RV Fridge Cooling Unit
Hi All,
Has this happened to you? You are camping and the fridge in your RV stops working. You do the diagnostics test and it shows your cooling unit is bad. I had this experience just last month. Upon research I was amazed I was looking at over $1K in parts and labor to replace the cooling unit. I am a general contractor and so I was not about to pay that kind of money. I am not sure why so many of us are afraid to tackle service work on an RV like it is something special.
I found a resource for cooling units wholesale. (PM me if you want to get connected to a cooling unit) All the installation instructions can be found on the web but it is relatively easy to do yourself. Mine took about 4 hours (Norcold 621). I ordered the new cooling unit and then took the fridge out. You disconnect the gas and the power and then on mine it was only 4 screws to pull the fridge from the opening.
Upon getting the unit out there is some minor disassembly and a few screws to get the the cooling unit portion removed from the back of the fridge. At this point I discovered why my unit had failed. They had insulation installed around the unit and up the vent shaft. But Keystone did not properly secure the insulation going up and it had fallen down and was preventing airflow up the back of the unit. That is why the unit failed prematurely.
Once removed you clean old mastic and apply new thermal mastic and expanding foam before you place, align and secure the new cooling unit to the fridge.
Then you put the unit back in the opening and make your connections on the back and you should be back in business. I save $800 from the repair I was quoted and also got improvements by securing the insulation. I added a fan with thermal switch to improve draft in the vent across the coils and also added a fan to circulate the air inside the fridge that I found on ebay, that really helps to create uniform interior temperature.
Never be afraid of taking on RV projects they are as easy as your home projects. :)
Has this happened to you? You are camping and the fridge in your RV stops working. You do the diagnostics test and it shows your cooling unit is bad. I had this experience just last month. Upon research I was amazed I was looking at over $1K in parts and labor to replace the cooling unit. I am a general contractor and so I was not about to pay that kind of money. I am not sure why so many of us are afraid to tackle service work on an RV like it is something special.
I found a resource for cooling units wholesale. (PM me if you want to get connected to a cooling unit) All the installation instructions can be found on the web but it is relatively easy to do yourself. Mine took about 4 hours (Norcold 621). I ordered the new cooling unit and then took the fridge out. You disconnect the gas and the power and then on mine it was only 4 screws to pull the fridge from the opening.
Upon getting the unit out there is some minor disassembly and a few screws to get the the cooling unit portion removed from the back of the fridge. At this point I discovered why my unit had failed. They had insulation installed around the unit and up the vent shaft. But Keystone did not properly secure the insulation going up and it had fallen down and was preventing airflow up the back of the unit. That is why the unit failed prematurely.
Once removed you clean old mastic and apply new thermal mastic and expanding foam before you place, align and secure the new cooling unit to the fridge.
Then you put the unit back in the opening and make your connections on the back and you should be back in business. I save $800 from the repair I was quoted and also got improvements by securing the insulation. I added a fan with thermal switch to improve draft in the vent across the coils and also added a fan to circulate the air inside the fridge that I found on ebay, that really helps to create uniform interior temperature.
Never be afraid of taking on RV projects they are as easy as your home projects. :)
