My buddy who is an HVAC and refridge worker for the post office told me that the ammonia and water may have become "stuck" and flipping the fridge over for 24 hrs. or so may free it up and start it working again. So I gave it a try but no success. I am getting heat from the outside components but no cooling on the inside. Maybe it is need of a recharge(freon, ammonia,water)? Any suggestions before I take to someone?
Fridge in my friends Class A went too. It ran but just wouldn't get cold. After having to the shop & being told $2k to replace some components or $5K to replace the fridge, they took it back home & simply pulled it out, turned it upside down & banged on the coils a good bit to loosen things up. Seems that did the trick. You tried the turning upside down, did you trying the banging on the coils a bit?
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20 years? Time for a new fridge. You actually did pretty good if you got 20 years out of it. "Burping it" as it's called, is only a short term sollution. There's no recharging an RV fridge. They only live, on average, 15 years, you got 20.
Corrosion inside the tubes slowly blocks the lines with sediment. That sediment collects at the bottom of the cooling coils. "Burping it" shakes that sediment up and just spreads it through out the coils, but it quickly settles back down to the bottom again and blocks the ammonia from flowing through the coils.
Sorry my friend, but ya gotta get a new one.... If it makes you feel any better, 20 years really is pretty good.
the older units were alot more sensitive to being operated when not level. when running out of level, the fluid will not "flow" back down the coils properly, and begin to pool in the coils, which eventually will start to crystalize. this has the same effect as say cholesterol in your arteries. when there is enough buildup, the fluid will no longer flow properly, and thus no more cooling. unless you are the original owner, you just don't know what that fridge has been put through. if properly setup and maintained, units can last alot longer than 20 years. i had a 68 tc that i gave to some friends, the fridge just gave out last year. thats 39 years.
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Crazyfritz, I feel soo bad for you taking advise from one of my fellow collegues (I work for the USPS as a Building Equipment Mechanic- HVAC/R), especially when it sounds like he doesn't know his a** from his elbow. NEVER FLIP A REFRIGERATION SYSYEM UPSIDE DOWN. This allows the liquid refrigerant which is considered a solid (hard) to block up the gas (soft) side of the system and block it up worse than the constipated guy on the ExLax commercial.
The only thing I can say is give it time, leave the electric element on, and park the camper in the sun with the refrigerator exterior hatches open. Usually when your system stops working it's due to ammonia building up crystal deposits in the tubing. There is only three fixes for this. One is to rapp on the suspected tube with a rubber mallet and see if the crystalization breaks apart and the ammonia gasses start flowing. Second is to remove the ammonia, replace the section of tubing, and recharge the ammonia. Third is to replace the cooling system entirely, either unbolt and unglue the old cooling system from the back of the fridge or replace the whole fridge.
When I was doing field work for the local RV company I used to only do the first option, for I didn't have the tools in the truck to do the second or third options.
Good Luck
Matt
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I had an older (~15 years) fridge stop working once. It fixed itself. It was in a popup trailer and just towing it around on a couple more trips with it turned OFF was enough bumping around that it worked when I tried it again.
I'd try putting it in the back of you truck while you drive to work, errands, etc. It can't hurt.
Your lowest cost option is to go to RV Mobile and get a rebuilt cooling unit.
It's not possible to do a part charge like a freon system since the system contains water, ammonia, hydrogen and sodium chromate that must be in the right balance. Since they are solids in solution, liquids and gases, they don't leak out at equal rates, they must be completely purged and recharged. This means that the system must be removed and flushed clean. Once you go to this trouble, you might as well get it rebuilt.
Sportsman Matt wrote: Crazyfritz, I feel soo bad for you taking advise from one of my fellow collegues (I work for the USPS as a Building Equipment Mechanic- HVAC/R), especially when it sounds like he doesn't know his a** from his elbow. NEVER FLIP A REFRIGERATION SYSYEM UPSIDE DOWN. This allows the liquid refrigerant which is considered a solid (hard) to block up the gas (soft) side of the system and block it up worse than the constipated guy on the ExLax commercial.
Matt
That's true advice for a compressor system, but irrelevant for an absorption system. If the unit has a plug of burned chromate solution from operating out of level, this may dislodge it and put the unit back in operation for a while, possibly years.
Sportsman Matt wrote: NEVER FLIP A REFRIGERATION SYSYEM UPSIDE DOWN.
Huh? ok, I'm an electrical engineer, NOT an hvac/refer tech, I'll say that right up front, so this isn't my forte', but this isn't household freon-based fridge or a hvac system. Me thinks you're referring to those, as they are quite twitchy when tilted in any way.
I've burped a couple ammonia-based RV fridges in my time, and it HAS brought them back to life for a SHORT period of time.
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