Dometic Fridge Coils Replaced

[Ed Benson]

After loosing the Dometic fridge ammonia last fall on our last outing, we parked the Mountaineer for the winter. Not having the funds to replace the fridge - or have someone repair it for me - I did some research and found a great source for a stout replacement coil assembly.

I ordered on EBay from www.rvcoolingunit.net - David Force proprietor. Dave supplies aftermarket coil sets from an Amish source. The coil set arrived with great instructions for change out. I just covered the floor in the coach with a tarp and slid the fridge out and as per instructions, did the change out inside the coach - plenty of working room. Old unit came out fairly easily and new / rebuilt unit was an exact fit. Tube of temp transfer mastic was supplied.

The Amish rebuild coil set was noticably stout - heavier wall tubing than factory origional and 3 year guarantee.

After hooking up the utilities, I powered up the fridge tonight and all systems seem to be go. 40 deg. f. was reached within a couple hours and I am sure adjustment will be necessary to home in on ideal temperature.

This job was really quite clear to execute with the instructions included. Dave is quick to respond to questions and makes sure he ships you the exact fit hardware for your fridge.

Oh - it didn't hurt either that a $100 refund was issued when he got the old coils back - freight prepaid back by him.

Highly recommended for anyone who is tired of dealing with Dometic and trying to get any kind of resolution for failure on these fridge's.

Ed

[8.1al]

Thanks Ed, that's good to know and quite a savings.

[Ed Benson]

Well, it looks like a sucessful installation.

I Have been monitoring the fridge interior with a dual channel Fluke digital thermometer - one probe in the freezer and the other in the refer compartment.

After switching over to propane for the day, the freezer compartment is locked in at ~ 3 deg. f. and the refer compartment is steady at ~ 34 deg. f. - all with no product in either compartment. It seems to me like the fridge is getting much cooler much quicker than it ever did since it was new. I had to slide the thermister mount down the fin to the lowest position to moderate the temperature to where I thought is should be. Also, I had previously retro fitted this unit with a temperature adjustable Dinosaur brand control board, and I had to back off the temp pot on that too - COOL.

As a bonus - the Amish folks instruct that I do not need to reinstall the bogus Dometic recall anti burn down extra heat shield. However, since it is there, I will dumb it back in, as it does include an added bracket for an additional temperature protection fuse in the thermo disk circuit.

Looks like we're ready for this spring's first outing.

[daneboy]

Ed,
That's good to know. Do you have to recharge the fridge after putting in the new coils?
Jerry

[Ed Benson]

The coil set comes all pre loaded with new ammonia and ready to go. The most critical part of the whole installation is to make sure the top coils that make contact with the back of the fin assembly in the refer compartment - and the plate that is the rear of the top freezer compartment - fits snuggly with the temperature transfer mastic applied between the two.

After I caulked the mastic on the coils and on the back of both plates in the refer - I seated the coil set in the back of the refer box. To "squish" the tube set snuggly against the temp transfer plates, I actually put a couple of short boards across the tubing / foam insert and gently stood on top of the assembly to seat it firmly in the box well. This tubing set is ruggedly constructed and no danger here if done right.

If you are interested, you can go to the vendor website I listed and down load the installation instructions for the coil set replacement. A professional would have taken ~ 4 hours to do this job from start to finish - I milked it out over several days.

Ed

[HughM]

ED you may have saved a lot of us money from this advice. I had never heard of that company and will use it when mine goes out.

[Ed Benson]

Hugh, I'm glad to see you say "when mine goes out" - because from all the many posts I've seen in the last year or so in all the RV magazines and websites I've visited - it's just a matter of time before many of these Dometic's dump their ammonia and leave you high and dry.