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gusco01's avatar
gusco01
Explorer
Sep 02, 2014

Amish cooling unit failed

I bad bought one of the Amish cooling units because it had a 3 year warranty and the original Dometic one only had 1 year. Also the Amish was supposed to have thicker tubing making it harder to crack and leak. It lasted 2 years. I was on vacation this summer & I had lots of food in it and ruined about 1/2 of it. Unit cracked in the boiler area and leaked out the amonia. Luckly it was on electric or could have burned down the trailer. I called Pines RV refrigeration and the girl there said they would send out a replacement unit today. They did and by the end of the week it showed up at my house. A long day and me and a friend installed it. I also installed a ARP control that supposed to shut down the power so the gas or electric stops if it gets too hot. The control maker claims that is what causes the boiler to over heat and metal to fatigue. Anyway I hope it really does work. The refrigerator is now working great. I used over the long holiday and it cycled between 39 & 40 degrees, I was very happy about that. Now why did it fail? I will probably never know. Anyway I do want to that Pines RV refrigeration for sending another replacement coil without me having to buy another and wait to get a refund when I sent the old one back. Also they paid the UPS both ways, how many companies will do that? I really liked that. I wish it didn't fail. I lost over 100 dollors worth of food before we knew we had a problem. Hopefully the Amish change to the cooling coil will solve the problem on the replacement unit they sent to me. Anyway I was treated very good by the company and would still highly recommend doing business with them in the furture. Mine was a dometic 2852 model number. Enjoy your RV trips.
  • ol_Bombero-JC's avatar
    ol_Bombero-JC
    Explorer
    Sep 03, 2014
    hypoxia wrote:
    Ron3rd wrote:
    From what I've read, there's more than one "Amish" unit and some are better than others.

    Agree and wonder which one it was. Being raised around Amish, playing with them as kids and working with them as adults I fail to see any difference between their work & the rest of us. Some do great work & some don't.


    Bob Vila would know which Amish mfgr is best, LOL!

    ~
  • hypoxia's avatar
    hypoxia
    Explorer
    Sep 02, 2014
    Ron3rd wrote:
    From what I've read, there's more than one "Amish" unit and some are better than others.

    Agree and wonder which one it was. Being raised around Amish, playing with them as kids and working with them as adults I fail to see any difference between their work & the rest of us. Some do great work & some don't.
  • Ron3rd's avatar
    Ron3rd
    Explorer III
    Sep 02, 2014
    From what I've read, there's more than one "Amish" unit and some are better than others.
  • MEXICOWANDERER's avatar
    MEXICOWANDERER
    Explorer
    Sep 02, 2014
    Original SERVEL refrigerators used high nickel content alloy steel that was around 4 times thicker than what RV refrigerators use today. The only thin material that has the ability to withstand hydrogen impingement is K Monel. You don't want to know what it costs.
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    Sep 02, 2014
    It has been written that every company, no matter how good, turns out the occasional lemon

    And every company no matter how bad, the odd gold nugget.

    The warranty worked.. So Id be happy.. Kind of ticked over the loss of food, but otherwise happy.
  • Cloud_Dancer's avatar
    Cloud_Dancer
    Explorer II
    Sep 02, 2014
    If you look closely at the construction of "Amish" unit, and all other cooling units, it's easy to see where ONE bad weld will result in a weak spot.
    That's what happened on my first "Amish" unit.
    And, on the replacement unit I discovered it needed additonal airflow through the consendser (upper coil).
    And, in the last few months this one is not cooling like it should. It cools to 10 degrees in the freezers and 46 degrees in the food section.
    I'll be calling David Force very soon.

    Incidently, the original Norcold unit worked perfectly for 7-1/2 years. I'm considering buying another Norcold.

    1200 RIM
  • BurbMan's avatar
    BurbMan
    Explorer II
    Sep 02, 2014
    Anything can fail, and good to know that the company stands behind their products. Despite the inconvenience glad to hear you are back in business!
  • j-d's avatar
    j-d
    Explorer II
    Sep 02, 2014
    V's remark x2

    Just about any company, restaurant etc. can put a good front end on the experience. What they do when something goes wrong separates the great outfits from the rest of the pack.
  • Valkyriebush's avatar
    Valkyriebush
    Explorer II
    Sep 02, 2014
    gusco01 wrote:
    I bad bought one of the Amish cooling units because it had a 3 year warranty and the original Dometic one only had 1 year. Also the Amish was supposed to have thicker tubing making it harder to crack and leak. It lasted 2 years. I was on vacation this summer & I had lots of food in it and ruined about 1/2 of it. Unit cracked in the boiler area and leaked out the amonia. Luckly it was on electric or could have burned down the trailer. I called Pines RV refrigeration and the girl there said they would send out a replacement unit today. They did and by the end of the week it showed up at my house. A long day and me and a friend installed it. I also installed a ARP control that supposed to shut down the power so the gas or electric stops if it gets too hot. The control maker claims that is what causes the boiler to over heat and metal to fatigue. Anyway I hope it really does work. The refrigerator is now working great. I used over the long holiday and it cycled between 39 & 40 degrees, I was very happy about that. Now why did it fail? I will probably never know. Anyway I do want to that Pines RV refrigeration for sending another replacement coil without me having to buy another and wait to get a refund when I sent the old one back. Also they paid the UPS both ways, how many companies will do that? I really liked that. I wish it didn't fail. I lost over 100 dollors worth of food before we knew we had a problem. Hopefully the Amish change to the cooling coil will solve the problem on the replacement unit they sent to me. Anyway I was treated very good by the company and would still highly recommend doing business with them in the furture. Mine was a dometic 2852 model number. Enjoy your RV trips.


    Excellent Post.

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