Norcold 1200LRIM Problem

[Little9]

OK need help..Washed exterior of 2004 American Eagle (not sure if pertinent..moisture..etc ) it is equipped with a Norcold 1200lrim...nothing on ctrl bd illuminated however when I plug in new 10 amp fuse ctrl bd lights up for about 15 seconds..led light is illuminated at access point to see compressor etc

[jbell]

The 1200 lrim is a gas absorption frig so you do not have a compressor. Allow the ckt. bd. plenty of time to dry out, try using a hair dryer to speed things up. If you are lucky it should begin to working normally

[wolfe10]

Little9,

Welcome to the FMCA Forum.

Agree- dry out the PC board.

In the mean time, if you have food that needs to be kept cold, your best bet is DRY ICE. For freezer, wrap it in a couple of sheets of newspaper. In the refrigerator, wrap it more. Nothing to clean up-- it evaporates-- is carbon dioxide. Only harmful if one were to stick their head in the refrigerator and try to breath long term!

Far better than using ice, though that will work in the refrigerator-- just have to contend with melting ice.

We do that on most of our offshore trips in the sailboat to minimize compressor run time.

[huffypuff]

What Jim said, you need a magnet to reset it. Not really getting wet I think soap fumes trips it. Does on mine every time it's washed even being careful not to spray vent so must be the soap.

[hermanmullins]

Gents,

The exact same thing happened to a friend of mine. Do you think it would interfere with the little black box if you took a piece of foil and just drapped over, not wraped ?

I am not worried about our fridg. not it died this week. Here come a residential. I will now go back over all the post of folks that have replaced their Norcolds.

Herman

[manholt]

Herman.

You trying to say, "the magnet", did not work anymore! From all the posts, Norcold is a JOKE

What kind, or make of fridge you putting in?

Carl

[hermanmullins]

I am thinking about a Samsung. From what I can discover it will work on MSW inverter. I remember there have been post showing models that will fit right in with little modifications. When we get home on Monday I plan on removing the Nevercold and put the little unit we bought for this trip in the opening and use it until after Six-State. Then I will get serious on what to purchase and how to install it. As for removing the Nevercold I plan on it going out the front door even if I have to take a saw to it.

Herman

[manholt]

Herman.

Having had 3 different units, in 3 DP's. I like the one I have now the best, it's a Whirlpool, 2 door! The others where Amana and GE, 3 door.

Women go crazy over the 3 door! Lots of volume in fridge for pot luck items. I had trouble with the plastic tabs on top breaking off and their

hard to find.

Tabs on mine is metal. I have no problem putting a 2 gallon pot off stew in it. You have a DW, she will tell you what to get ! Likely you

will have to modify your space a lot. LOL. Hey! She happy, you happy!

Carl

[jleamont]

Herman, if you have any questions please send me a PM, I just did this in ours 1 year ago this week, still remember it like it was yesterday, very simple to do, the payoff was huge and the cost was not.

I installed a basic fridge, freezer on top, fridge on the bottom, no ice maker (it was an option). GE model from Home Depot for $625.00 17.5 cu ft. I also wasn't sure if my inverter would power it, I bought it, brought it home and ran an extension cord from the coach refrigerator outlet into the garage, carefully unpacked it (just in case I had to return it) plugged it in for the afternoon, worked fine.

Good luck.

[lmsooter]

Herman,

We replaced our No-cold with a Samsung RF20HFENBBC French Door model from Home Depot. The one we got was black but I think it is available in white and stainless. 33" wide 19.4 cu ft. Had it installed in June 2015 and we love it. Solid ice cream and never run out of ice. Sandra loves the additional space in the freezer and refer.

When we travel, I just turn on the inverter and when we arrive, freezer is still -2 and refer is still 38. Our inverter is a MSW also. I don't' remember for sure but I think the book says 2 or 2.5 amps for this refrigerator.

[hermanmullins]

Thanks for all the great advice and comments. We just returned from Volunteering at the Kansas State Fair, with a group of FMCA members from Six-State. The Nevercold died just before we left and we bought a small 2 door unit from HD. Had to learn to use it. Over loaded it and things in the back froze and in the front got cool. It did work for the trip. I plan on removing the Nevercold this week and putting the small unit in the hole till we have more time to complete the replacement.

