Refrigerator Failure!

Our RV is around 9 years old. While refrigerators can last for 20 years in a house, that’s not normal for an RV. It’s designed to work with propane or 120 V plus it has to handle the vibrations and movement of driving down rough roads. All of this means a fairly short life plus they are really expensive (~$2,000), even though they are smaller than refrigerators in a home.

Everything was working well running on propane until a few days ago when the temperature starting increasing in the fridge and freezer. We tried several things like defrosting the freezer and then trying to run on electric by running the generator, but nothing helped. We had a neighbor who suggested we clean the burner. John did a great job and we had a good flame, but still the temperature dropped. Finally, I started calling RV repair shops in the area. As I described our problem, I mentioned that we’d see a yellow crystal form under the burner area. The repair man started yelling, “Shut it down, shut it down!” After turning off the propane, we found out that we had a coolant leak that can start a fire.  Whoa!

Turns out that if you have a coolant leak, they can’t fix it. They can replace the cooling unit, but it’s more than half the price of a whole new refrigerator. So, we’ve ordered a new refrigerator and are currently living with everything being in a cooler with ice.

RV life is always a challenge.