20 Year Old Plus Lance Squire Camper-Refrigerator Advice

[ruddfan4evr]

My husband and I have an old Lance camper that is still in excellent condition. Only problem is the Dometic 2600 refrigerator finally died. Several places we checked all said same thing...Too expensive to repair and replacement is way too expensive for us right now. Someone at an RV dealer we buy stuff from suggested buying a "apartment" style electric refrigerator as replacement. We have one in our bedroom that's almost the same size as Domestic unit that has freezer section as well and works like a charm. Since we are older now, we have mostly been going to full hook up camp grounds anyway so we would have electricity to run it. Was wondering if any of you guys have heard of doing this and what may be involved in switching out the old propane one for a new electric one. Any advice would be greately appreciated. Thanks!

[whizbang]

What died? What is the exact failure?

My 20 year old Dometic RM2100 frig died on my last trip. I suspected it was the thermostat.

The local RV shop replaced the thermostat and cleaned the burner and flue and now my frig runs good as new.

Perhaps yours has more life left in it?

[dave17352]

ruddfan4evr wrote:
All good things to consider...we do have solar panel that keeps our battery good and charged for times we don't have electric hook ups. Also, we packed existing fridge and freezer with some dry ice and block ice and that allowed us to still use it as kept plenty cold if not repeatedly opened. That worked for three days before adding more blocks. Thanks for all the input guys. I'll be sure my husband sees these helpful responses.

I read someplace dry ice in your camper can kill you because it give of a gas. Not sure which one. You might want to check it out. I have done the same thing in the past and I am still here but google it.

[ruddfan4evr]

All good things to consider...we do have solar panel that keeps our battery good and charged for times we don't have electric hook ups. Also, we packed existing fridge and freezer with some dry ice and block ice and that allowed us to still use it as kept plenty cold if not repeatedly opened. That worked for three days before adding more blocks. Thanks for all the input guys. I'll be sure my husband sees these helpful responses.

[ManitouF]

I've seen this question many times...and faced it myself once before... and am looking at it again. The refer won't drain batteries in the situation she is describing... she plans to run from here to there without the refer energized...and plug in when they get there.

I found an amish company online that makes new amonia absorbtion coils to repair the dometic... they don't even want your old one in exchange... the repaired cores usually fail again prematurely. ..

That is how I fixed the one...I am deciding between the same avenue or full replacement on another...

Friends who are happy with the dorm unit in their situation have suggested the same to me... all you do is cap the propane line... and run on shore power at locations... once the dometic is removed you have a huge place to position the dorm unit... some trim work will be desired...you may also want to cover up the side panel where you now acces the rear of the dometic as it will be gone...bugs, wind, rain...this is not acceptable to me as I like to run the propane between stops... and often find myself at a lake or extreme rural area with no shore power and thus require the gas option as I do not have batteries to support an invertor either...

[CA_Traveler]

we have mostly been going to full hook up camp grounds anyway

With the dorm refer you need to decide what to do in the "not mostly" times. Depending upon a number of factors the drain on your batteries could be overwhelming due to the refer.

[ruddfan4evr]

Great idea LED67! We will definitely look into that! Glad I posted to this forum. Thanks much!

[Led_67]

Just a thought but have you checked any RV Salvage yards ?? I did a lookup on a search engine and came up with several. This could be an inexpensive option that you could consider