Refrigerator not cooling

[joanne]

Has anyone had problems with their Dometic refrigerator not working? We have our 2005 Solaris for camping, and our refrigerator did not get cold. We could hear a soft "gurgling" sound from the unit. We switched it to gas, but it did not work that way either. Any comments, suggestions, trouble shooting appreciated.

[jim44646]

Have you given it the sniff test. Smell round the refrigerator and rear refrigerator access panel, if you detect an ammonia smell, the refrigerator is kaput. It normally takes hours for them to cool down.

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[krazedave]

In the weather we are having in Pa right now I would expect that it would take overnight for the fridge to reach the right temps. The gurgle sound might not be good. Open your outside panel and sniff like jim44646 said and look for yellow any yellow powder. If you find yellow or smell ammonia the fridge is bad.

[joanne]

We did work on this 2 days, gave it enough time. We did not smell ammonia, but there was just a little bit of yellow powder. I suppose now we need to look for a replacement. Thank you for your help.

[jim44646]

A little cheaper way to go, if the rest of your refrigerator is in good shape, is replacing just the cooling unit. You can buy remanufactured cooling units.
https://youtu.be/aebl5HJImKA


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[mainah]

If it makes noise it's bad the yellow stuff is part of the coolant mix it should all be on the inside. To me I would repair a gas fridge long before switching to an electric dorm type one. New cooling units are around $400.