Dometic RV Refrigerator Cooling Unit Replacement
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2022
- Today I return to being an RV Tech. It's 115 degrees F and the Dometic RM2652 stopped keeping the owner's food refrigerated. I ran through many options with the owner and they decided to just replace the cooling unit on their Dometic refrigerator. So I'm happy to have you join me as I work through the repair with only a minimum number of issues on this replacement that went surprisingly well. Please note that this video is only for entertainment purposes and the replacement can be dangerous.
Thanks for watching!
Not sponsored but here is Nordic Cooling Units website:
www.nordiccoolingunits.com/ho... 
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James you have more talent in your one hand than I have in both of mine and a friend helping me. The things you can do while filming blows my mind. Also, THANK YOU for showing us what/how a great Tech does things....!!!
Wow, thanks
Agreed. I’m a little disappointed however. I kept waiting to see the roof😊
You are an AMAZINGLY accomplished Technician! ☺
Yikes !
James, thank you for the very detailed step by step installation of a new Dometic RM2652 cooling unit. You are a talented pro. First time doing this and after watch the video a few times and writing the steps down, I am ready to install my new unit that just arrived yesterday. My unit is also an Dometic RM2652 that lasted 21 years before it failed. Again, many thanks for your great video!!!!
I love the outtakes! They always make me laugh; especially when you get a little frustrated. Totally laughing with you. 😆
LOL Thanks. It's too hot to think right now
The fact that you do all this work with one hand while holding a camera is amazing.
Thanks!
One month into my new job learning the RV technician trade after nearly 30 years in heavy truck/transportation industry.
Sure enjoy your channel and all your adventures!
Excellent tear down video. I loved the seeing the safety check for propane leaks and the little notes along the way for making it easier to replace such as taking out screws before removing the unit from the shelf. All those little things def add up. Thank you for sharing this!
Watching a pro work on one of these, and discussing your earlier experiences and facts tells me you have years of experience. To me, thats more important than any textbook or college education out there. You have been there and done that. This was how I learned small engine repair and like you, I can go through a repair in a fairly quick time frame with fewer mess ups( except hardware failure). After a while, I learned to carry a few extra parts, especially knowing from past experiences what usually fails during a process. Awesome video. I personally would have replaced the whole refrigerator as the owner of that camper. As you said, you are only doing what the owner wanted.
Cool install... Glad to see you always do a leak test. Stay safe and healthy.
CYA. Always :)
Very professional, I am not worried about changing my unit out next week. Great job I will watch this a few more times before then. Thank you 🙏
I know AZ stands for Arizona, but you really know everything from A to Z. I really look forward to seeing your videos. With or without a sweet spot.....
LOL Thanks
I went to RSI in 1986 and that's one of the first things we learned, an a/c system is not blowing cold air, it's removing the heat. Once you comprehend that, learning the basics isn't hard.
Brings back memories. 10 years ago I replaced ours. We did not go with a residential because my wife wanted to “keep the wood doors”
That was great James! Thanks for bringing us along.
Thanks for watching!
I personally went with a Amish built 110 unit self installed pretty straight forward couldn't be happier.
Works like a champ and doesn't guzzle power 💪
Awesome!
Some times you have to do what the customer wants. Great job James.
That is true
Job well done. I worked on home appliances for 40 years, and i don't miss it :)
It's not my favorite, but I like to help people out
@@AZExpert i enjoy your channel. You do a good job :)
I did this myself 3 days ago. Glad to have a cold fridge again, been a month
That was awesome James thank you, I have a 2672 so very similar. Need new door handles and those are 75 days out from Dometic. Thank you for educating me
Everything takes forever to get
Knowledge and talent beyond description......any individual that you would mentor would be most fortunate.....I am always amazed when I watch you work.😎😎😎
Thanks Mark!
I'm going in to take advanced classes to become a certified Tech starting 8/8. I'm looking forward to having the talent and confidence to do this. You are incredibly skillful and I enjoy watching your videos. I learn a lot from you
Hey Awesome!
