Thanks Kyle.That is interesting as both the freezer and the fridge get their "cold" from the same place. The cold does show up first in the freezer and it should stay cold in the freezer longer than the fridge if the unit quits working entirely.
The other hard part in troubleshooting these guys is that it takes a while for them to cool down.
I'd start the troubleshooting by taking off the outside cover and looking around - loose wires, any ammonia smell, yellow powder or staining or other obviously "wrong" things in there?
With it set to propane, is the burner running? You should be able to hear it.
If set on AC - is there 120V AC at the wires leading to the heating element?
Care and feeding of an RV Refrigerator - Fix Your Camper
Any other troubleshooting you've done that may give us some hints on where to steer you?
-Kyle
Hey KirkWhat you are experiencing is typically the first symptom of a cooling unit failure. How old is your refrigerator? I notice that you are from Waco, TX and since I'm in Mesquite, TX I know that if you are at home you are experiencing very hot temperatures. Ambient temperatures do impact the cooling ability of an absorption refrigerator so you may gain at least some by adding the fan. Have you taken the temperatures inside of the freezer and the chill box? The freezer should stay near 0° and no more than 15° while the chill box should be below 40° and ideal is 35°. Do you have the temperature set to the lowest that it can be?
Our temperature here is pretty much the same as yours. Nicest morning in a coupld of months! With that low an outside temperature your refrigerator should have been able to cool easily to below 40°. Since it is 25° below ambient I would guess that it is getting some cooling but not nearly enough. There are several things that can go wrong with a cooling unit besides a loss of refrigerant. Refrigerant is a mixture of water, ammonia, and chemicals to prevent corrosion and such. Those chemicals sometimes crystalize due to age and can plug or partially plug the passages that the refrigerant must pass through by convection flow. There is also sometimes some early corrosion that can slow the passage of refrigerant or it may have lost some but not all of the refrigerant. If that is the original refrigerator it would now be 20 years old so those problems are not too surprising.fridge temp 53.5