Something to encourage new Argosy buyers: we fired up our 40 year old Dometic fridge

[Savage68]

74 must have been a good year at the Dometic factory!

[idroba]

Those old beasties are pretty darn reliable. I have one in my shed now which I took out of my '74 Argosy, I wanted a larger unit. But the old one worked fine and still works right up to the day I changed it out. About all the service they need is to keep the burner clean and free from the rust falling down into it from the chimney above.

[TG Twinkie]

I have a '74 Argosy with the original A/C and Dometic refer. They still work. I did do some repairs on the Dometic. The safety shut off went bad and would not shut the gas off when a flameout occurred. I found a new safety valve online.
Replaced it and completed some needed maintenance on the burner and all is well. I did replace the heating element 4 years ago.
My guess is that there won't be one of these fancy " electronic" units running in 20 years. Let alone 40.

[Gearheart]

Beautiful machines with no moving parts. It still blows my mind that you can heat one end and watch the other end get cold.