Hey Muddypaws
I didn't read your question until today. You don't need any help replacing a cooling unit. Just read the instructions a couple of times first, watch the online videos and follow the instructions carefully. I do all my own trailer and trailer appliance maintenance but this is the first time I ever removed an RV fridge or replaced a cooling unit. Take pictures first, label all the wires that you disconnect and parts that you remove. You will read where people replaced a cooling unit in a few or even a couple of hours. I question if they actually did that, OR... if they got a proper installation and the cooling line seated properly against the freezer plate and the condenser leveled with the top of the fridge box. I would rather brag about a good job than a fast job but that's just me. I read about a lot of people having short lived replacement cooling units....Hummmm............
The part where the instructions are not real clear, on my unit, was getting the cooling lines hard against the metal freezer plate. The instructions on my unit told you to do that but not how to do it. It tells you to push the foam block down all the way. You can stand on that block after installing it but that doesn't mean the cooling line is hard against the freezer plate. I had to rasp the edges of my foam block to get the cooling line to contact the plate. I used chalk to transfer and indicate, on a fit check, that the cooling line was actually in contact with the plate. That and sealing in the foam block are the most important parts. The rest is pretty simple. I used a lot of words in my posts about the job, but that is just because I'm a wordy guy. This is a pretty simple DIY job.
One more comment; I read on some fridge post here that a guy had two tubes for the heating element to slip into on a new cooling unit. A reply suggested that he had the wrong cooling unit. There were other indications that he did have the wrong unit but it wasn't because of the two tubes. Many cooling units have two tubes and instructions say that you can put the heating element into either tube. When you remove a failed heating element you often have to pound it out and the old element and the inside of the tube is covered with "crud." Both my old and new units had two tubes. I suspect that if you had to replace a bad element that second tube is the one intended to be used rather than pounding the new element into the old cruddy tube.