30 years from now you'll be certified. Lol
Good luck with that.
James, I’ve been watching your video content here on RUclips for 3 years now - ever since we bought our first travel trailer.
I apologize for not subscribing until now, better late than never - I guess.
In that time I have watched you fix several issues for customers, some of which HAS helped me fix things in my own camper.
So thank you for the guidance. I feel like without your content and others, there are things I would not have been able to accomplish on my own.
I see the work you do and I can honestly say your work ethic and professionalism are both outstanding. Your customers are very lucky to have you as their serviceman.
Keep up the great work AND the great content here on RUclips as some of us who are capable really do benefit from your guidance.
Again, I apologize for not subscribing sooner and thank you.
Great video! Thanks for the step by step details and photos!
I want to build an EMP proof chest freezer with foot thick walls, top access plug type door, and no moving parts. I was unaware of the availability of a complete ammonia absorption unit and it looks like just the trick for this project. I did not know that replacement cooling units were available. Think of the possibilities! Heat from a resistive solar powered resistive element, heat from a kerosene burner, heat from direct solar impingement through a lens, methane burner, etc. Not that I will ever need such a device but designing and building things like this keeps my retirement years purposeful. We bought a used slightly damaged 27 foot Dodge Travco motorhome from Dick Smothers of the Smothers Brothers in 1968. We took the Dometic propane fridge out to access something behind it and my dad showed me how ammonia absorption units work. He put it on the work bench and put a small flame from an alcohol burning lamp under the chimney to get it to cool. Keep up the good work!
Awe what a job James, you got more patience than me, if our dometic goes out come on residential fridge, just put in a variable thermistor from a company called clip the tip and it's freezing the food trying to find the sweet spot to place the thermistor.we are in Ennis Montana for the summer hope your surviving the heat ok😅
My '92 winnebago warrior 25' class a, they had to take the fridge out the dinette window when I had it replaced in 2012...fridge was $1,100...removal and install just $100...rv doors are no longer made wide enuf to get a fridge out of...my previous rv, a '77 winnebago chieftain 25' class a on the other hand, fridge came right out the door as it was wide enuf n I replaced that one myself.
Great tutorial Sir, another great video!
Thank you!
James another awesome video, you are a rockstar!!! You can take something that is very difficult and make it look very easy!!! Amazing 👍
Video editing is my friend LOL
Thank you. I am replacing the one I have, My Maden voyage On a RM3662. This really helps. I see there is a bike on your website. I love your fault free ending, I can relate.
Wow, big job , well explained, well executed!!! Thanks, I'm learning. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for watching! :)
My gosh, what a job, your work is so good and your such a patient man, 👍
Thank you! I appreciate that
❤️ Great job. It's nice if you can put a gallon of ice in the freezer & 1 in the fridge if you can freeze them before loading up the unit with worm food.
Trying to cool both the food and unit can take forever. 👍👍
It can
When you started yanking that unit out and the whole camera shook I laughed audibly. lol. I am doing my first one now, two weeks ago I removed it, new cooling unit was damaged so now, two weeks later, I get to try and figure out where all the damn pieces-parts go. I'm dreading tomorrow but I'll get through it. Stay well and thanks for the video and the chuckle!
How did it go?!?!
Great video James ! Thanks for sharing your expertise !!
Thanks!
James, I always enjoy watching you work:)
I enjoy watching me sit in a hammock! :D
SO much useful information in this video, thank you James!!
Glad it was helpful!
Great job. Gotta do what fits customer’s needs, budget and time table.
Truth!
I did the JC Refrigeration "Amish Air" on my nevercold RM1200 and it has never worked better. best $1,700 ever spent. dual operation, original styling no more fire worries.
Awesome! Thanks for watching!
Now I know how a demetic ref. Works! Great job
Thanks Jan!
Thank you for the help! Great video man.
Very nice work.
Looks like quite the Job haha.
I have the same refrigerator in my 2001 camper.... I'm going to just keep my fingers crossed it keeps working properly lol.
