Helium atwood fridge not cooling

[Trucker2565]

2016 hideout with atwood he0601 fridge
Freezer is cold fridge wont get cold.
I read unhooking thermistor defaults to coldest setting. Got warmer inside rehooked set on 5 after 24 hours 48* thermometer in bottle of water ... freezer around 20 or colder. Havent left temp probe in freezer for extended time
Checked fuses all are good..
Flame looks good.
Only run it on gas most of the time dry camp. May have it on auto but tried gas only didnt make a difference.
Somewhere I read coils get to hot so I installed 2 norcold dual fans. 1 up on vent blowing out through vent . I cut vent screen and mounted underneath blowing out. 1 on outside door blowing out... nothing changed.
No check lights except when thermistor was unhooked then all 5 temp light flashes when pushing temp button.
Found some insulation on top of fridge fins when I took off vent so I removed that.
Coils are warm not hot..
I am lost why freezer works but not fridge.. my dealer is out of business so no other dealer will even look at it. Please help.

[chuckster57]

I’m at a loss, but I’m thinking a failed cooling unit. He fridges were only made for a short time, and once Dometic bought them out, support went away.

With an ammonia fridge, you can “see” yellow death” if the cooling unit gets a leak. I don’t know how you go about testing for loss of He. I’m thinking maybe a blockage? There has been reports of taking the fridge out and turning it upside down for a day. I never believed it until some months ago when a brand new Norcold not working came back to life. It may be worth a try before you start looking at a replacement.

[Trucker2565]

How big of a job is it to pull frige out?? Not even sure where to start to pull it.

[B-O-B'03]

Is the unit level?
Have you tried running it on AC power?

I recently solved an issue with my He fridge not running on gas, it would light but not stay lit.

I blew out the burner and the flame is much bigger than it was and it stays lit now and the fridge works like it used to. (I should probably knock on some wood now)

-Brian

[Trucker2565]

Its pretty level in my storage facility where I keep it. Havent checked with a level but looks level. To replace with another brand is like $2000 plus some modifications. Nothing is a direct replacement. My home street is a hill so no way to get it level to power off of a/c. Now my question is..... if it works on ac power then is the cooling coils/ block etc. bad??? I could hook a generator to it maybe for a bit and see if it cools..... just dont want somebody to steal my generator out of storage. How long on ac does it take to cool down?? Before I would know if its working?? Flame looks good stays lit.. freezer is very cold.. fridge part dont cool right. Dont the same coils cool both??? Why would 1 work and not the other???

[chuckster57]

AC uses a heating rod, LP uses a flame. They both produce heat, so I’m not sure it would make a difference. To take it out:

Turn off the LP at the tanks, remove the gas line at the fridge. Unplug the AC cord and the 12V supply, be sure to cover the positive so it doesn’t ground out. There is probably a screw at the ends of the bottom rails and they need to come out. Inside: there should be 2 screws at the top and two at the bottom, you may have to remove a cover to see them. Once the screws are out you can push from back/pull from front. TWO people and we set them on a moving blanket. Installing is just the reverse.

[Trucker2565]

Well that dont seem to hard to remove.. I read somewhere that some people have pulled them out and flipped them upside down for a day to unclog a blockage in cooling block...... still not sure why freezer would work but not fridge since same coils do both jobs and you need coolant to flow through coils so a block would inhibit that so in a common man opinion the freezer shouldn't work???? Maybe I will try and pull it out this weekend. Thank you for replying. I'm totally lost. Even my hvac friend is bewildered how freezer works but not fridge.

[Roscommon48]

call www.rvcool.com and talk to them.


or it is time to get to a service center.

[CampNBrew2]

Here are the manuals for this refrigerator. There is a service mode/check sequence you can perform and it will hopefully narrow down the issue.
It could be from operating out of level over time. I sure would try to turn it upside down before spending $1500 for a new one.
You can also replace the cooling unit only for less $ but more work.
These still use ammonia (The helium replaces hydrogen not ammonia in these), so if you had a leak you would still smell it and see the yellow crust at the leak.
Please let us know how you make out. Good luck!

[JRTJH]

The first thing I would do is inspect the LP burner assembly. Almost every one I've seen that's over a couple years old has rust/corrosion/dirt/spider webs on the burner assembly. Use a nylon toothbrush to clean the soot and rusty scale off the burner. DON'T POKE ANYTHING IN THE BURNER ORIFICE !!!!!

Then, check the chimney for any spider webs and to make sure the heat diffuser (the twisted steel bar hanging in the top of the chimney) is centered and not damaged or even missing.

Chances are good that a proper cleaning and possible realignment of the burner and diffuser will fix your problems.

[Trucker2565]

Just an update on my fridge and furnace... well it turns out I had an extended warranty so I took it in to a dealer. The only thing they could figure out was my propane regulator was only pushing 5 wc in. And it should be 12.. they replaced the regulator and they say the fridge got down to 22... after 7 hours of it on gas it got down to 32 which is way colder than it has ever been for me so i think it was a bad regulator from the get go. they believe the furnace probably was the same issue and they say it kept tripping the high limit switch so I added another duct off of furnace to main cabin since its so cold in there. Its sleeping for the winter so will find out if it works right next spring....

[chuckster57]

Sounds like they got it. 12” WC is the limit IMO. But at least it seems to be fixed. I’ll be waiting to hear.