Forum Discussion

Trackrig's avatar
Trackrig
Explorer II
Dec 02, 2017

Have you had your residential refer serviced?

We have a 2005 Fleetwood Excursion 39S with a Norcold 1200 that has given us problems over time so we've considered installing a residential refrigerator. We've read what we can on the subject and talked to people with them in their MHs.

Here is something that I had not considered. As some of the residential refers get older, they're requiring servicing and there lies the problem.

Two people we've talked to have needed to have them serviced. When they went to do so, the RV shops refused to do so because they knew nothing about them. They then call standard residential refrigerator repair shops and they refused to service them because they can't get to them - meaning in a house you just roll the thing out from the wall which you can't do in a MH. Both of them had to have an RV shop remove the refer, set it in the middle of the floor, then call an appliance repair shop for the repair and then have the RV shop reinstall the refer.

- Are there others out there that had the same problem?
- How did you handle the repairs to your residential refer?
- Had you even thought of having this problem?

Bill
  • Mile High wrote:
    Winnebago was kind enough to provide an outside hatch to the residential fridge, and I've replaced the ice maker solenoid valve successfully through there. If you are removing an absorbtion fridge, you already have some large outside access panels.



    Mile high, I can't tell for sure if your Meridian has the Maytag French door fridge or not from the picture but, a common problem for this series of Maytag fridges is for the high voltage board to fail causing the lights on the display to flash and the unit to not cool and to do the repair, the fridge must be pulled away from it's location in the coach.

    Mine failed this past year and so to answer the OPs question, repair of residential fridges in many situations is not too difficult for the do-it-your-selfer and in this case, it required pulling the fridge from it's location to access the back panel which was the most difficult part of the process. Replacing the board was a snap and reinstalling the fridge was not bad.

    Many repair businesses do not care where the unit is located but, they are working by the hour so having the unit moved and available for the tech might be be a $ saver if you cannot do the work yourself.
  • Solo wrote:
    Mile High wrote:
    Winnebago was kind enough to provide an outside hatch to the residential fridge, and I've replaced the ice maker solenoid valve successfully through there. If you are removing an absorbtion fridge, you already have some large outside access panels.



    Mile high, I can't tell for sure if your Meridian has the Maytag French door fridge or not from the picture but, a common problem for this series of Maytag fridges is for the high voltage board to fail causing the lights on the display to flash and the unit to not cool and to do the repair, the fridge must be pulled away from it's location in the coach.

    Mine failed this past year and so to answer the OPs question, repair of residential fridges in many situations is not too difficult for the do-it-your-selfer and in this case, it required pulling the fridge from it's location to access the back panel which was the most difficult part of the process. Replacing the board was a snap and reinstalling the fridge was not bad.

    Many repair businesses do not care where the unit is located but, they are working by the hour so having the unit moved and available for the tech might be be a $ saver if you cannot do the work yourself.

    Solo, thanks for the heads up! Ours actually has a Kitchen Aid. I don't know if that is something they changed to in 2013, or if it was a difference in models, given the Tour/Ellipse had through-the-door ice/water in the french fridge I believe as a feature, but the Journey/Meridian required you to open the door on the french fridge for ice and water.