Front Covers

When Sassy came to us the front face of the refrigerator did not fit well. It was too short and kept coming out of its frame, and was a ugly silver color. We finally got tired of it and made new fronts for the bottom refrigerator and top freezer. The material was counter top material from Home Depot. The color is a cranberry which goes well with the interior. But what doesn't go with cranberry.

New Cooling Unit

While away from our winter digs in Brenda, AZ the refrigerator stopped working. Came back after a three day trip to the house in Prescott Valley to find the 'fridge and contents too warm.

Investigation showed the boiler was getting hot on both propane and 120v electric. That led to the probability the cooling unit had failed. I called a Mobil Tech I trust, who winters in our RV Park. Over the phone he thought it probable the cooling unit had gone bad. He could do it but didn't know when he'd arrive. The offered over the phone help if I decided to tackle it.

I didn't really want to install a new cooling unit and there's a new Mobil Repair Service guy in the RV Park. He came by to look over the situation. After explaining what I'd done he agreed the cooling unit was likely bad. He was hesitant to replace it though. I asked if he'd done that repair before and he answered "we did one in school once". He also suggested we might want to consider an new refrigerator, "when they get old the seals get brittle" etc. But it's only 6-7 years old! The cost of a new 'fridge is some $2500 while a cooling unit is $500 plus installation. He instilled so much confidence in me I declined to even ask for a quote.

Thus, I resorted to ordering the cooling unit and did some training via YouTube. Didn't look impossible and the new unit arrived within a few days. It took a full day for me to install including reference pictures and labelling the electrical connections. Not a difficult job, but takes a while the first time. There wasn't much refrigerant leaking, but enough to confirm that unit had gone bad. Put it back in the trailer and turned it on. It worked well on both propane and 120v electric. WooHoo. Not many pictures of the install, other than the boring reference pics. Just enough to show we really did replace the cooling unit, Denise in the hole left when the 'fridge is removed and the 'fridge with the old cooling unit removed.

All in all not a big job. I really didn't want to take it on, but it's now done with good results, and probably saved $500 or so.