Ammonia smell when we plugged in the electricity

Definitely check your batteries and inspect the back of the fridge for ANY yellow powdery substance to confirm failure of cooling unit.

We recently replaced our cooling unit ourselves with one from RVCool for around $500.

We are quite satisfied with it, but I wouldn't rebuild another one. I regretted not finding someone to do it for me. The foam stuck and had to be chipped out, a defective screw head in the interior cooling fins required pulling apart the fin and grinding it off,then riveting the fin, screws acted stripped out when reinstalling, etc.

Far too much hassle, IMHO. Pay someone else to replace the cooling unit if your interior and controls are good and outside is presentable. Save about HALF the money.

Good luck and don't forget to confirm the problem before spending on the wrong thing ;)

Just replace it with a small inexpensive residential one. And then when on the road use a cooler or two with ice. We had to do that when our RV fridge leaked it's freon out while we were traveling. We just picked up one of those mini fridges for about $75 and $10 cooler at Walmart, we could not take the time to wait to have the RV one repaired.
The telltale sign that the freon has leaked was a yellow powdery stuff in the outside back coil compartment of the fridge.

are you sure its the frig? it could leak any time ,but you said plugged in to power ,could be your batteries are dry and your smell is the battery cooking.

After having issues with refer, Dometic replaced the refer at cost.
You do not have year or make of refer in question. If the refer is more then a few years, old, I would replace it.
There was a shop in Everett, WA that replaced cooling units for a very reasonable cost. RVmobile.com. I believe the owner has retired.
Newer refers have better insulation and are more efficient then older models.
It maybe possible to find a good warranted unit from local shops.
Some salvage shops have them.

You could look into a 12V refrigerator such as Engel or similar brands. Don't know if they are within your budget in larger sizes, but it's worth looking.

Roy&Lynne wrote:
And have decided we probably need a new refrigerator which is okay but at this time we don't have the money. Has anyone had any luck with reconditioned refrigerators?

Look at "Amish cooling units". Usually a do it your self job

http://stores.ebay.com/RV-Cooling-Unit-Warehouse

or

http://jc-refrigeration.com/products/

We had new coils from an amish company installed by the local RV service center. That was about 15 years ago...still running strong