I thought mine was broken as well.  No sound, no vibration, no nothing.
Leave it plugged in for about an hour and you should notice it getting colder
inside.  Plugged in to 110VAC it will eventually make ice.  On 12V it will
keep stuff inside much cooler than the ambient temp for quite a while.  If it
does start making noises you have a problem as there are no moving parts.

Chuck
'85 Wolfsburg Westy - 'Roland the Road Buffalo'

In a message dated 7/9/02 12:52:33 PM, LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM writes:

>Date:    Tue, 9 Jul 2002 11:41:52 -0500
>From:    Ryan Heidcamp <RHeidcamp01@COMM-WORKS.COM>
>Subject: Dometic Fridge question
>
>I just received in the mail the fridge for my 85 Westy weekender.  Its
>the cooler looking one that screws down to the floor behind the passenger
seat.
>I've been looking for this fridge since I bought my van about two years
>ago.
>
>Anyway I plugged the fridge into a 110 AC outlet here at work and set the
>fridge to max.  Just like the instructions say to.  Anyway, I don't here
>any noise or feel any cooling.  I only left the fridge plugged in for a few
>minutes.  So my question is should I hear, feel something doing something.
>If so, what goes wrong with these fridges?  I'll pull it apart tonight
>and dig into it with an multi meter and some 409.  Plus test the 12V side of
>things.  Of course, I'm making the assumption that the 12V side of things
>in my bus will work.
>
>Thanks,
>Ryan
>
>P.S.  Its nice to be back on the email list and working on the Vanagon.
> I took a year leave from the Vanagon to build a 2001 GTI.