Our '02 Dometic died the day before we left on a 3-week trip down the Oregon coast to northern California. We couldn't get it replaced in time, so went anyway. The logistics of taking a 32' Class A into rural grocery store parking lots to buy ice every day resulted in the trip being shortened to 12 days.
The key to diagnosing our failure was a yellow powdery substance round the base of the flue. It was sulfur powder, a result of a chemical reaction between the propane flue gases and ammonia leaking from the cooling unit. It meant that the CU was dead.
After cutting the trip to 2 weeks, we went to our local RV repair shop. They confirmed the failure of the CU. At 11 years old, they recommended a fridge replacement, since the labor costs involved in pulling the fridge and replacing the CU was close to the cost of a new fridge.
$1700 later, we have a new Dometic installed. This one actually has an adjustable temperature control.The old one did not. The arrogant ba****ds at the Swedish supplier to Dometic figured "we know how cold your food needs to be, so we aren't letting you adjust the temperature". Must've saved at least $15 on an $1400 fridge in 2002!
Since the new one was the same size as the old one, the shop was able to transfer the door panels, saving us about $250.
Frank Damp, DW - Eileen, pet - female Labrador (10 yrs old), location Anacortes, WA, retired RVers (since Dec 2014)
