Fridge not cooling

mchero wrote:
I'm expecting a NEW amish cooling unit Thursday (tomarrow) Will document my experience.

They work fantastic.

I'm expecting a NEW amish cooling unit Thursday (tomarrow) Will document my experience.

My fridge died in the middle of a very cold winter.
I tried everything I could to get it going again - made sure the heating element was working and that the gas end of it was good to go.

I left it off for several days, put a heater in the back.

All of this did nothing. I bought a small bar fridge to use meanwhile.

Finally I took the fridge out, put some foam sheets down on the parking lot outside, turned it upside down for an hour, and then rolled the fridge end over end around the parking lot, allowing it to sit a couple minutes at every end.

I put it back in my TT and fired it up. It has been working like a champ ever since. If fact it seems to be working better than it did before.

If there is a blockage of something in there like mine had, turning it end over end MULTIPLE times will yield the best results. Just turning it over and leaving it sit for a day may help but will be less effective.
The goal here is to have the liquid inside run back and forth from end to end multiple times, not just once.
It only takes a minute or two for the liquid to run from one end to the other. Anything past that is a waste of time. I don't understand this 24 hour thing.
When I did mine I let it sit on either end only until I heard the liquid stop gurgling and running inside, and then I turned it to the other end again.
When I "took mine for a walk", I turned it over and back about 20 times. It worked for me and I didn't have to buy a new fridge or cooling unit.

All this is assuming that all your other functions have checked out ok.

But as mentioned, if yours leaked the ammonia out way in the past, then you're up for a new fridge or cooling unit.

If the flue is warm (can touch and hold for a second or two), but not hot (too hot to touch), you do not have a hot enough flame.

This can be caused by a restricted jet or burner. If those are good, you propane tank regulator may need adjustment or replacement. A manometer will tell you if your propane pressure level is good or not.

there is a shop in indiana that rebuilds these , and has a great rep, I can,t think of the name ,some body on here will tell us.

Ok, thanks everyone. I'll call my rv guy today and take it in for them to have a look!

My old rig's fridge went after 14 yrs. Tried all the tricks without success. Rather than replace the cooling unit, or replacing with a (very) expensive RV fridge I elected to install a small residential 120v fridge. $200, cools better and faster. I found a near perfect fit width wise, and gained a new cabinet above.

Is the rig level?? When older units sit a long time without use or moving, the refrigerant can separate, remove the unit, set it upside down for 24 hours, then try it again. Many times this will fix it.

I would first of all take it to an RV refrigeration repairman and see if there are any recalls that need to be done. Also, when they sit for periods of time, spider webs can get in the gas line tubes, etc. If it's leaking ammonia, forget all that and look at replacing the cooling unit. But if it's not smelly and you can't see any yellow gunk when you take the panel off, I would start with a tune up.

If you need to replace the cooling unit, we got ours here and it's running great. . . Fix your Fridge

Dale

1992 vintage.......

Fridge flame lights, stays lit, flue warm but no cooling.
That's not a good sign.
Cooling unit blockage OR crack and the ammonia has leaked out long ago.


Absorption fridges need three things to cool
1) Good heat source
2) Coolant flow----liquid to vapor to liquid
3) Good ventilation

Lack of any one....no cooling