Finding a refrigerator

We had determined that the refrigerator (specifically, the freezer compartment of the refrigerator) in Carl's rig was not working well. He had had it worked on previously, but we were thinking, at this point, that "fixing" it wouldn't be worth the cost, so, at 8 years old, we should look into replacing it.

Well... that is easier said than done in a limited space and limited accessibility vehicle... The space in which the refrigerator is placed is on one of the slides, so the height of it is limited to less than 70". The depth has a bit more flexibility, but the width is fixed at a maximum of 33".

And... then there's the accessibility... there really is not a way that a new refrigerator could come in the front door. When we asked at National Indoor RV Service Center about getting them to replace it, they indicated that it would need to go through the front windshield, which is a one-piece huge expanse of glass... a non-trivial task to remove and replace.

After searching for a refrigerator with the features that we would like (french door with freezer in a bottom drawer) that would fit into the configuration that we have, and considering the difficulty of getting a new one into the RV (Jimmy offered to chainsaw a *new* hole in the side of the rig, but we declined that offer...) we decided to have this one repaired instead...

So, the Maytag repair guy came...

On his first visit, he diagnosed what the problem was and identified what was needed to repair it. He ordered the parts and returned a week later, pulled the refrigerator out of its spot and got the parts replaced. It was quite a job and took about 4 hours.

One day, we may need to replace the whole thing - hopefully there will be more/different options in sizes of refrigerators by then. But for now, the repaired unit is freezing well and keeping the refrigerator at the temperature setting on which we have it set... so we're happy!