UPDATE 2, 12/18: Plugged in the fridge tonight and it started working again. Magic! We went from no panel lights/no cooling to a working unit again. Good thing the local Dometic-certified techs wouldn't come out in the sub-zero temperatures to see what the problem was 2 weeks ago. No doubt we saved an expensive "troubleshooting bill."
UPDATE: You guys have given us some really good suggestions, and we are trying them one by one. Dometic seems to think the compressor has frozen. Whatever it is, 3 of our neighbors at the KOA also lost their refigerators by noon today. Oh, we did get that access door off by using a little hot water.
************************************************** *********
Our refrigerator has been working fine during the ultra-cold snap we've been having (2 to 8 degrees during midday, -2 to -15 late afternoon, night, early morning). However, it stopped working when the temperature hit -18 this morning. No control panel lights are on, and the interior light won't come on.
Is this something the extended low temperatures could have caused? We've checked the power to the refrigerator and the GFI that's also on the same circuit. Everything else on that circuit is working. We tried to get the door off of the RV where the refrigerator is, but so far have been unable to budge it because it apparently has been frozen on for weeks.
Any ideas or suggestions? We're skirted and iced/snowed in for the winter, so taking the rig to a dealer isn't a possibility.
Carolyn