Norcold Fridge Not Getting Cold

[diamond1041]

I have a 4 door 2500 Norcold refrigerator. The freezer works fine but the fridge part does not get cold at all. Left it on propane for 2 days -- the fridge was still warm. It works on 110 OK. Took it to a Norcold dealer. Propane flame was OK. He did a cleaning and should be OK now, but it is not. The fridge still will not get cold.

Can anyone help me to know what could be wrong before I get a new refrigerator?

Thank you.

RON

[wolfe10]

Ron,

Since it works OK on 110 VAC, the cooling unit is OK.

If cleaning the burner area did not gain you sufficient cooling (actual heat which produces cooling) the next thing I would check is propane pressure. Very quick and simple with a manometer. Low gas pressure can cause poor performance, just as can a clogged propane jet or debris in the burner tube.

Brett

[1Sammiedog]

Ron,

Does the refrigerator just work OK on 120 vac or does it work like it should normally? Freezer temp should be 0 to 10 degrees and fridge should be 32 to 40 degrees.

1Sammiedog

[Hikenbike]

I have a Norcold 1200 LM 4 door refer. I just took it to a RV repair shop In San Diego for the second time. The problem is the freezer makes ice and keeps most things frozen but the refer won't get below 42 degrees on AC. It's worse on gas. I asked the guy that checked me in if they check the gas pressure measuring inches of water (manometer. Didn't know what I was talking about. I have replaces the circuit board (Dinosour)twice now (OEM)and nothing has changed. We can't keep food from spoiling. I keep the refer plugged in all the time when home. I took off the cover to the vent to check the air flow and all is clear. Both muffin fans work quite frequently. Is there a way to check if the cooling unit is partially clogged? The last bill was just over $600 dollars. I am quite frustrated at going to different shops to find out they really don't know much about refers. Help needed in San Diego. Hikenbike

[JimPeoria]

Unless you are into lots of boondocking the best thing you can do is replace the Norcold with a Kenmore or other fridge that suits your taste and size. After mine failed twice and being told by Norcold that they wouldn't pay for the second repair, my warrenty paid for the first cooling unit change at nearly $3000 worth, and being told by Norcold's engineer that they couldn't make those units work either and were discountinued, I got out my tape measure and sized up the space and went to Sears and measured fridges till I found one I could make fit and swapped them out. I might add here the fridge from Sears cost $1300 a new 4 door unit from Norcold is in excess of $4000 and does not include installation. Went from a bit over 12 cubic foot cooler to 21 cubic feet of real refridgeator. We live in our coach full time and it just didn't make sense to put up with the small size and poor quality of temprature control. We are plugged in nearly all the time except when we are actually on the road and then we just fire up the generator. I can afford a lot of diesel to run the genset for the cost of spoiled food and repairs to the Norcold. If your fridge is in a slide room like ours was when I removed the old unit I noticed a badly charred area above where the exhaust stack ends. Could have been very close to a fire at times I am sure. We are so glad we made this switch and I know anyone who spends much time in their coach will also. You will spend far less time fussing with the unit and when you go shopping you can buy a weeks worth of food and put it all in there and not worry about how much you will have to throw out before the weeks is out. Our old Norcold could bearly hold 3 gallons of milk and 3 days worth of food. Now we can put 4 gallons just on the top shelf and nearly 2 weeks worth of food in the rest of the fridge. Push comes to shove you can always add a battery and an invertor if you don't like to run your genset on the road. On cool days when we travel if we are not on the road for more than a couple hours we don't run the genset and the fridge stays cold. Like any household fridge they should keep safe cold for a couple hours if you leave the door shut. Then run the generator for long enough for the fridge to cycle through a cool down time. Any coach that has room for a 4 door fridge should have been built at the factory with a household refridgerator installed. I see more and more larger coaches are coming that way so the message is getting through.

Jim

[tbutler]

Unless you are into lots of boondocking the best thing you can do is replace the Norcold with a Kenmore or other fridge that suits your taste and size...

Jim,

You'll be interested in the pictures I posted with my article on Replacing a Norcold Refrigerator. Our experience with the gas flue damaging the ceiling is documented in my photos.

[JimPeoria]

Jim,

You'll be interested in the pictures I posted with my article on Replacing a Norcold Refrigerator. Our experience with the gas flue damaging the ceiling is documented in my photos.

Yep that is about the same as what ours looked like, except we had no vent stack. Just the inside of the cabinet behind the fridge. Our fridge was in a slide room so not possible to have a vent stack even. Makes me miss sleeping at nights wondering what other crazy ideas some engineer or designer has laid for us to fall into. Have to think that to be a coach designer you first must not have a lick of common sense. Sure looks like that is what we are getting these days. I am a firm believer in the theory that all coach designers and engineers should have to live in one full time for at least one year preferably longer. Maybe just maybe they would start coming up with floorplans that actually work for full time living.

Jim