ARCTICOLD first test NOT GOOD !

1. The smell is normal on initial fire up of any new cooling unit
2. It takes 24 HOURS before the refer will get to temp. After 3 or 4 hours, you should see results in the freezer compartment. Doug

We take frozen jugs of water and but them in the fridge and freezer to help it get to temp faster. Works great. Also if you get an indoor outdoor wireless thermometer you can spy on the temp without opening the door. We had a bad fridge once, not fun.

What brand, year of motorhome?

How come you replaced original unit?

Who did the install?

My Norcold takes about 24 hours to get cold, yours will too.

An hours or two is meaningless. Come back in the afternoon and check it.
Give it 24 hours to completely cool down.

The back wall of our Norcold's freezer becomes noticeably cooler within 30 minutes of turning it on. The entire fridge temp reaches equilibrium in about 12 hours.

hello guys!
its a SOUTHWIND chev chassis 30' 88 (or 89)
refer seemed OE, because all insulation was moulded into.
sadly I started to smell ammonia (like when cleaning windows)
when I opened the fridge the smell was stronger (NOT to the point that you get offended by it).
never saw yellow residue, and in this forum was recommended that it was dangerous to even LIT the burner, so finally I decided to buy an arcticold unit for a DOMETIC RM2800, sometime later I got the unit, managet to remove the fridge (and keeper in the kitchen because it WOUD NOT FIT in any door.
a lot of stabbing later (in hard foam) managed to remove old unit and saw rust stain outside of the hard insulation, I removed part of the insulation and an elbow of one tube was CORRODED (not rust, I mean flakes of iron oxide) and there the foam smelled VERY strong of amonia.
I managed to replace the new unit, and isolated with one can of KWIK FOAM INSULATOR, (took me 3 days to remove from my fingers and a WEEK to remove from my nails), I used the electric rod for a "test ride" and NOTHIG!, (I have to confess that after 2 hours after I wrote the post, the upper (lower temp) plate started to cool.... BUT MARGINALLY.