EvaKool Died

Well it finally happened, the faithful ED40 died on me and the shame of it all is it didn't die performing valiantly keeping beers cold on the track somewhere in croc country. It died a somewhat less dignified death as a water cooler next to my bed. Thats sad.

It was about a year ago on Stockton beach that I first noticed its performance was suffering. It was struggling to keep the temps down even allowing for it being a pretty hot day, it was not doing the job that the Engel in the mate's truck was doing. It usually did the job quite easily.

When I got back from that weekend i decided to run it on power at home for awhile until it either broke or not. The bloody thing ran like clockwork on 240v until about a week ago. It became my cold storage away from the prying eyes of the teenagers in the house, God I miss it!

I was wondering if it can be recharged or something like a car Air Cond. It hasn't totally died as the compressor keeps trying to cut in but it just won't run. There is a thump as it tries to cut in then it stops for 5 - 10 seconds and then tries to cut in again and this repeats. Making me think that the refrigerant has gone away.

I have had it since 2003, i bought it as a floorstock run-out sale so I have no factory instructions to say whether recharging is a normal thing or not.

Any ideas please.