Thanks for sharing.
Well now you know what to do if it doesn't
@@AZExpert
Correct! Thanks
Your skill and knowledge is incredible. Thanks for a interesting video
Thanks for watching!
Hey there James, Paul from Tucson here. been on the road for 2 months. I thought of you last week in Montana when I walked by a Beaver and told the owner that I liked his Beaver, he chuckled. Too bad bout Wally:(
Thanks for watching, Paul!
Excellent as always!
Thanks Rebecca!
Thanks for sharing this Tampa Florida check in
You bet
Great video James
Thanks for watching!
Nice job looks like a lot of work. ☮️
Thanks for watching! :)
That was a brutal install, I loved watching it. Maybe I missed something? You removed heat sink screws from inside but it all came out with the unit anyway? You have a new sub....
Yes, a residential fridge is the way to go! And what I will do when the time come to replace the fridge!
Excellent
Had mine replaced about three years ago…by a company owned by Amish….and of course great work…and works great.
Awesome!
My pleasure. You're the best of the best!!!!!!
Thanks Paul!
nicely done, great Video
Wow.. that was a lot of work .. no one in my area wants to do .. they're encouraging me to replace refrigerator (mine is 25 yrs old) so for now I bought little electric fridge 'til I find a good installed price or a good used one
I did the Amish replacement sale.
No regrets.
Actually gets colder than it's supposed to.
Great work. Luckily most of the work was inside the RV w/AC. I would have gone with a 12v but considering they live full time it’s understandable they chose to stick with what they have.
On a different note, is there a 12v to 120v conversion box that you can plug a 12v into and plug a 110 plug? We swapped our old Jensen 12v TV for a smart TV that isn’t 12v prep plus I wasn’t going to spend $300+ on another Jensen TV that wasn’t a smart TV. Thanks.
Wow, a lot of work.
After labor, disposal, parts... this feels like a repair that surpassed the cost of a new unit!
Its not
A new unit is not the same quality as a new unit.
Great info. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for sharing. I learned a lot. Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
Another great job and video. I can't imagine that they saved much by replacing the cooling unit over buying a new frig. Is it difficult to find an absorption frig now? I prefer 12V frig now but you do need enough battery to take you between charges. Still a good video to see how its done.
Thanks for watching!
I started a group on Facebook. And it's just Winnebago Outlook rigs only. We now have 243 members, and I mention you all the time. And I stress your roof repairs constantly. Thank you for being so diligent with your videos. You've taught many of us how to maintain a good watertight roof and other small repairs. Thanks again. Oh, we winter in Yuma every year. How do we contact you? I know you're super busy, but it would be nice to contact you for work if needed. Thanks again.
Very impressive
Absolutely great video! I just can't believe it didn't come with the 120 volt heater?
:) Thanks for watching!
Thanks James We appreciate all your talent and wisdom. I too am like Hersh. LOL
Thanks for watching!
Great video. Thanks for everything you do and shared with us. Please wear a back Support brace. We need to keep you in excellent shape .
It's too hot for that lol
@@AZExpert I know but it will save you another comfortable day at work.
Nice video, can you share the cost comparison between a new refrigerator what you did and the suggestion about an DC electric refrigerator?
Great video.
???
I have a 3 burner stove and both the back burner knobs only turn to high after they light. No can't adjust to low. Why both seems odd that both the outer knobs are the same. The middle knob is fine.
Thanjs
In 2021 I never replaced the cooling units because of the decent prices on fridges.....this year the price of the fridges is off the charts and the Nordic cooling unit prices make it a better option than it was a year ago......
Thanks a million for your videos.....I appreciate your badass attitude in tackling the tough jobs.....in miserable heat no less......
my dometic is from 1995 and still going after 11 years of my fulltime use. I had a fire in the back, but luckily it shut off. It was a blocked burner tube/ oriface. clean the flue tube! I will not be replacing it when it fails. i will go with a dc refrigerator to run off my solar system. or a residential off an inverter. i check mine often to make sure the burner is not blocked and the oriface is clear. to me fixing an old refrigerator makes little sense due to safety and the fact that other parts are just old and will probably fail soon.
