Norcold black box reset

[JLDHELMS]

revrick3. You will soon find out that on this or any other form, nobody can make you do anything, often times there are as many opinions as contributors and that sometimes advice is offered to have something to say. The trick is to look at all the opinions and apply your background and your logic to make your own decision. If a discussion continues for very long, it often gets away from the original question and you didn't even ask a question.

So let me try to put it on track. The Norcold 1200/1210/etc, recall had to do with condenser tubes cracking and allowing the ammonia to escape. As it escaped, the propane burner provided an ignition source to light the ammonia thus a fire and often burning down an RV. You or I or any other contributor on this forum can not know how close a progressing crack is close to rupture, including Norcold (except by removing cooling unit and examining with some type of X-ray. Norcold certainly wasn't/isn't willing to incur that expense. Doing nothing was not an option because doing nothing would have opened them up to a class action lawsuit that would have ruined them. So, the "black box". If the black box did't stop the fire and there was an RV left to put a new refrig back in, Norcold provided a few.

I called Norcold when my 1210 failed and they were rude and would not offer any info (it is still a litigious affair). The near fire I had and the switch not tripping cause me to dismantle the 1210 and pitch it out the door to regain my peace of mind. The magnet fix is intended to let the tech put the unit back on line to see if there was anything else wrong. It is the Norcold approved repair service who makes the call as to whether the black box is faulty and I can assure you he will not put his career on the line by guessing in behalf of Norcold. The margin of safety this fix provides is too slim.

Sadly enough, you may have taken Norcold off the hook if you now have a fire that results in injury or death. BUT it is still your call and nobody can change that. Have a blessed and SAFE Christmas. Maybe we will bump into each down the road and be able to talk over good times. Jim

[Mr_Fixit]

There is a three step process that has to be done before the magnet is used and those are clearly spell out in the manual. If those were done, the reset was safe. I am sure sometimes the "black box" give a "false positive", but I have not found that to be at all common.

I am a working tech and I have absolutely no problem with folks doing their own work, so I am not trying to suggest anything derogatory about anyone's technical ability, but I have also seen some really scary stuff and there have been a number of fires in the 1200 model, so the reset procedure is reality based.

Just my two cents,

Steve