We Did It!



Old cooling unit

Earlier this month, it was finally determined that the refrigerator’s blown cooling unit was not covered under the recall. Russ had been doing quite a bit of research online and had talked to a few other RVers.  We learned that a number of folks are putting residential refrigerators into their rigs when their old one needs to be replaced, but for us that would not work well since we do a lot of drycamping and residential units are not made to handle that for more than a day or two.  As you know, we sometimes drycamp for a month at a time!

 

The decision was made to purchase an Amish built replacement cooling unit from RV Cooling Unit Warehouse (http://rvcoolingunit.com/1200LR-Norcold-Brand-New-Cooling-Unit-built-by-the-Amish-P13259.aspx) at a cost of about $1,100.  Russ had watched several how to videos posted by folks who had installed it themselves, and he felt we could tackle the job saving us $800-
$900 in labor.  This was going to require pulling the fridge out from the cabinet wall unit, and since it sits about a foot off the floor because of a drawer underneath, he was going to need to build a sturdy box to hold the 200 lb. fridge.  First thing we did, though, was to remove the doors which decreased the weight by about 50 lbs.

 

Once the unit was ordered and the box built, it was fairly easy to pull the fridge from the cabinet area.  We managed to
remove the old cooling unit, and made sure to label every wire and take plenty of pictures as we went along as the videos had suggested (sure did come in handy later!)

 

          The new cooling unit arrived within a few days, and the minute it did, one of our neighbors came over to check it out and see if he could help.  Turns out he’s a former electrician and very handy with all manner of things…and always
looking for projects to do!  He was truly a godsend because with his help we were much further along by the end of that first day than if Russ and I had been doing it all by ourselves.

 

We had to make sure all seals were set and dried before we could test it, and our new friend came over periodically to see how we were doing.  Once everything was connected and set, we crossed our fingers, plugged it in, and let it run for a day.  All

New cooling unit installed

seemed to be working well with no leaks and the fridge was getting cold…yay!!  In fact it was almost too cold, but we’d heard that these units were superior and much more efficient.  Finally we were able to put the fridge back in its place and transfer the food items from the cooler back into their rightful place.  I think we definitely amazed ourselves at completing this task and learned a lot along the way.