Need help with Atwwod refrigeraror!

[Steve and Lynne]

Please help us! We have been camped near Corpus Christi for almost a month (FHU). Our 8 cubic foot Atwood has been losing its ability to make solid ice cubes- dialed to max cold 2 days ago, a litle better. I had read that Atwood recommends running the unit through various settings to help this. I set it to gas about 1/2 hour ago, opened lower door, VERY strong ammonia odor. What's up? What should we do? Thank you for any insight.

[Steve and Lynne]

Sorry for the horrible typing/spelling!

[TucsonJim]

Not sure what is going on, but the Atwood reefer uses helium gas and not ammonia. I'd let it run for a while on gas and see what happens. A common problem with these units is the electrical heating element going out.

[Steve and Lynne]

Thanks for the quick insight and suggestion, I will try letting it run longer on gas! I am puzzled by the ammonia too! Update to follow.

[Steve and Lynne]

Further developments- called Atwood technical service, talked to Jerry. I didn't get the words "smelled ammonia" even out of my mouth when he said cooler is leaking. We are in Corpus Christi headed for Dallas, so Jerry went through their list of approved shops in that area, which means they can order components without paying for them, need to send back defective unit. We chose Happy Trails RV in Rockwall, visited with Bill in service, he has ordered the refrigerator which will be shipped truck freight from Elkhart, hopefully undamaged! Hopefully this will go smoothly as our other warranty items have so far! Stay tuned, hope others don't have this problem.

[Mark&Lisa]

Wow, nice job and glad to see that they stand behind the product!

[Steve and Lynne]

Yes, as we are in the retired full-time group, we love it when we get to have immediate conversations with real people and they call back sooner than promised! You may know this, I learned the refrigerator has a two year warranty, which is fantastic!

[Mark&Lisa]

I didn't do thank you, do you have the stainless or black fridge? I have the black, and if I was going to get a new one and had some problems I'd be asking for the stainless :-)

[Scott and Jan]

So did he say why it "smells like ammonia" when its supposed to be a helium run fridge?
I've inhaled helium, it doesn't smell like ammonia, it just makes your voice squeak. :-)

[Steve and Lynne]

I am curious about that too. For the last hour I have been researching the website "Howstuffworks". Entering in "refrigeration", about 6 or 7 pages in, they talk about RV refrigerators which use ammonia as the refrigerant. So there we are- I think the "Rest of the story" is that when we are using 115 VAC to power our refrigerators, it is a different process involved because we can hear a motor running powering a compressor. Our HSW website states that gas/propane refrigerators have no moving parts. Somewhere in these different refrigerant processes lies the key that we smell STRONG ammonia when running on propane, nothing when running on electric. But ammonia is dangerous, so replacement of the refrigerator is needed! Where the helium comes in, still a mystery!