Refrigerator Woes

Every RVer knows how temperamental the RV refrigerators are. While Ron was gone for a few days, ours stopped cooling. Actually, it didn't stop cooling altogether, but consistently stayed at 52 degrees even during a really hot day. So I, being female, looked for a workaround and bought two ten-pound bags of ice. This actually did help and brought the fridge down to 42 and the freezer to 32. (Of course the ice took up half the shelf space, but by that time I had eaten all I could.)


When Ron returned, I broke the bad news. (Incidentally, when he went hunting in October and I waited in Grand Junction, the car ignition went out and I had to have it towed!) Anyway, he tried all the RV tricks - turn it off overnight and back on, sniff for ammonia, check for any obstructions around the coils, take the guard off from around the burner and blow off the dust, rap the flue to see if rust falls out, etc.


Nothing seemed to help. It just kept running continuously and only cooling to 42. Finally he remembered a process he had heard about called 'burping'. It seems that, when desperate, people have taken the fridge out completely, turned it upside down and, when righted and reinstalled, it worked. Well he didn't really want to take the whole thing out so what did he do? He drove around the parking lot like a maniac! He made quick starts, fast sharp turns, and slammed on the brakes. Well, amazingly enough, that seems to have done the trick. The fridge is now happily puttering along at a perfect 39 and all is well. Crazy, huh?