After watching this I know why I like my 12 volt fridge
lol
Wonder if people really know just how dangerous anhydrous ammonia really is ? From what a fireman told me you can only be exposed to to about 35 parts per million, I'm sure this is not a common problem but a few years back I was exposed to to 35000 parts per million and yes I will say that that much is just about as close to death as you want to get. Good job and be safe out there Bud 👍
I'm doing my best to stay safe
Another great video and a fine job. But if I was them I would have figured out some way to live without a frig until I could get a hole brand new unit.
Wasn't an option for them
You made that look too easy👍🇺🇸
LOL It was not
Another great job.
I appreciate that
I do like the 2 way fridges. The hysterics of years ago ours 4 door was pulled out and a nice domestic put in. Be one of the little angel little devil be talking to me
I do know several owners who lost wonderful coaches to the old style fridges. Should not have called it hysterics
I do too
The risk/reward on that project seems hard to justify. Seems like there are way too many ways for that to go bad. You’re a talented and kind person to fix that fridge.
Thanks for watching!
Really enjoy your videos, I have a question for you. I have a norcold N611, Does it have a clue baffle or some other device ?? Why I ask is because my parts book does not show one.
James... would it be in your best interest to test the pressure of the propane system BEFORE you start on the refer? I'm thinking, what if you did find a leak that was already a problem that you were not made aware of.... it might save you the hassle of that existing problem becoming yours because you did the refer.
Wow, what a job.
Yes it was :)
A LOT to remember and understrand but ... got to get it done if I am going to RV School Level 2
The owners were smart to want to repair versus buy a dorm type refrigerator. Nothing beats having the option to run propane as you are driving or boondocking where electricity isn't available.
Pretty impressive, that would have taken me 2 days to replace that thing. If and when mine goes, it is garage fridge time.
They are a better deal if you can have shore power or generator
if a refrigerator won't fit out the door, how does one change out a sofa or armchairs? I see some diesel pushers I am interested in, but I don't like the chairs or the sofa. How do they fit out the door? Great informative video!
Some come apart, some are just the right size that they can fit out the door. Worse case--cut it if it's trashed. They DO make RV sized couches but they are RIDICULOUSLY expensive
That wasn't a service call, that was a labor of love and an act of kindness for people wanting to continue living in the past. It is crazy that anyone wants an RV fridge using propane fuel or ammonia refrigerant in 2022. Especially anyone plugged into 120V power in an RV park!
The only reasonable choices are 120V fridges, with a plan for using (a generator or) solar, LiFePO4 battery, and inverter when boondocking..... or 12V compressor fridges which of course come with a 120V power brick also.
I wouldn't do an even trade of two copies of my $253 Alpicool-clone 50 liter fridge with LG compressor, for that old-school setup. They could use one as a freezer, one as a fridge. I normally use mine as a freezer set to -4F, and move some frozen water bottles from it into a soft-sided cooler bag as my fridge. When I'm on the road, I always have water and Gatorade bottles frozen/freezing in the freezer and unfreezing/drinkable in the cooler bag. The side benefit is cold drinks with their own internal ice supply that doesn't even dilute them.
Figuring out what dorm/apartment fridges can be retrofit into the space of various multi-way fridges like that, rebadging them as "AZ Expert Compressor Fridge Conversion Kits", and figuring out trim-kit solutions, might be an idea you could turn into a product line.
Ditto for just coming up with solutions to use the guts of a dorm/apt fridge or 12V compressor fridge to cool the metal plates on existing fridges like this one.
I realize that removing the fridge and removing the old guts to do a conversion, would still be a nasty job, just without the "praying I don't screw into the ammonia refrigerant lines" problem. But it's much more kit-worthy and DIYable than reconnecting the propane and installing the new ammonia lines.
