RVcool.com refurbished fridge cooling units

[turbosek]

My 2004 Dometic RM2652 fridge stopped working. Inside smelled like ammonia and would not cool. I just bought the MH used and it never worked for me. I tossed around the idea of replacing it for $1000-$1300, but opted instead to buy a $400 refurbished cooling unit from RVcool.com.

Based on their website and pdf instructions, they gave me the impression it would be a 2 hour job start to finish. Boy was that wrong. I consider myself above average in my mechanical abilities, and I have every tool under the sun. I still spent about 7 hours replacing this unit. I could have done it in about half the time had the directions been more clear on what to expect. It is clear the instructions were written to make people comfortable buying the unit...as the instructions are available to review before making the decision to buy the unit. I believe this is a dis-service to the customer.

If anyone wants to try this product, be aware it is not for the average person. I had to use hammer and pry-bar, pneumatic dremel and river tool, and lots of muscle. There is a lot of tweaking and trial and error that needs to be done...nothing seems straight forward. Ultimately, you cannot know if you did everything correctly until you get everything put together and try iy. If it does not work correctly, you have to take everything apart again and reassemble. You need to use mastic caulking, silicon caulking, double sided tape, foil tape...so there is a lot to do and undo.

If I had it to do all over again, I would just have paid the extra $600 for a new unit...that would have taken about 45 minutes to remove old unit and reinstall new one.

Has anyone else tried this repair? If so, what was your experience?

[herk7769]

Moving to product review.
Good write up!

[turbosek]

l'll also add that the new cooling unit works great. I often read about people who fire up their fridge 3 days before a trip...just to get it to fridge temps. I plugged my new unit in to 120v and it was to freezer and fridge temps in just over 2 hours. I was not even hooked up to propane either!