1974 Dometic Refrigerator Thermostat

[74Airstream]

First post!

I have a 1974 Airstream with the original refrigerator. It has a V35 gas thermostat. It stopped cooling completely recently, AC/110 works fine. I cleaned thermostat, burner and burner tube. Now the flame is blue and high? Refrigerator gets very cold and appears to not reduce the flame when turning down. Thermostat valve and bypass were perfectly clean. Capillary tube is not crimped or anything like that. I believe I need a V35 thermostat, and can’t locate one. Does anyone here have one? Then, is it possible to replace the capillary tube only??

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Mark

[dougrainer]

Remember, 1974 your refer was built in Sweden. Doug

[Gdetrailer]

Matt_Colie wrote:
Mark,

Have you tried contacting any of the Amish refrigerator repair places? I don't have any links, so you will have to search this on your own.

Matt

Matt,

Most traditional Amish businesses tend to shy away from modern things like Internet and even telephone which makes finding them via those means highly unlikely.

As it is, the Amish around my area that do have a phone number to contact, those are a "borrowed" message service and not owned by the business and you have to leave a message. The message service relays the messages and then they will contact you via a borrowed phone (IE not owned by the Amish business).

Much of the Amish business is through person to person contacts, for instance, I needed a roof on my home. I was considering metal roofing, the roofing contractor I was in contact with said he doesn't do metal but gave me a business card for a Amish gentleman that he recommends.

Basically, you have to find someone that did business with a Amish business and then get a contact number or address for that business..

[Matt_Colie]

Mark,

Have you tried contacting any of the Amish refrigerator repair places? I don't have any links, so you will have to search this on your own.

Matt

[74Airstream]

Thank you all for the quick help. Interestingly I live in a heavily populated Amish area. I have two searches on EBay for a Ronco and Dometic V35. But I’m thinking of locating a new(er) non electric model. There are some newer gas only replacements on the market, but they are also out of stock, so that might be related to the supply shortages, as they do make modern gas only coolers and refrigerators. Can’t locate a new refrigerator with close enough dimensions that would fit without destroying the look of my trailer. It’s 100% original down to the green shag carpet. Even has a factory (12v) generator, which must be rare, but pretty useless.

Mark

[Gdetrailer]

Sadly, Doug's link shows they are out of stock..

Unless you can find a small newer more modern RV fridge that does not use electronic controls that you could sub in a control from, I suspect you are out of luck.

Part of the problem is the age, after 50 yrs most manufacturers have moved on to other designs.

The other part of the problem is something known as RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) which was first adopted and went into effect around 2003 in EU. This was eventually rolled out to US and all countries that wanted to do business with the EU.

One of the main key banned items is lead..

This ban resulted in everything made under the sun that used lead in some shape or form to effectively be unsaleable and obsoleted.

The solder used to make that T stat probe is a combination of LEAD and tin.

Manufacturers had to completely retool their manufacturing processes to use lead free solder which is a combination of silver and tin. This type of solder requires much higher temperatures to melt the solder and it costs more making retrofits of older parts sometimes not cost effective.

This hit and impacted lot of industries and markets.

My best guess is if you can single out a current production model of a small fridge that doesn't have a electronic circuit board (IE doesn't require 12V for the fridge to run gas) you might be able to adapt the T stat/control valve. But that is just a guess.

Other option would be to retrofit your existing fridge with newer electric gas valve with new electronic control board but that would most likely exceed the value and worth of a 50 yr old appliance.

There may be a slim chance of finding a manufacturer and model number of a propane fridge that Amish use, as they typically do not believe in modern ideas of having their homes connected to electric or using electrical devices..

You could of coarse, add some extra battery capacity to your trailer and use an inverter to get 120V but it isn't very efficient electrically wise with absorbsion fridges.

[dougrainer]

https://www.warehouseappliance.com/product/gas-refrigerator-parts/thermostat-for-gas-refrigerators/

[dougrainer]

The Capillary tube has a "gas" in it. So, no, you cannot just replace that part. The tstat is worn out for Gas operation. You will just have to do a long search on Google to find someone that still has one. I doubt you will have success. 50 years old. Doug

PS, have you tried Airstream?