To start some new chatter, JFWIW.

[DickWells]

A week or so ago, our Dometic RV refrigerator (12-13 years old), which had been very gradually (seemed like, and finally confirmed) stopped cooling. This was on a Saturday afternoon. I spent Sunday searching for ammonia leaks, and other possible causes, but when I went to bed, I hadn't seen any real answers. Lying there, ruminating, when I finally thought about opening up the flue/boiler chamber and checking for leaks, and resolved to do that, come daylight. Within less than two minutes of work, I had my first look at the bright yellow deposit at the bottom of the flue.
Came right in and sat down at this-here compuker and started a search for a new cooling unit, I did. Found several sources, ranging from just over $500 to over $900. Went down to the local RV parts store and priced a replacement. Eight-eighty-nine, but they didn't have one nearby, and didn't know where they could get one! At that price, I wasn't interested anyway.
So, I came back to the trailer and settled on one from Arcticold for $580 plus $50 shipping, no core charge. Some other places had it for something like $50 less, but wanted my old one and the shipping was as much, or more.

That was Monday, noon, when I placed the order on-line. Wednesday afternoon, comes a knock on our door. UPS was there, with the five-foot package propped against the side of our unit! Arcticold is made in Moncton, New Brunswick, but the unit that we received was shipped from Calais, ME. Coulda knocked me over with a feather.

Thursday afternoon, the thing was all installed (for AC only) and running,the old unit lying in the grass beside the trailer. Got up Friday, and the refrigerator temp was 42F, after 16 hours, and down to 38F a couple hours later. With the propane hooked up on Saturday for about an hour, the temp was 34F and the fins took on frost for the first time in a couple of weeks.

Though the original, factory, unit came out really hard, because the foam around the coils had been injected directly into the back-cavity, against the rear fridg liner, it was well adhered and took some serious leverage to break loose. The tapered sides of that cavity had a nice, fitted, non-stick plastic liner, which, if it wasn't there, would have resulted in having to dig and cut the 4 inch thick foam out.

Back up and running, with the life-time warranty all registered (for whatever that's worth), the old unit disappeared and things are just binky in the food-cooler dept.

A new experience for me, but one I would never hesitate to take on again, not for a minute. If Articold's word is as good as their impressive turn-around on this replacement unit, then they are a real "find" in my book.

[a5150nut]

Is that where you replace just the cooling unit not the whole fridge?

If so did you take any pictures of the process?

Mine went out last year and needing to replace mine.

[DickWells]

5150: Yes, indeed it is. A pretty simple process, actually.

I took over a dozen pictures with my phone, of the "works" inside the exterior fridg cover, just to be sure that I didn't miss anything on re-assembly. Well, near the end of it, I found that I was actually not too sure about one wire, and, don't you know, that wire wasn't in my photo gallery! But, not to worry. Articold has an on-line video that quite easily gets you through most of the process. But, for getting a good look at that red wire that I couldn't see, plus other little tid-bits, I found that nothing came close to helping like doing a search on --- photos of Dometic RV refrigerator recall of 2007 ---- You'll get several pages of more refer pics than you ever dreamed of. Did this mostly by mistake, but it turned out to be a great little blunder for me.

The whole refrigerator has to come out. I did my whole r&r on the kitchen/DR floor, but outdoors would have been easier in a sense. More room being the prime reason. Here in Texas, doing it inside, with AC running, beat the heck out of working in 90 deg. F heat. Another set of hands is nice for lifting and shoving, etc.
There are other DIY videos on the same page that you'll find when you look up replacement cooling units, and some are better than Articolds'.

My experience was really satisfying, just like most DIY jobs, and I'd bet you'll have the same kind of result.

Need any advise, or commiseration, just get on here and we'll get on it, or if you can't wait for me, or anyone to open their compuker, just give me a call on 802/760-8012. Betcha there are dozens of DPer's who could do the same for yuh in a heartbeat.