[Per]

Bosch. That was what was the closest dimensionally and it c ouldn ‘t have been any better. Quiet, lots of great features, and it fit better than any other choice.

[Doug]

Charles,

The previous owner of my coach swapped out the Amana for a GE. The GE has worked great with no issues since owning it. Sure glad the former owner took care of that … I can get you the exact Model number, ect., if you want.

We’re out West too right now (Wyoming), but I don’t know any other facilities besides Marathon in Oregon. I’m sure they would do a great job.

Call AAP in Virginia (Fred), a sponsor on this forum, who can furnish Cruiseair repair facilities nationwide.

[Archived]

If the freezer section is cool but the fridge section is warm, your defrost heater went out and your freezer iced up. There is an easy way to test by manually defrosting your fridge. You can accelerate with a hair dryer blowing to the back of the freezer compartment. Just put your food into a cooler for a couple of hours.

If the fridge works well again for a few days, it is the defrost heater element. Been there, done that. Not difficult or expensive to change

Gerald

[Archived]

Charles,

I’ve had lots of experience with the Amana’s. Before you throw in the towel, replace the defrost timer, heat element and thermostat. Not expensive and pretty easy to do. I carried a defrost timer with me because they fail. Take the bottom grill off and you’ll see the drip pan and the defrost timer with a plastic knurled knob. Turn that knob clockwise until you hear a click then stop. That’s the defrost cycle that turns on the heat element in the freezer. It will take about 20 minutes if the heater is working and you’ll see water dripping into the pan from a little hose. If no water, the element is probably hosed and needs replaced and/or the timer is bad.

If if you pull the shelves out of the freezer and remove the screws holding the cover on the back wall, you’ll see the heat element and thermostat. Usually the freezer gets build up with ice and that can cause the 32 degree’s your seeing instead of 0 degree’s.

Obviously there are other things that can cause the fridge to start failing, but the above usually fixed the ones I’ve had except for a bad coil in my 94 Liberty that couldn’t be repaired.

[Karl]

infinity coach in sumner washington can help you with the swap! i just swappeed mine out with a kenmore from sears ! it was the closest thing i could find to fit the hole ! I did it myself with a few friends ! i paid a windsheild company to take out the window , removed the co-captain chair the fridge i bought was 1 1/2 inches shorter than the one i took out ! I sat it on 2 2×6 screw it to the floor and put a nice piece trim across the bottom… looks great

[Andy]

We had Marathon in Grand Prairie do the installation, and we found a GE at Home Depot that worked great. Marathon in Oregon can certainly replace the refrigerator as well as fix your CruiseAirs.

[Dan]

While at Oysterfest I lost the fan in my freezer compartment
that circulates the cold air throughout the ‘fridge. 76 dollars later and a few screws removed and
replaced, I was back in service with the plug and play replacement fan and it
is still running great. Don’t give up until
you have looked at all the easy fixes first.

[Karl]

I nursed the original Amana far too long. We finally bit the bullet after the third major repair failed to last and replaced the refrigerator. It seemed like the entire refrigerator was engineered to have all its components fail almost at the same time.

Liberty makes the refrigerator opening difficult to modify because of how the interior and especially the ceiling is installed. We had to make a relatively small modification to fit the Bosch but once it was installed and we began to travel again we both agreed instead of trying to stick with the original refrigerator we just should have replaced it when it first broke.

I think it all depends on how long a person intends to own the coach, and what refrigerators are available that will fit in the existing space. A final consideration is if the refrigerator can be used as is, or if it has to get some additional work to match the decor of the coach.

[Dan]

Our 99 Liberty had the original Amana when we purchased the coach in 2014. Ran beautifully (don’t they all until something happens?) until two days after returning from the 2015 Indy 500. Opened the refer door and it was warm inside. Took the stuff out and put it in the house.

Did my research on the PC forum, asked the folks on the Garage Journal Forum how hard it would be to fix (had a guy respond that he would talk me through replacing the three things mentioned above over the phone), and finally concluded that the original Amana had lasted 15 years and that would probably be a pretty good run. My risk was “fixing it” (replacing one or more or all of the three things) and then having it fail on a trip full of food and ruining a trip.

