fridge replacement

[Kay_and_Gene]

Our Dometic fridge has died (cooling unit)in the travel trailer. My dealer has quoted me a replacement price of approx $1400 with a 2 year warranty, and said it would be about $150 less than repairing it. We only go out 3 or four times a year and spend 3-5 days (could be the reason it died, very little use). I was thinking about taking out the fridge and replacing it with an apt size residential fridge which would be much more cost effective for me. Any one ever do this?

[JJBIRISH]

click

I don’t question what you have, I was only relaying what my Dometic warranty said and what google turns up…

[dadmomh]

Even the slightest chance you were trying to run on propane and were out?? Or air in the line?? Does seem odd that it would run on electric only.

If you're planning to keep this TT for a long time, changing over to an electric only/off the shelf frig might work out just fine. But...if you're thinking a couple of years down the road maybe a change, knowing that the new owner would need to shell out that much money to get back to the elect/propane system would be a deal breaker for us.

Doesn't it just figure that you're not all that far out of warranty and it dies! Rats!!

[Kay_and_Gene]

First off, Thanks for all the replies. For JJBirish, My warranty was a limited 2year for parts and freight, 2 years for labor from date of purchase (10/25/11) to original purchaser(me). Now I am trying to figure this out: My dealer is very reputible and I stood with the tech while he was checking my unit. He also replaced the electric heater unit which didn't help. They kept the unit for 2 days checking it to no avail. I picked it and parked it in my drive and went on vacation for 3 weeks. Yester day for sh.ts & giggles I hooked the trailer to shore power and turned on the fridge, this moring it is cold! My wife says the "spirits" didn't want us to tow the trailer on our vacation. Go figure. Right now glad I didn't rush out and order a fridge. Thanks again for the replies and advice.

[jaycocreek]

You can get the whole cooling unit for around $425 and a little more with a lifetime guarantee and either do it yourself or have a RV tech do it.

That's the way I did it and would again.

[JJBIRISH]

Several things here… you have a 3 year warranty on your fridge, and it seems you have a 2012 trailer…
If you are the original purchaser you have a three year warranty on your fridge… so is it still under warranty???
The 3 rear warranty covers parts and freight with 2 years on labor…

The cooling unit is a covered part for the 3 years, meaning labor should be your only cost at the dealer… while I have never personally replaced a cooling unit I understand they are not hard to do yourself and shouldn’t take to many hours in labor at a dealer…

Is there a chance this dealer isn’t being honest up front about the warranty and if so its time to find another repair facility…




EDIT: I wouldn’t agree it died from lack of use, no reason to believe that would happen… they are pretty reliable and can last for 50 years…


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[samsontdog]

I have done that with three TT that I had. Worked great

[rfryer]

If you never dry camp or boondock that’s a much cheaper alternative than an RV frig. It would never work for me, but it would be the way to go for someone who always has HU’s.

[hanzfranz60]

We did that back in 2010 with our 2006 Newmar 5th wheel. We had a four door "Notcold" so we could fit a 22.5 cu ft residential fridge. I measured the space and went to the store to find a match. Lowes had just what we wanted. It was easy to remove the Norcold, plug the gas line, and roll in the new one. While traveling it stays cold for 8 hours without electric. I won't ever go back to the propane bomb! Hope that helps!

[AirForceAngler]

If my RV fridge ever breaks, I'll do the same thing you're thinking of doing. We never camp without AC power so we'll just get a small fridge that will fit where the orginal one is.