Last but not least, I can vouch for the fact that it's nice waking up to see that money has arrived in your online merchant account, and you just have to get something shipped out, or better yet drop-shipped by someone else. Manual labor can be challenging and fun, but there's only one of you. You can't do 50 jobs a day, but you can click the mouse enough times in an hour to have stuff shipped to 50 paying customers.
That's an idea for sure! I just need 46 more hours in the day
VERY GOOD!!
Hi James, do you work on equalizer systems jacks? Class A DP - if not can you recommend in Phoenix area?
Thanks for all the great videos!
James. I was actually thinking about going to JC refrigeration in Indiana to have my rv refrigerator converted to their Dutch Air 12 volt compressor system. Do you have any thoughts in that regard? Would you be interested in doing the conversion? It would definitely save me a trip to Indiana.
Great job! How far back do those kits go in age of the fridge. I have a very old one in a family camper that needs replaced.
You'd have to check with the manufacturer
A few videos ago, you had a catalog or magazine with RV parts or supplies. Can you tell us what that was? I'd like to find a replacement panel door for my Raptor RV, if there is a good supplier available.
How do you feel about "tipping" the refrigerators? Is it necessary and does it work?
I'd go with a home unit like you mentioned earlier, if my Dometic goes out. I know it works with electricity but I'm not sure about the propane side of it.
It's cost effective choice
My Dometic fridge exactly like that one just gave out. Won't cool. I'd like to know what the price difference is from replacing the cooling system versus a new fridge and where I can get the cooling.
So Norcold cooling unit wires up to Dometic control board without any changes? Norcolds do not have climate control switch but normally once every 24hrs shut down for frost control. Eyebrow controls are the same between brands? I did not see any wiring specifics in video. I went with Amish 12 volt unit to replace our Norcold 8 cuft in our Carriage Cameo LXI - they have updated control system now to bypass original control board and thus some of the stand by power usage in old boards
Hi James
I have a dometic dm 2852
It’s -5 in the freezer
Top shelf in fridge 35 ish
Bottom of fridge is 45 ish
There’s usually 5 to 10 degree between the top and bottom
And don’t know why
Everything I ck according to videos all seem to ck out
I took it into a shop and they said I need a new fridge so we’re going for second opinion
Any ideas what to look for
I hope my Norcold 1210 does not go up in flames.. The interior wall opposite of the fridge heating tube does feel warm .
I hope so too
You are one crazy dude taking that fridge apart like that he'll have them buy a new one like you said
Curious to know how many of these you've done over the years.
I just ordered a cooling unit. My 2852 started warming up inside. The sidewalls to the freezer are very warm. I replaced co tell board and eyebrow board. All electrical checked good. Propane works and no blown fuses. Ohms checks good, thermistor checks good too. If my heating element gets really hot but the absorber stays cool, is t that indicative of a block? Could I have a block or bad heating element even though the elements gets really hot and checked for ohms was good? I’m thinking I have a block in the cooling system? Could you offer advise?
We recently installed our Dometic 2 way fridge. We tested today on propane and it ignites and see nice blue flame. The tube at the top of the fridge (back of freezer area) are hot to touch but then they get room temperature near fins. We haven't felt the fridge getting cold. What we haven't done yet is build the frame around the fridge to ensure zero clearance on sides and allow the venting through roof. Fridge has open air all around. Could this be the issue? Does the air really need to get blown up in a closed air chamber for the system to work?
James, if you ever take sponsorships, the first should be that glass cleaner manufacturer :)
It's really great stuff!
Would it be better to do the propane leak down before you touch anything? Just for a CYA scenario?
Sure, but the check after is the CYA, if it fails and the leak isn't at the refrigerator, then it was pre existing.
I have the same model fridge, and on mine the freezer is only getting like 40 degrees and the fridge is only getting like 60 degrees. Only advice on what may cause that? Thanks.
I believe if my three-way goes out in my camp trailer I am going with a 12-volt compressor refrigerator like an ICECO. But some people are always peculiar.
They want what would work for them