Blue~Go wrote: April 18th, 2019, 1:42 pm
Perhaps Scott is the one who took it out through the front? That said, he has a pre-1997 dash, and may have had the smaller Premier refrigerator, plus the Premier has no kitchen ell.
That's all correct.
The stock Norcold 6052 made it out through the passenger door with the front seats removed. We're talking a couple millimeters of clearance (Ford door not removed). The bathroom door was removed, and I used a floor jack to lower it once it was out of the cabinet. I posted about it in the 110V fridge thread linked above. Plenty of good info and pictures in there for those whom might be interested. I don't know how this would play out in a Concourse. If the fridge were any larger, this rout would not have worked. I did it this way 1) to satisfy my own curiosity, and 2) I had a buyer (financial motivation).
Thanks for all the info. Looks like the Norcold Scott mentioned was smaller and lighter. 10" shorter but as wide and deep. Saving the existing fridge seems less important as I'm looking into what's involved. I hate to cut up a working fridge but the first hint of trouble and I'm done. I have found a lot of valuable info on "Remodeling refrigerator & stove" and "110 volt fridge" When I think it's time I like Blue's choice of AC/DC model Frigo 130. It's smaller than what I have but still 4.7 cf and half the weight. it eliminates the level issue and only uses 3.2 amps on DC.
. I wonder if it will go in the back door?
Yep, the Vitrifrigo 130 will go in through the back door. All I had to do was remove the refrigerator door and that's easy because they already provide for doing that in order to reverse the swing.
I chose that one because it was the biggest one that would give me more aisle space and a counter above it which is around 45" high but is a great "set down" space for by the door plus I have shelves outboard of that which can hold bathroom or kitchen stuff (plus an upper cabinet that is similar to the other upper cabinets). Also it really improves the visual space in the hallway.
The external compressor makes it from a 115 into a 130. The space gained is on the bottom shelf, hence the freezer is the same on either one in case you don't want an external compressor - you just get half-depth crisper drawers.
PS: I hated to cut up a working fridge too, but that feeling went away instantly when I thought about possibly damaging some part of the Chinook I was keeping. I sold the shelves and racks (which Dometic charges a mint for) and put the remaining halves on Craigslist for free. Figured someone might tape it together for a cabin beer fridge or something and had a taker within a day. Buh-bye!
The recall was mentioned in "Dometic & Norcold refrigerator fires/explosions" drop down to the comments by chin_K There are two links, one a video( worth looking at) the other dealing with the recall. The phone number listed will put you in direct contact with someone from Dometic (if you have that brand)
Thanks to both chin_K and Blue and others for their postings that address mods to create more space and the fridge issue. You can find their posts under "remodeling refrigerator & stove" I especially like the first layout, switching the stove and fridge around.
Hi BT - when I replaced my Dometic with a Vitrifrigo the RV shop took out the passenger side window over the dinette to remove and replace the fridges. I hadn't heard about this latest Dometic recall but I'm with Blue on going all electric. Never liked the idea of an open flame running all the time and also found that the 3-way LP fridge couldn't keep up with any heat above 85 degrees. I saw an article someplace online about a guy who runs an RV junkyard and he said that a major cause of the RVs winding up was fridge fires. I did the Dinosaur board replacement and had a fan installed to help cool on my Dometic but it just couldn't hack it and the risk of fire pushed me into going all electric.
Thanks Paul,
Your reply only encourages me to move on a AC/DC fridge conversion. We already have a planned trip so I'll have to do the "Dometic fix" for now and get on with converting when we return. There are many good ideas on how the new space can look and be upgraded.
I just had the recall kit done on the RM3663 (3 way)fridge and feel better about it. It sealed up the burner area completely. It also had a heat sensitive fuse located low by the gas burner as well as a second circuit breaker where the Ac/DC leads are mounted to the burner area. While it may not stop the rust out issue with the heating tube it should contain any fire concerns. I believe in the long run, switching to a compressor type fridge is still on my horizon.
Hi BT,
Did you get it done at an RV service center or did you get the kit directly from the manufacturer and install it yourself?
I still have to do this too.
2000 Ford E-350 415CI/6.8L V-10 Triton Superduty 4X4 Chinook Concourse XL Club Lounge
Hey Astro,
I brought it to a RV repair shop. The only way Dometic will release a recall kit is to send it directly to the shop that does the install. The directions seemed a little confusing to the repair shop but they got things worked out. The kit they sent out covered repairs for both 2 way and 3 way styles of fridges and included some wiring that wasn't needed. By the way the shop I brought it to didn't add any charges even though it took over an hour to install. I would ask about that before selecting a repair shop.
