Duel Fueling a Dometic 50

[beatrix1]

Need some thoughts and opinions. I have a spare, working Dometic 50 sitting in my garage. I plan to either replace the current one I have with that one (mine has a flaky Klixon) or scavenge the Klixon and pilot assembly for my current. However, my latest odd thought was to see if there was some way to add an electric heating unit and new, non Klixon burner. I want to keep the original 50 look for the Tradewind, but would love something with an electric option and frankly a safer burner. Has anyone done this or know of anyone who does? The fridge is at my house in Indy and I heard a rumor of an Amish gentleman somewhere in Indiana that might be able to do something like this.

[Thalweg]

I've pondered the same questions, but have found no answers. Fortunately, my Klixon currently works well. However, I'm always worried about when it stops working well.

As far as electric operation, the M52 could run off gas or electric. In the pictures the the cooling units of the M50 and M52 look very similar except the M52 has an electric heating element in the flue. It looks like a heating element wouldn't be too dificult to retrofit into the flue of the M50.

I haven't researched this beyond looking at the pictures out of the old Dometic manual. So, I'd be interested how it works if you persue this.

[62olander]

I've been thinking about what to do if my Klixon or cooling unit does finally kick the bucket. I think a viable alternative would be to put in a new 12v cooling unit using a Danfoss compressor. Novakool makes conversion kits that I think could be retrofitted in the M50:

Nova Kool, refrigerators, freezers, Marine, RV, Truck

You would need to remove the existing coils/plumbing. I wouldn't mess with this unless the current cooling unit died, but it seems like a viable path to keep the M50 box.