Midwest Products

August 8, 2006 by Chris
Filed under: What's New

I work on a lot of RV refrigerators. A “not insignificant” portion of those have cooling units which have gone bad (see my webpage on absorption refrigerators) .

For nearly 10 years, I have been using, with very good results, remanufactured cooling units from Midwest Products, of Corning Iowa. Midwest had been rebuilding cooling units for nearly 20 years, they did a great job, produced a quality product, and were generally good people to deal with.

Sadly, the president and CEO of Midwest, Roger Gifford, passed away suddenly last fall. being a small company, this loss hit the folks there quite hard. I just received a “lawyer type” letter in the mail stating that Midwest Products, Inc. has been dissolved, and is no longer in business.

This makes me sad in so many ways- the loss by the family of Mr. Gifford is, of course, the first and main issue, but I am also at a loss of who to use to supply rebuilt units with the exit of Midwest- there are a bunch of companies out there which do quality work, but logistically it doesn’t work as well for me (Midwest units were stocked at a close distributor- at a good price- so I could have a replacement here over night).

The other upsetting part is the warranties for Midwest units I have installed. It will be another couple of years before the warranties have run out on the last of these units, and yet the warranty is worthless now, as the company is gone. I can offer free labor on a replacement (eating that cost myself), but I’m not in a position to warranty another companies product.

The good news is that out of hundreds of Midwest units I have installed, I’ve only had 2 go bad, so….

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Comments

6 Comments on Midwest Products

Gene Keyes on Tue, 29th Aug 2006 10:39 am

I have a Magic Chef LP frig on an
old RV that has a bad safety
valve. The part is #671-054430.
Model #R83 Magic Chef. I have
been unsuccessful in finding this
part anywhere. Can you help?

[Reply]

Chris on Tue, 29th Aug 2006 5:36 pm

I think that you should be able to find that part- the R83 is a “rebadged” Dometic RM75/76, but a lot depends on the fittings (inlet and outlet) of the safety valve.
I’ll try to find out more, and post it- right now I’m waiting for Ernesto ;).

[Reply]

SARAH on Tue, 5th Jun 2007 3:04 pm

Repco Replacement Parts Inc. remanufactures controls for cooking appliance parts, both gas and electric and domestic and commercial. Unfortunately we do not rebuild the fridge parts, but wanted to let you know that we do rebuild the oven thermostats and safeties.
Thanks.

[Reply]

Chris on Wed, 6th Jun 2007 1:57 pm

Cool- a link- Repco. Some of those older range parts can be hard to find (and expensive when you do).

–Chris

[Reply]

Tom Hay on Wed, 25th Jul 2007 12:30 pm

I purchased a Dometic cooling
unit from Midwest Products in
the spring of 2006. Now they
have a recall on my unit and I
can get re-embersed for the Unit
I misplaced my recipt and was
wondering how to get a copy of
of that. If you can help or just
help explain what I should do
about the recall notice pleas
contact me. Thanks

[Reply]

Onna Lee Ford on Thu, 7th Aug 2008 2:40 pm

We are sorry for the loss of Midwest, however, this is something all service centers will face when they depend on someone else for this service. There is a huge demand for reconditioned cooling units in this Industry and it only makes sense for service techs to become educated in reconditioning. When you can eliminate the middle man, you can provide quality service at a lower cost to the consumer, plus provide them with a better warranty. If you are interested, go to http://www.rvrefrigeration.com. You will find information on becoming educated in reconditioning. Hours obtained can be used for re- certification with RVDA-RVIA.

[Reply]

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