Splashman Report post Posted September 28, 2018 Please help We have a 39Ft Fleetwood Discovery and are problem is we plug into our electric and the refrigerator works fine cools fine the refrigerator is set on AU when we unplug and it should switch to propane it flashes no AC until i manually go and switch to LP and sometimes it takes couple tries for it to lock in Problem is when we are driving the refrigerator does not cool on propane let our house and drove for about 5 hours the refrigerator went from 38degrees to 48 degrees in that period of time. we had it repaired and they put a new element in the unit at a cost of 2,800 dollars only to have the same problem. Our coach is back at the repair shop and they said as of yesterday that can't get it to fail and do what i said we even bought 2 refrigerator fans to circulate the cool air and it didn't work. we are wondering if anyone can help with a solution to this issue. we are contemplating removing and going to a strictly electric refrigerator but don't want to if we don't have to.. Any help will be appreciated Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
manholt Report post Posted September 28, 2018 Splashman. Welcome to the Forum! I'm guessing that you have a Norcold 1200? If so, you should have gone for a residential unit $2,800 dollars ago! No Colds problem started in 1996 and has not gotten any better since, numerous law suits and fires caused by them! Why don't you want a residential electric fridge? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kaypsmith Report post Posted September 28, 2018 Welcome to the forum Splash. Sorry you are having those problems with your fridge. Personally I would look for another shop, an element is a $75.00 or less part, nothing more than a heat element that heats the liquid in an absorption type refrigerator. In most cases with a competent tech can be replaced in less than hour. If the control is not automatically changing, then I would suspect a bad control, these can be purchased for $90.00 to $130.00, depending on where you buy them. again, no more than a hour for a tech to replace. But if you are comfortable working on your own, you can pull each wire off and replace those one at a time to make sure they go back to the correct location, 50% of the time this will correct your problem, just make sure that no electricity, 12 volt DC or 120 V is present while doing this. I agree with Carl, before paying out another $2800.00 on that fridge I would find another way. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Splashman Report post Posted September 28, 2018 5 hours ago, manholt said: Splashman. Welcome to the Forum! I'm guessing that you have a Norcold 1200? If so, you should have gone for a residential unit $2,800 dollars ago! No Colds problem started in 1996 and has not gotten any better since, numerous law suits and fires caused by them! Why don't you want a residential electric fridge? They said at repair shop the part they replaced was the main part and almost nothing else could go wrong but as we have found out they were wrong we have seriously thought about an all electric refrigerator they are checking on if our inverter is large enough or what else has to be done to convert to straight electric. My husband told them to return the part and give us our money back and just put in a new electric refrigerator do you know if the inverter will have to be changed out also Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Splashman Report post Posted September 28, 2018 35 minutes ago, Splashman said: They said at repair shop the part they replaced was the main part and almost nothing else could go wrong but as we have found out they were wrong we have seriously thought about an all electric refrigerator they are checking on if our inverter is large enough or what else has to be done to convert to straight electric. My husband told them to return the part and give us our money back and just put in a new electric refrigerator do you know if the inverter will have to be changed out also We just looked up our last invoice from repair shop and they replaced the cooling unit at a cost of 1792.39 and almost 900 dollars for labor, I am getting pretty discouraged with the lack of workmanship when it comes to repair shops for these motor homes Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kaypsmith Report post Posted September 28, 2018 50 minutes ago, Splashman said: We just looked up our last invoice from repair shop and they replaced the cooling unit at a cost of 1792.39 and almost 900 dollars for labor, I am getting pretty discouraged with the lack of workmanship when it comes to repair shops for these motor homes That is a very large bill, but if in fact they did replace the cooling unit is probably in line with what one would expect. As I stated earlier the control board is the most eminent item that is probably still wrong with the unit now, I pulled my quotes of $90.00 to $130.00 for the board directly from the internet, and am still assuming that you have a Norcold 1200 fridge. If one shops wisely for a residential fridge that will fit your space that will be when the old unit out, it can probably found for $1200.00 to $1800.00. By wisely, I mean that one should shop for one that most likely can run on your present inverter. I have a Samsung 20 cf fridge that I bought at Lowes 6 years ago that has served us very well. It is a French style 3 door unit with the freezer on the bottom, these style work much better in a MH because of the freezer being on the bottom, can be built to consume much less electricity. While shopping, look at the tag inside the fridge door for the lowest maximum amperage draw that you can find, this is the determining factor in how large inverter you must have. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
manholt Report post Posted September 29, 2018 It would help, if we knew what year Discovery you have, also size of inverter...how many house batteries & are they 6v or 12v? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kaypsmith Report post Posted September 29, 2018 On 9/28/2018 at 5:59 AM, Splashman said: Problem is when we are driving the refrigerator does not cool on propane let our house and drove for about 5 hours the refrigerator went from 38degrees to 48 degrees in that period of time. Sorry didn't notice the part of the problem with it not cooling correctly after it goes on propane, if in fact that you can manually change to propane after a couple of tries. This problem can be that the stack may be dirty, or improperly placed over the flame, or improper orifice has been used with the new cooling unit. And as Carl says, a bit more information would be helpful in offering some remedies. I noted above in choosing a residential fridge that you should check inside the fridge door about the max amp draw, some of the very cheap small fridges do not have a spec plate in that location. Stay away from those models, they are using old school technologies and require very high amperage, which is not energy efficient. I always look for 5 amps or less, 5 amps requires 600 watts of power as a reference point for you. My current fridge is a maximum of 3.9 amps, 500 watts is sufficient for it. LG makes one that uses 3.5, even better, but they do not recommend using it on an inverter. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
