Is that a COOL fridge or what? 

Apply Hammer to Head: But, this fridge failed within 4 years, although I tried to never park off-level, I did drive up hills as you see in the photo to the left. This modern design fridge failed even when operated according to the user manual .

Comparing the two refrigerators, how they operated and eventually failed created quite a curiosity within me. Teaming up with my wife, we decided to make it our mission to understand what makes this type of refrigerators fail. More importantly, what could we do to improve the design so they don't self destruct?

Necessity being the mother of invention, we found the root cause of failure for the RV fridge by the right use of science. After years of research and field testing, we applied for and received a Patent on our Absorption Refrigerator Protective Controller (ARP), now appropriately named "The Fridge Defend".

We hope you enjoyed our About Us story and it inspires you to consider the
RV Fridge Defend making your RV experience safe and trouble free.