Diagnose Refrigerator

on 12apr09 ted writes:

I took a look at it today. It is DC only. Power is getting to the compressor and it is making a very soft whirring sound. I would expect it to be louder. Also the current that it draws barely registers on the main amp meter. It's fused for 10A, but it seems to be drawing less than 0.2A.

The knob on the thermostat in the fridge broke. I'll try to fix or replace it. I took the whole thermostat with me.

We might want to replace the existing unit with a more efficient one, perhaps even a dual ac/dc unit. This vendor has some:

http://www.sailorsams.com/refrigerators.htm

The existing compressor is made by X and is model Y.