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wannaroam · 07-23-2010, 04:10 PM

Last week we were camping and on electric at the campground. Our (original) fridge quit cooling, so we switched it to gas to see if it worked that way. It did in fact come back on for a couple of hours then warmed back up all the way.
After coming home we plugged it in again and nada. But the coils in the back are plenty hot.
Could this be a board problem; and would that keep it from running on either gas or electric? I don't know if he checked the fuses yet, would that keep it from running on gas also? (I know little about these refrigerators apart from the fact that I don't want to spend $1,000 plus replacing it!)
All information greatly appreciated~!

wannaroam · 07-23-2010, 04:34 PM

I may have answered my own question. Having read the thread "poor refrigerator performance" it sounds a lot like my problem. Especially since 1. We were out in full sun with very hot weather 2. At first the freezer seemed to be cold but not the inside of thefridge, and then a couple of hours later, nothing was cold. When we tried it at home again, it was the middle of the day and we still are having very hot weather!How many have tried the Snyder fix for this?What do you think?

**azflycaster** · 07-23-2010, 04:38 PM

If your refrigerator is the original, it has no circuit board like the newer ones do. If the coils are being heated, you should have some cold unless you have a cooling unit failure. Look and smell for any ammonia leaking from the coils in the rear. You could have also developed a blockage internally in the cooling unit. This can be caused if you ran the unit when it was not level. Sometimes a good bump will clear that up.

wannaroam · 07-24-2010, 06:27 AM

Richard
Thanks! It is the original unit.
We don't have any ammonia smell, but at this point we don't have any heat in the coils either.

**azflycaster** · 07-24-2010, 06:46 AM

No ammonia smell is a very good thing. Even when it is very hot out, your freezer should be cold. It gets so hot where I live that when parked the freezer will be cold to the touch when turned off.

wannaroam · 07-24-2010, 06:53 AM

Well, but checking it last night we have no cooling at all either......

**azflycaster** · 07-24-2010, 06:59 AM

The easiest thing to see would be a flame when running on gas, do you have that?

wannaroam · 07-24-2010, 07:00 AM

yes

**azflycaster** · 07-24-2010, 07:11 AM

With heat on the tube you should have at least cold walls in the freezer. The cooling unit may be blocked or has failed. You may have a blocked baffle, but I would expect some cooling in the freezer, even if that were the case.

wannaroam · 07-24-2010, 07:18 AM

So would this mean a whole new fridge or could it be repaired?

**azflycaster** · 07-24-2010, 07:22 AM

Cooling units can be rebuilt, if you can find the right shop to do it.

Let's see if anyone else has some ideas on this.

You say you get the same result (no cooling at all) when on electric as you do on gas and that the unit was working properly until just recently.

wannaroam · 07-24-2010, 07:28 AM

yes, that's the case.

wasagachris · 07-24-2010, 08:16 AM

Good Morning I was checking out your A/S pics and went on to read yuor posts about the rebuild. I found this thread. It sounds like the cooling unit is blocked. Over time the contents can crystallize and form a blockage. First make shure the vent stack is clear of any obstructions like bee and wasp nests etc. If you have no problems there you can pull the fridge and turn it upside down and leave it that way for about a week. Turn it right side up again and let it sit for a couple of days and test the unit again. This may free up the blockage and the fridge will work again. However this quick fix may work for a long time or only a little while. Given that there is a lot of work involved in removing the fridge from the A/S you may want to just pull it and have the cooling unit reconditioned. It would be best to drop the fridge off at a quailified shop to remove the cooling unit from the fridge and send it out for reconditioning. I'm not sure that the rebuild companies would have an exchange unit ready for your model of fridge so you may have to wait for yours to be redone. There aren't many shops rebuilding cooling units. It is not something that is done by any RV shop. Somewhat like recoreing radiators, lots of shops selling them but only a few places actually doing it.

wannaroam · 07-24-2010, 09:05 AM

Thanks for the reply! We found a site that gives pretty good information about the cooling units, and right now the fridge is sitting in our driveway to be checked. It is getting electric we know that since the back is hot. We have a thermometer in the freezer to check to see if the temp drops or not. Last week when we camped we were sitting on a slope, wondering if that was the problem?

Here is the link of the web site we accessed:
Cooling Unit Diagnosis

**azflycaster** · 07-24-2010, 09:56 AM

If you were sitting on a slope and the refrigerator was not level, this definitely could be your problem. Burping may be the best chance you have of reviving it at this time.

wannaroam · 07-24-2010, 10:16 AM

So to "burp" it do we have to turn it upside down?

**azflycaster** · 07-24-2010, 10:19 AM

Take a look at this thread:
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f425...dge-33735.html

wannaroam · 07-24-2010, 10:39 AM

Thank you very much for the help Richard; we'll try that after lunch.

wannaroam · 07-24-2010, 01:40 PM

Well, so far we have nada. Lots of heat in the back and no cooling in the fridge......

wannaroam · 07-25-2010, 06:33 AM

Ok, so it looks as though the fridge is dead. Hubby refuses to pay $1000 for a new one.
We found a Frigidaire almost the same size as our Dometic for $279.
Can you put a regular electric fridge in? Will it get enough air circulation?
We seldom boondock so that wouldn't be a problem.