Old cooling unit and new cooling unit.
There isn’t very much of a difference in the two units. Some of the replacement cooling units for larger refrigerators have more coils than the original equipment but our little one must not need them. The new unit is working great and has a three year warranty. The installer informed us that Dometic had missed an important step in the construction of our refrigerator. A mastic has to be applied to the coils before the cooling unit is installed in the refrigerator box. Ours had none. We’re going to contact Dometic about this issue.
No sign of mastic.
We spent way too many days at the Ford dealer but the engine purrs now. Both of the exhaust manifolds had broken bolts but after they were replaced the engine was still ticking. The ticking was caused by a bad bearing which damaged the valve cam so all of that had to replaced too.
On to the last fix. Tony is getting his hernias fixed on Feb. 14th. How’s that for a Valentines Day present!
Let's hope that this last fix, the most important fix of them all, goes smooth, easy, and that Tony heals quick. We will be thinking about you both. --Dave
ReplyDeleteDefinitely the most important one! Thanks for the good wishes. I hope Scruffy is feeling better soon too.
DeleteThat's cute :-) Thanks Cozygirl!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear the simple problems have been taken care of. Hope, like the Dometic, no missing parts are found when the hernia problem is resolved.
ReplyDeleteWould it be asking too much of you to mention cost of the mechanical repairs?
It might help others facing the decision of which way to go, especially with the frig.
Mickey
Sure - a replacement refrigerator, the same model, is about $1,000 plus shipping. The new cooling unit was $945, shipping included. At first glance getting a completely new refrigerator seems like the best choice. In our 21 years of fulltiming, this is the second refrigerator that we've had to replace because of bad cooling units. The other one lost it's ammonia. The replacement units are made by the Amish in Indiana who use gas absorption refrigerators in their homes. I've read good reviews about the units so this is kind of an experiment on our part to see if they really are better. We don't want to use an electric refrigerator because we dry camp and boondock so much.
ReplyDeleteMany people have replaced the cooling units themselves which can save you a lot of money. It takes about four hours to do it and the shop charged about $100 an hour. It would have been cheaper to get a new refrigerator installed because the entire refrigerator had to be removed anyway to install the cooling unit.
The car repairs were almost $4,000 for everything. So we took quite a hit this month. :-(
Hello, dont know how I missed this post. I thought I got a notice when you posted Karen. Wow that engine work was steep! Better to get it done tho before you ruined a piston with the bad valve messing up. My slidein camper is a 70s model and has the original fridge! I use insulin for my diabetes so MUST have a propane fridge. I leave it on propane cause its a pain to switch back and forth in the campgrounds etc. Tony better watch out you might trade him in on a newer model! LOL Good luck n my prayers are with you Tony. Be safe, Bill n Sadie
ReplyDeleteThanks for the good wishes Bill.
DeleteI really believe that the refrigerators are not as good now as they used to be. I've read about other older RVs with refrigerators that still work great but there are lots of failures in the new ones. That's the main reason that we decided on the new cooling unit. The Amish have been making, using, and depending upon absorption refrigerators for years. I don't think that they would put up with inferior workmanship or parts.
You have a great site. My name is David, and as a T-9 paraplegic 25 years post, I am getting ready to hit the road in 2015. Your site is great and I am devouring ever part of it. I would love to email you, but can't find a contact link. Glad you got the fridge fixed and love the blog. I look forward to learning from you.
ReplyDeleteThank you David! I hope that you're finding answers to any questions that you have. I sent you an email so check your inbox.
DeleteWe're looking forward to meeting you on the road some day!