It had rained hard on Monday and we had a small leak around the bedroom fan.  After drawing the water out of the headliner with towels, we aimed a fan at the area to dry it out.  It wasn’t a huge leak compared to the torrential rainfall we had, but any leak is too much.  We only had one tube of Dicor Self-Leveling Lap Sealant with us so this morning we decided to drive to the Ocala Camping World store to get some more.  Before we left we noticed that the store was not in Ocala but rather in Summerfield, which is somewhat south of Ocala on US-441 and is the northern gateway to The Villages.  Part of the drive was on I-75 where we noticed a LOT of RV’s on the road.  They were headed in both directions with the majority headed north.

After we got back Linda went for a walk while I fiddled with the refrigerator thermostat and discovered that it apparently had quit working.  I could hear the contacts “click” but the compressor was not coming on.  Not good, especially with a freshly stocked refrigerator.  The best/only short-term course of action was to get the food out of the refrigerator and someplace cold before it spoiled.  When Linda got back from her walk she checked to see if our neighbor, Sharon, had a cooler we could borrow.  She did not, but she had Linda phone Bob, the resort manager, and he offered the use of the refrigerator in the Activities Building.  We accepted, bagged up our food, and Linda took it over and stored it.  I don’t think very many RV parks would do that for a customer even if they could.

I called Butch, who was a commercial HVAC & refrigeration guy at one time, because that’s what I do when we encounter an unexpected problem.  I had to call him back later, but in between calls I found the model number for our refrigerator, searched for it online, and found several websites where I could order parts.  RepairClinic.com had helpful videos as well, so by the time I talked to Butch again I had a rough idea of how the refrigerator worked and what the problem might be and several possible causes.

The freezer was holding 5 to 8 degrees F, so the refrigeration system was working.  The condenser fan was working as I could feel cool air being drawn in the bottom left and air exhausted out the bottom right.  The evaporator air-circulation fan also appeared to be working.  The damper between the freezer and refrigerator compartments was also working correctly and not blocked.  It is a simple manual mechanical device, so not a lot can go wrong there.  The thermostat was clicking, but that did not guarantee it was passing power.

The leading hypothesis was that the evaporator coils had frosted over, reducing cooling effectiveness of the refrigeration unit.  The most likely cause of that condition was a failure of the auto-defrost controller and/or the defrost heaters.  Butch explained that the auto-defrost controller prevents the compressor from running while the defrost heater is working, which could explain why the compressor would not turn on.  It is possible that this controller and/or the heater itself is intermittent or defective, which could lead to frost build up on the coils.  It has been warmer and a bit more humid here the past week which could also have contributed to the coils freezing up.  Once we had the food out and safely stored I shut off the power to the refrigerator and we left it to defrost.

We had our leftover salad and pizza for lunch.  We were not very hungry at dinner time, but joined a small group of residents at John and Ali’s 5th wheel.  Linda had kept peanut butter in the rig and used some dinner rolls that had been in the freezer to make peanut butter sandwiches.  Later we took our pretzels and wine and went to the fire pit for the evening.  John played, as usual, and Jeff joined him for a while.  A nice crowd gathered for a while, but by 10 PM there were only a few of us left.  As much as we like meeting and talking to people, this is our favorite time around the campfire.

Before we went to bed I checked the drip tray on the refrigerator.  There was some water in it, but not an excessive amount.   We loaded containers with water, placed them in the freezer and refrigerator, set the controls, closed up the appliance and applied power.  It came on and we let it run all night to see what it would do.