We have the Six-State Rally in Conroe then on to our chapter Rally in Kerrville. If any of you are coming to the Rally in Conroe, please stop me and say Hi and Howdy.

As for the gentlemen that spoke of the magnet, they work lots of times however in our case it turned to be a moot point. We call Discount RV in Hutchinson and Heith came out open the compartment door and said "TOAST". Thought we had not smelled it the ammonia was leaking. "DEAD". Thank goodness, I have been waiting for this day to replace it.

Will keep you up on the never ending saga of Herman on the Road. Thing I could tell if I were as elegant with words like Tom.

Look for us down the road.

Herman

[jleamont]

Herman, if you were up this way I'd say stop over to my house, I would be glad to help with the install. I found that when you call friends and offer beer and home made BBQ they line up to help. In the end I am suprised it's straight in the hole.

[huffypuff]

This thread hijacked or not really turn for the worst from reset the recall box to NoCold is a piece of junk. I know some of you are happy to junk your unit but I for one have no problems with mine other that the recall box tripping while being washed. If my Norcold did go out which is possible as it is going on ten years old in a home that suffers multitude earthquakes per year, I have to weight the pro and cons of going all electric.

Absorption refrigeration is well suited for a RV environment. It's made to work on multiple power no matter you are rolling or not. It's best suited when dry camping as it uses very little battery power while using propane for the heat exchanger. The all electric household refrigerator must have 120 voltage to work. The first problem is not only retrofitting the new unit in the RV but to add batteries, inverter and auto start control for the generator. Since the household refrigerator is not design to rock and roll down the road there is a question how long the compressor will last. With the cost of the conversion I can get a new RV refrigerator without modifying the RV and can go with a different name brand if I want to.

Bottom line is not scare anyone into replacement

[hermanmullins]

Puff,

I agree and am not out t scare anyone. I had made the decission when in Hutchinson that if my unit could be repaired for under $300.00 then I was ready to have it repaired. However my unit had leaked the ammonia out making it cost effective, at least for me, to go forward with the resident. unit. As youeself I had no problem with the norcold as long as it worked. Mine died, RIP. I do have several shelves, 4 Wood covered doors and a like new ice maker.

Herman

[huffypuff]

Thanks for the offer Herman but my Norcold is fine for now so no parts needed. There is some that may need something so had on to them if you can. Those doors are expensive to replace as I heard you can't even get the door seal for it. I see your Norcold made it to 13+ years so maybe I have 4 years to go if I'm lucky. Then I probable put the whole unit in as I don't expect the shell to last much longer that amount of time.

[hermanmullins]

Puff, we seem to have two post going at the same time on just about the same issue. When I pulled the old NorCold out, the coils on the back were so rusty it amazed me that they were holding any gases at all. However I was lucky when I looked at the floor of the opening the wood was in great shape. I have heard horror stories of some that had rotted away.

Herman

[huffypuff]

Yes the rotted floor is because one has to check the ice maker inlet water valve washer every year. It can drip without you knowing it and result in a wet floor under the refrigerator. Years of that can rot the floor out. I caught mine dripping twice as I fired up the fridge and water pump overnight and check in the morning. Needless to say I carry spare washers that fits that valve and other water hoses.

[BennieH]

Puff, we seem to have two post going at the same time on just about the same issue. When I pulled the old NorCold out, the coils on the back were so rusty it amazed me that they were holding any gases at all. However I was lucky when I looked at the floor of the opening the wood was in great shape. I have heard horror stories of some that had rotted away.

Herman

Rusty coils is why I replaced my cooling unit last month with an Amish (Dutch Aire) unit. When we bought it, I saw the rust and knew it would need to be replaced. Best part of the Amish unit is no recall junk. Best part, the recall box tripped on our way to Shipshewana for the changeout.

I had JC Refrigeration in Shipshewana do the work and I went the Helium filled unit.

When they did the change, they found the heaters loose.

[hermanmullins]

Congratulations Bennie, sounds like you made a nice replcement. Now if you have a leak you will know it when the wife begins to talk funny.

