Amish built cooling unit
We've seen reference made to the Amish cooling unit. The cooling unit (absorption unit), is the circulatory system of gas refrigerator used in RVs.
Many complaints and horror stories abound regarding Norcold refrigerators. Mostly, refrigerator fires, Norcold recalls and the recall 'fix' that many feel to be inadequate.
The premise for the fires seems to lead to cheap Japanese or some other 'ese' poor quality in the metal tubing used in the cooling system.
20 years experience living full time with gas refrigerators has shown me that the chemicals used in the cooling units eventually attack the insides of the tubes. I had a Servel refrigerator at one time develop a hole in a tube. The Servel was built in southern Indiana back in the 50s, pre 'ese' infiltration to the steel market. Over the years the early Dometics suffered the same problems. Holes were eaten into the tubes causing leaks release of chemicals, however, few caused the fires that we read about these days.
Enter the Amish cooling system. The Amish cooling units are being touted as the best cooling unit out there. Many owners are replacing cheaply built Norcold units with the Amish unit. Not to take anything away from the Amish work ethic but a few questions and thoughts come to mind.
I had an Amish built refrigerator at one time. It was advertised as being superior because it came from northern Indiana. In reality the refrigerator was a normal Gibson, White Westinghouse, Frigidare, and many other brand names. The refrigerators were purchased by the car load, the compressors and evaporators and all adjunct equipment were removed from the original box. A few modifications were made to the box to faciltate the installation of an absorbtion cooling unit. As was stated earlier, this box came from Amish country so the expectation of being well built was a given.
Having been led to believe this $2000.00 refrigerator was top dollar I wondered many times if the Amish had their own foundries and jigs and welding shops to build these units. After the unit died within the first year I figured the only thing the Amish did was to scrap out the Freon compressor and replace it with an absorption unit, which by the way, wasn't that great of a job.
Here again, not to diss the Amish but I know the name is used as a come on for quality for many things. This leads to a question or two.
Do the Amish built cooling units have American made steel in them? Is it only the steel that makes them the best? Are the Amish units actually manufactured by the Amish or is the name being bantied about to make us believe their unit is superior to the rest?
I'm sure this post will open a can of worms but that's ok, we've spent a lot of money on these RVs, some have been burned up because of the gas refrigerator and some of us want a better mouse trap.
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