Amish fridge goes into dumpster!

[McGoo]

Well the Amish fridge is going into the dumpster and being replaced at Red Bay. If you should be unfortunate enough to have one, don’t count on the warranty being honored. When I wanted it repaired or replaced, I was told to jump thru many hoops. I had a repairman on site at the time and he could not find a problem other than the fact it was not getting cold enough. I installed two fans outside to force more air thru the outside vent to no avail. Now after two years of not doing the job, (just sat the past four days waiting for the new one and the temp is 50’ and 27’ for high low temp). I believe it is time to let folks know it was junk as well as the dealers word (you know who that is since there is only one dealer). So much for Amish craftsmanship!
I also contacted my repair service in Phoenix that installed the unit too see if they could help. He said they had installed several more and there were so many problems, they refuse to install any more. He also mentioned that the Amish were not supposed to use machines and didn't know how they were able to charge them properly.
Tried to send them a copy of this post but their email didn't work.

[LVJ58]

Don Don wrote:
The Amish flavor of the month is going south. When will you people ever learn.

What is it that we need to learn :h Perhaps you would be willing educate us.

Thanks

[Dutch_12078]

McGoo wrote:

Dutch_12078 wrote:

How can we beware if we don't know who the dealer is?

http://rvcoolingunit.com/

I'm surprised. Owner David Force is very approachable and helpful according to most reports. I wonder what his side of the story is...

[McGoo]

Dutch_12078 wrote:

McGoo wrote:

The second repairman said there was nothing wrong with install, I had the installer check it twice for problems and the fridge I replaced worked fine, just worried about the fire hazard. I was told to ad fans, if this was a problem, why wasn't fan problem handled before they sold them? There was never any follow up by the "Amish dealer". Bad customer service for sure. My post was just my expierance, buyer be ware

How can we beware if we don't know who the dealer is?

http://rvcoolingunit.com/

[Don_Don]

The Amish flavor of the month is going south. When will you people ever learn.

[jswat]

Replaced my Norcold 1200 two years ago and (so far) it works great. After two failures of the old Norcold, I ordered the Amish unit and had my local RV service place replace it. They knew nothing about these units but they made phone contact with the manufacturer who walked them through the install. Mine will run mid 30s in the frig and -10 in the freezer, even in our Texas summer heat. I did install an extra fan in the outside compartment and I run it throughout the summer. I am very pleased with my Amish unit.

[wa8yxm]

There are now 3 options for RV fridges.

1: Traditional "Absorption cooling units" I will assume you know how they work, When running on electric they genrally suck around 350-400 watts. Or they can run on Propane.. This is better when you have limited power.

2: High Effiency Compressor Units, both Dometic and Norcold have at least one model, of RV fridge, plus at least one model of chest freezer/fridge. I have an ENGEL Chest freezer or fridge here (Adjustable cold) These draw around 35-40 watts, yes, less than a single double bulb incandescent light fixture.

3: Residential, usually 100-350 watts depending on size and age, these require you have an INVERTER (True sine is best) and enough battery to support if dry camping.. Runnign down the road hopefully the alternator can provide, but it puts a fairly good size load on the alternator..

To figure out what a residential take get a KILL-A-WATT meter, this is about a kill-a-buck worth of test gear in a 20 dollar (or less) Box. Plug in your fridge at home and take a look.. When the compresser is runnign see how many amps it takes,, Multiply by 11 for your battery (YES 11, inverter is only 90% efficient at best) that is what the alternator has to push to the batteries.. Note the KWH after 24 hours, that's how much power was supplied to it .. Each KWH is 100 amp hours

[MRUSA]

BNG Trust wrote:

John S. wrote:
Just pull it and add in a residential. I did and love it. I also pulled the stove and propane tank too. I got a 110 volt induction burner. Works great.

GAS REFRIGERATOR Vs Domestic (AC) REFRIGERATOR

My gas frig (Dometic Side-by-Side, NDR1292) is shot and it will take $3,000+ to replace. So maybe now is a good time to switch to a regular 10cu-ft Vissani Brand house refrigerator you can buy at Home Depot for just $300? So I'm wondering what the pro vs cons are?

Plus...

Do you ever use an inverter with your AC units and if so what sort of performance can I expect if I switch over?

I'm just an average RV'r that goes out on 2-3 week trips and ends up in an RV park 75% of the time.

What's the best battery + inverter option + line conditioner out there and does it work?

I have 4 deep cycle house batteries and a 3000W inverter on my 39' Noational Tradewinds coach.

Thank you for your reply and advice.

