Repaired Norcold, Atwood helium, or reg frig?

[BarkerLovers]

Hi Everyone,

When Greg tried starting the frig in our new (to us) Mallard, the stench of ammonia filled the place. We quickly discovered what that meant. Who would have thought a refrigerator could be such an issue!

We can get a guy to put a new cooling unit in it for $500, guaranteed for 5 yrs, buy a new 'scratch & dent' Atwood helium for $560 guaranteed for 90 days/2yrs, or just get a regular mini house one.

We've tried researching it, and it's still overwhelming trying to choose.

Any suggestions? We'll mostly just be doing weekends in it, but want the option to go boondocking...

[94-Newmar]

It appears your unit had 26 yrs of service. I think that's pretty good considering most residential units won't usually go that long.

If I could get a helium for that price I would certainly not even think twice about it. The helium type of cooling unit for Rv's has been around in Europe for almost 2 decades, introduced by Atwood here back in 2000 or 2001. It is a bit slower coming up to temp than the Ammonia based units - other than that they're virtually the same. I wouldn't make my decision based upon the flammability of the ammonia coolant used but rather that the Helium based coolant is nowhere near as corrosive to the entire system.

With all that being said, you mention wanting to boondock as well. Using a regular (home) compressor refrigerator is also a viable option with a couple of caveats. You will need an inverter (converts 12vdc to 120vac) and a decent supply of 12v power to run the inverter since they utilize 120vac power. If you're looking at pricing you'll need to factor in the price of the refrigerator at least 2-6vdc batteries and a decent sized inverter -approximately 1500 watts AC or thereabouts to get a few days of boondocking out of it.

[jesilvas]

The Helium unit still has ammonia, IIRC, but helium instead of hydrogen, reducing fire risk.

I kinda doubt he can install a new cooling unit for that little. They cost us, as a dealer, more than that. Then labor is not free.

[HoneyBadger]

Brand new, the Amish-built units are ~ $1000, the remanufactured ~$575.

[bobandshaz]

If you can do some research on the person doing the work this would be my option----We can get a guy to put a new cooling unit in it for $500,

[PyrateSilly]

Thom did the install himself and we took out our Dometic and put in a residential. The fridge on sale cost us about $580. We went from about 10 cu ft to 18.2 cu ft. The fridge stays at about 38 - 40 and the freezer stays at just under 0. Really wish we had done it sooner.

[BarkerLovers]

Thanks for your responses.

Thanks 94-Newmar, for stating the Atwoods have been used in Europe for the past couple of decades. That was part of my issue, I could not find a single user review on them online. Any review actually, except for a Ford side by side comparison done with a Dometic. Seen a few posts on here, about them being new; no idea how they'll be in a couple of years, etc, which made me leery...

Our plan is to get the Atwood on Sunday, 'if' Greg can get our old one out.... The guy said none of the 'scratch & dent' is visible, which is good. It'll have a 90 day warranty thru their business, and a 2yr warranty thru Atwood.

Hopefully this will be the only 'surprise' the Mallard has for us!