There are so many benefits to spending a couple of extra bucks and having your oil changed by Jeff Rowe. The Continental breakfast in the morning, the lunch buffet, WiFi that works, honest 50amp service, fresh water, and strong encouragement to use our gray water bypass are the most obvious.

But its the suble things that you only realize later that are of real value.. Like when Jeff talks about an issue with your coach or responds to your questions about how the failure of this or that do-dad on the coach will impact it. He does an excellent job of putting things into perspective: “if that happens, it will likely ruin a trip”. “Ruin a trip” was burned into my thought process. “Trips” are why we bought the coach. “Trip” and “ruin” should never be in the same sentence.

I didn’t have to call and ask Jeff about whether I should swap out the refrigerator or not. I could have fixed it, it probably would have worked, but then again it was 15 years old. I didn’t want to “ruin a trip”. I did ask him about the process to remove and replace and he confirmed what I was thinking.

So we went through all the motions, did all the due diligence, made all the measurements, and finally settled on the same Kenmore that most everyone else has. Don’t have the model number right at hand and will post when I find it. Great fit.

Now how to get the old one in and the new one out. Jeff is too far away and we weren’t planning on getting there for a while. An acquaintance from one of the banks I used to work at recently bought into a large RV/MH dealer about 45 minutes away. I called him, asked if they could do the switch and he asked me to bring the coach to their shop so the service manager could look at it. While they had never worked on a Prevost, they had replaced many refrigerators in Class A’s over the years. He knew the drill. Asked me to have a new windshield standing by as he was concerned about the old one coming out in one piece. He arranged for a local glass guy to remove and replace the windshield at the appropriate time, glass guy said he had experience on XLs in the past. Windshield did break upon removal, good thing we had the spare. The layers were delaminating so I needed it to replacement anyway.

To “help” them I built a platform to slide the refrigerator out of the hole onto. 5/8″ plywood and 2x6s got the job done. I’d seen Jeff and his crew use a similar platform when they had to pull the refrigerator out of the hole at ETLC to replace the water valve for the ice maker when it leaked.

My friends RV/MH shop did a very nice job. Wasn’t cheap, but they did a nice job. Except for the refrigerator not perfectly matching the colors (which wasn’t material for us), you couldn’t tell that it wasn’t a converter original. Its a nice contrast.

Only possible downside was that the following December we noticed a hairline crack in the Corian dining table. Not sure if it happened during the refrigerator switch or something else caused it; Jeff wasn’t sure either. We had a windshield wiper arm “bent” that Jeff found when I complained one wiper blade was hitting the window frame. Jeff and I suspect it was probably bent when the refrigerator was taken in or out.

Refrigerators won’t last forever. I was lucky that mine failed at home after a trip and not the night before or during a trip.

It would be interesting to know how old the oldest Amana still in a coach is.

[Michael]

Our Amana went into service January 1994, and we have owned the bus since April 2007. Still works, but I have the Kenmore part number for the next one in the stainless steel look. Based on our experience, the frig may have run about two months per year, so maybe a run life of about forty-four months so far.

[Corey]

I wonder whether its better to leave the refrigerator on 24/7 or turn it off when it isn’t needed. For most coach owners except probably the full-timers and Peter Campbell does it make sense to turn the refrigerator off when its not being used?

[Tim]

I don’t know Dick if it is better to turn it off, but if I’ m going to error, this is how I prefer. We all know that stuff fails when you want it to work, not when it’s dormant.

[John]

Thanks for those who gave areas to look at to trouble shoot it and possible fix it if those areas are needing repair.

Will dig into it this week. Not a 911 right now as we have access to a refridge/freezer to use while I figure out our next steps.

Jeff is recommending a nice GE with a bottom drawer freezer/french door fridge that I am sure would be more usable then the current layout. Would also bring a little more light into the area being stainless.

[DON]

Our 1990 XL still has the original Amana…having said that, next week I’ll likely be begging for help with a problem!

[Davy]

Charles,

On PC Flea Market I have the items for sale …. Truk talks about.

My posting parts for sale is dated 6/29/15.

These new parts are still available and at half the price I paid.

Pulled these new parts back out of our old refrig. In our refrig nightmare failure was due to a freon leak somewhere.

Part numbers are posted for comparison to your refrig.

AL

PARTS SOLD 8/7/2016