Residential refrigerator is the way to go. Everyone who does it is pleased as can be. They operate well under all conditions, on road, parked, shore power or inverter. Make sure the one you buy is Energy Star rated and can operate on modified sine wave power, unless you have a pure sine wave inverter.

Can't run A/C on inverter. It would kill your batteries in no time.

[Mr_Mark1]

iguana07 wrote:
I am in the market for a newer coach. I have seen many with residential fridge. I have been kind of leery about them but maybe it would be the way to go? We do some dry camping but mostly parks. How do they operate while driving?
thanks for any info pro or con

Chuck

Hi Chuck,

No worries about a residential fridge. The inverter runs the fridge while going down the road. If you are boondocking, our manual says to run the generator 2 hrs. in the morning and 2 hrs. in the evening.

That works perfectly as that's when you have breakfast, dinner and TV watching. If for some reason the batteries fall below a certain point, the genny will kick on to recharge everything back up. We also have a solar panel on the roof to help charge the battery bank while driving down the road.

We have eight house batteries (just switched to AGM's) and two chassis batteries. No problem boondocking which I do every year in Quartzsite with my RV buddies.

We have no propane on board. I didn't want to have to worry with getting another fuel. All we need is diesel (Diesel Aqua-Hot for hot water and furnace, diesel generator). We mostly grill/cook outside on our electric grill.

MM.

[iguana07]

I am in the market for a newer coach. I have seen many with residential fridge. I have been kind of leery about them but maybe it would be the way to go? We do some dry camping but mostly parks. How do they operate while driving?
thanks for any info pro or con

Chuck

[BNG_Trust]

John S. wrote:
Just pull it and add in a residential. I did and love it. I also pulled the stove and propane tank too. I got a 110 volt induction burner. Works great.

GAS REFRIGERATOR Vs Domestic (AC) REFRIGERATOR

My gas frig (Dometic Side-by-Side, NDR1292) is shot and it will take $3,000+ to replace. So maybe now is a good time to switch to a regular 10cu-ft Vissani Brand house refrigerator you can buy at Home Depot for just $300? So I'm wondering what the pro vs cons are?

Plus...

Do you ever use an inverter with your AC units and if so what sort of performance can I expect if I switch over?

I'm just an average RV'r that goes out on 2-3 week trips and ends up in an RV park 75% of the time.

What's the best battery + inverter option + line conditioner out there and does it work?

I have 4 deep cycle house batteries and a 3000W inverter on my 39' National Tradewinds coach.

Thank you for your reply and advice.

[dougrainer]

McGoo wrote:

J-Rooster wrote:
I'm not taking sides in this, but I see bad customer service involved in this by not trying to solve the problem! The Dealer, The Amish or The Repairman! And if the unit was installed wrong how is that the OP problem he's not a ACR guy?

The second repairman said there was nothing wrong with install, I had the installer check it twice for problems and the fridge I replaced worked fine, just worried about the fire hazard. I was told to ad fans, if this was a problem, why wasn't fan problem handled before they sold them? There was never any follow up by the "Amish dealer". Bad customer service for sure. My post was just my expierance, buyer be ware

A KNOWLEDGABLE RV tech will ALWAYS replace both fans and the Fan tstat when doing a 1200 cooling unit. There are NO fans to be "added". The only added Fan would be IF the refer is in a slide room and the extra 3rd fan would help exhaust the hot convection air OUT the upper sidewall door. I always add a 2 wire harness to the fan tstat that terminates at the bottom rear of the refer to activate the fans and bypass the tstat for future diag on a fan or cooling problem. Doug

[Dutch_12078]

McGoo wrote:

The second repairman said there was nothing wrong with install, I had the installer check it twice for problems and the fridge I replaced worked fine, just worried about the fire hazard. I was told to ad fans, if this was a problem, why wasn't fan problem handled before they sold them? There was never any follow up by the "Amish dealer". Bad customer service for sure. My post was just my expierance, buyer be ware

How can we beware if we don't know who the dealer is?

[McGoo]

J-Rooster wrote:
I'm not taking sides in this, but I see bad customer service involved in this by not trying to solve the problem! The Dealer, The Amish or The Repairman! And if the unit was installed wrong how is that the OP problem he's not a ACR guy?

The second repairman said there was nothing wrong with install, I had the installer check it twice for problems and the fridge I replaced worked fine, just worried about the fire hazard. I was told to ad fans, if this was a problem, why wasn't fan problem handled before they sold them? There was never any follow up by the "Amish dealer". Bad customer service for sure. My post was just my expierance, buyer be ware

[J-Rooster]

I'm not taking sides in this, but I see bad customer service involved in this by not trying to solve the problem! The Dealer, The Amish or The Repairman! And if the unit was installed wrong how is that the OP problem he's not a ACR guy?