Pinhole in Fridge absorber leaking fluid

I have the same fridge. I replaced the coolong unit with the amish built unit sold via ~rvcoolingunit.com~. I also added the interior fan kit at the same time since when disassembled it is easy to route 12v wiring into the fridge. If you go to Shepshwana IN. They will imstall at no charge. It took four hours. The end result? The dear wife tells me it is better than new and almost as good as our house refer.
Total Cost was about $1400 a few years ago.

Chum lee wrote:

sayoung wrote:

Chum lee wrote:
Not sure about availability for the Norcold units, but, you can buy a replacement cooling unit (new) for the Dometic fridges. If the peripheral components of your refrigerator are in good condition, you can get the unit working again for about half the cost of a new unit should you be inclined. Youtube has several videos showing the R+R process if you need a helping hand. It might be worth a quick search. Otherwise, at +-15 years of age, IMO your best bet is a new unit.

Chum lee

They are availible but just get a new refrigerator. I have done it once and bad experience with supplier. Never again.

Wow! It's unfortunate that your repair attempt didn't work out. I've done it (Dometic 2652) and it worked out fine. Thousands of others have also done it and it worked out fine for them. That's why there is a "refurbish" market out there.

Without more details on your specific case, . . . . well what can anyone say? It's not an option for everyone, and, not a good option in every case, but, it is still an option. That's all I'm saying. Everyones experience/budget/ability varies.

Chum lee

After 2 exchange units & neither worked properly, I said and will stand by my statement, they are junk. Yes I have way too much time spent in the HVACR business and I did have ammonia experience so maybe I just don't have the skill to change.

sayoung wrote:

Chum lee wrote:
Not sure about availability for the Norcold units, but, you can buy a replacement cooling unit (new) for the Dometic fridges. If the peripheral components of your refrigerator are in good condition, you can get the unit working again for about half the cost of a new unit should you be inclined. Youtube has several videos showing the R+R process if you need a helping hand. It might be worth a quick search. Otherwise, at +-15 years of age, IMO your best bet is a new unit.

Chum lee

They are availible but just get a new refrigerator. I have done it once and bad experience with supplier. Never again.

Wow! It's unfortunate that your repair attempt didn't work out. I've done it (Dometic 2652) and it worked out fine. Thousands of others have also done it and it worked out fine for them. That's why there is a "refurbish" market out there.

Without more details on your specific case, . . . . well what can anyone say? It's not an option for everyone, and, not a good option in every case, but, it is still an option. That's all I'm saying. Everyones experience/budget/ability varies.

Chum lee

Easy to see if its just a water line. Turn your water pump off or shut the domestic water valve off and relieve the line pressure from a faucet. If the leak stops spraying then its an ice maker water line.
Is the water shooting from a metal component? I've never worked on one of these with an icemaker but could it be a heat exchanger to precool the water before entering the freezer? If so that can be cleaned and patched with epoxy.
If it was refrigerant, it will likely have stopped spraying by now anyway, stink to high heaven of ammonia, and be yellow from the chromate.
Good luck, and please let us know what you find. Now we are curious.

If you see anything yellowish, you are leaking ammonia.

Chum lee wrote:
Not sure about availability for the Norcold units, but, you can buy a replacement cooling unit (new) for the Dometic fridges. If the peripheral components of your refrigerator are in good condition, you can get the unit working again for about half the cost of a new unit should you be inclined. Youtube has several videos showing the R+R process if you need a helping hand. It might be worth a quick search. Otherwise, at +-15 years of age, IMO your best bet is a new unit.

Chum lee

They are availible but just get a new refrigerator. I have done it once and bad experience with supplier. Never again.

Not sure about availability for the Norcold units, but, you can buy a replacement cooling unit (new) for the Dometic fridges. If the peripheral components of your refrigerator are in good condition, you can get the unit working again for about half the cost of a new unit should you be inclined. Youtube has several videos showing the R+R process if you need a helping hand. It might be worth a quick search. Otherwise, at +-15 years of age, IMO your best bet is a new unit.

Chum lee

Whatever the composition of the liquid NMDriver2 is right. A new refrigerator is all but certainly in my future.

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Taste it, collect some in a cup and have someone else smell it......
IF it is from the absorber tank then it would be ammonia -----the ammonia in the tank IS in liquid form already. It turns to vapor when heated by electric/propane in the boiler then gets condensed by into liquid

The 'water' and sodium chromate (anti rust inhibitor---yellow stuff when leaks out) make up a very SMALL percentage of the coolant solution.
AMMONIA is major component

Absorber tank leak.......that would be AMMONIA and it is a strong concentration at that point

The ammonia in the absorber is absorbed into water, for which ammonia has a very great affinity. In the boiler, the ammonia is driven out of the water by the heat. It then cools in the condenser (at the top of the fridge) and becomes pure liquid ammonia, not dissolved in water. From there it travels to the evaporator where it evaporates, cooling the fridge, the evaporation being brought on by the presence of hydrogen (or some other gas that is nonreactive with ammonia and doesn't dissolve in water to any great extent, such as helium). The total pressure of the system is constant, but the presence of the hydrogen causes the partial pressure of the ammonia gas to be lower, and hence the ammonia can boil. From there, it travels to the absorber where the water dissolves the ammonia but not the hydrogen, and so separates them.

There is more than a trace amount of water in the absorption fridge cooling system; it is an essential part for it to work, and while I don't know the relative amounts of hydrogen, ammonia and water, I would guess that it's the second largest by weight (after ammonia). It may even be the largest.

The water does have a lot of ammonia dissolved in it, so any leaking water would tend to smell of ammonia quite strongly, much more so than say household ammonia.

Regardless of what the liquid is the unit is broke and will need replacement.

The refrig may be working for now due to the small size of the leak but it will eventually quit and I would not trust any temporary hole repair to stay in place, besides the issue of it being unlikely you can replacing what ever is leaking out.