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techntrek View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Broken fridge in 179
    Posted: 02 Mar 2017 at 9:23pm
The fridge they use in the pod is imported, which is why it is very expensive to replace parts.  If you must fix or replace, buy a US-supplied model.  Or go with the cooler mentioned earlier, I considered the same option when our pod's fridge stopped working on gas.
Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual
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Carolavan View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Mar 2017 at 4:46am
Thanks for the tip. We are still waiting - not very patiently I must say. What are the US made options for a differnet fridge? If there is a good non-Dometic option I'll use it. It seems like the only old man in China who knows how to make the part has died or something. Very frustrating.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Mar 2017 at 3:32pm
Update on the fridge situation. Dometic now informs me that the new cooling unit is scheduled to arrive on 27 March - about 100 days after it was ordered. I hope they find someone who can use it because I have cancelled that order and ordered a new Norcold unit to replace the broken Dometic unit. Hopefully we will be back on the road in a week or so. I can't figure how this company is still in business if all their products are all as "reliable" as mine and their customers are all as "happy" as me. The unit is less that two years old but because I am the second owner - no warranty for me. How cheap is that?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Mar 2017 at 4:30pm
Carolavan,
Your situation is not everybody else's situation. It is hard to say why your unit failed. The technology of absorption refrigeration is not new. It is also generally very reliable. However, that assumes that the unit has been used properly. Since you are the second owner, it may be that the first owner operated it repeatedly while not leveled sufficiently. If it was working when you got it, it still might have been weakened and in the process of failing. It failed, and you are unhappy. If I were in your shoes, I would also be unhappy.

Until someone comes up with a better way to do refrigeration that is capable of working while not connected to shore power for extended periods, absorption cooling is the thing with which we are stuck. Whether the unit comes from Norcold or Dometic, it operates on the same principle.

Atwood has taken a different direction. Instead of using flammable hydrogen as a working gas, they use non-flammable helium in some of their models. Personally, if Atwood made a model suitable for our R-Pod, that is what I would get. Since the don't, any replacement would come from Norcold, which has had several recalls and class-action suits or Dometic, which also has a class-action suite ongoing.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Mar 2017 at 4:41pm
Thanks for that Stephen. I guess I am not understanding how operating it not level - if that's what happened - can result in the gas disappearing. Mine has no gas. If it breaks and the gas leaks out why can it not be repaired and refilled? It's all very mysterious.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Mar 2017 at 5:33pm
This video will help explain how these refrigerators work. There are other videos that explain why they fail. This page from the RV Doctor has some good information.
StephenH
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Mar 2017 at 12:11pm
I think you have a good solution.  I'm sure FR uses the imported Dometic fridges based on purchase cost, but then a $69 replacement part will cost $400 for the consumer if something goes wrong.
Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Mar 2017 at 5:06pm
Thanks. I would have liked a swifter, cheaper and more satisfying solution, but it is what it is I suppose. Maybe I should have just installed an ice-maker and a cooler.
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