July 20th, 2009 | 
Author: Your RV Refrigerator no longer cools and you need to take action. A key decision is whether to repair the refrigerator or simply replace it with a whole new unit.
One of the keys is whether or not you smelled ammonia. RV Refrigerator cooling units are based on a closed ammonia cycle. Smelling ammonia before your refrigerator has stopped working is indicative of a leak in the cooling unit. Although it is possible to replace a cooling unit, many in the industry do not recommend doing so. The replacement cooling units are generally rebuilt and some will not hold up. This means you may have to deal with a refrigerator that will stop working again. This could be especially painful if this occurs while you are on vacation. This is why most recommend to replace the unit and not attempt to repair if you smelled ammonia prior to the refrigerator quit cooling.
Also, if the unit is more than 10 years old and you suspect a major problem, replacing rather than repairing may be your best option. RV repair parts and labor are expensive and a repair may not include much of a warranty. You can check out the prices of new units at PPL’s RV Refrigerator Page or you can order Norcold and Dometic Refrigerator Repair parts online. PPL’s Refrigerator Repair parts page has a good part lookup system that includes exploded views of your refrigerator model whether it is a Dometic or a Norcold.
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Our dometic refrigerator in our camper stopped working and I want to know if it can be traded and fixed for one that works and where would we go to do this, if possible?
Your next step will depend on how old the refrigerator is and how serious you suspect the problem is.
If the refrigerator is over 10 years old, I would lean toward just replacing with a new one. You can call PPL Motor Homes at 1-800-755-4775 and talk to someone in parts to find out what the cost of a replacement unit would be. When you call you should have the model number of your existing refrigerator to help determine a suitable replacement. You can also visit http://www.pplmotorhomes.com to look at the prices of new refrigerators.
If the unit is relatively new and the problem might be a board or heating element or something reasonable simple, you might want to take it to a local RV Dealer to see if they can repair it for you at a lower cost.