Let us know how it preforms.

Herman

[BennieH]

So far the Amish unit is excellent! at a setting of 4, Refer is at 35 degrees and freezer is at 0. Been running it steadily since the change out with some wireless thermometers. At a setting of 9, refer was at 32 and the freezer was -3. We have a 2 week trip coming up soon and we'll see how thing go then. We are very happy with our decision.

[GPKeller]

Rusty coils is why I replaced my cooling unit last month with an Amish (Dutch Aire) unit. When we bought it, I saw the rust and knew it would need to be replaced. Best part of the Amish unit is no recall junk. Best part, the recall box tripped on our way to Shipshewana for the changeout.

I had JC Refrigeration in Shipshewana do the work and I went the Helium filled unit.

When they did the change, they found the heaters loose.

This is in regards to Norcold ice maker,bought this 10 year old Kountry Star and the ice maker wouldn't work, fiddled around with it for days,could make it work by jumpering out so I knew it wasn't the water valve,went on line and amazon had one that looked just like mine for 75 bucks it was OEM FACTORY ORIGINAL GENUINE FSP WHIRLPOOL KENMORE MAYTAG ICE MAKER KIT

(Replaces these part #'s - 4317943, AP2984633, 1857, 4210317, 4211173, 4317943 (New)only had to chg the water receiver box(gotta take it apart to do this,five screws,no biggy)worked great!!

[ronandsue74]

Herman

I replaced my Nocold late last year with the Samsung RF18 model. I have not replaced my MSW inverter or my house batteries.

We just got home from a 3600 mile east coast trip. The Samsung worked perfect.

I did the install myself. Not to difficult a project.

I live in Plano, not far from you. When you are ready to install yours I will help you if you would like.

RJ

2005 CC Inspire #51264

[starmack2001]

Since you guys are talking about the Norcold 1200LRIM, I have an odd one and could use some help. Just returned to Houston from a 6 week trip to Nova Scotia. The rear air started freezing up on the road. Went completely out when we got home. One week later the front a/c went out.

While on the roof replacing the a/c unit, I smelled ammonia coming from the refrigerator vent and removed the outside cover and smelled it strongly. So, after replacing the 2 a/c units, I'm also replacing the refrigerator. Seems kind of odd that they all went out within a few weeks of each other.

We were having problems with the fridge not cooling while driving, it worked fine while parked. We put a fan in it that helped some and a fan outside. This is on a 40ft 2004 Monaco Dynasty. The a/c's didn't surprise me, they are 11 years old, more than their "useful" life, according to everything that I've read and my a/c repairman.

I'm looking for a replacement for the fridge and I'm not going back with a Norcold backside unit. I'm using an aftermarket brand. I'm planning on doing the work myself. I'm a machinist, own a machine shop (CNCs) and have always done my own repairs in the shop, house, cars etc., unless it's beyond what I know my capabilities are, then I pay. Paying is becoming more frequent because of the computers in everything. Our toilet in the RV has a pc board in it.

I'm looking at the RVcool brand unit. http://www.rvrefrigerator.net/norcold_1200_replacement_cooling_unit.htm Does anyone know anything good or bad about this unit?

We're actually talking about selling the RV and downsizing to a smaller class c due to our changing life style. We started with a class c in 1990. Ken

[wolfe10]

Ken,

Another option that many have gone to is a residential refrigerator-- sized to fit your current cut-out. You may already have an adequate battery bank and inverter to power it. A good option UNLESS you do a lot of dry camping.

In fact, residential refrigerators were an option on many coaches of your vintage.

[starmack2001]

Brett, if I knew of a refrigerator that would be a good fit without having to make a bunch of modifications to the opening, I would consider a residential unit. There's a solar panel on the roof that looks like it's big enough to supply the energy that would be required to run the unit if we were dry docking. The inverter is a Xantrex 2000 watt and it'll carry the refrigerator. My wife has accidentally turned on the microwave/convection while heading down the road and it ran it OK. I think that a household unit would increase the value of the RV since we're thinking of selling it. Do you know of one that will fit without major changes? Personally, I don't like the 4 door fridge.