Norcold Refrigerator question.

[MA4529]

We have noticed water on the refrige shelves. It looks like the drain gets frozen. I removed the outside cover and found a white hose that sits in a black plastic pan that has an plug in it. Does anyone have the water problem and should the plug be removed from the hose? Also what temp setting do you use to keep food from becoming frozen?

[MA4529]

We have noticed water on the refrige shelves. It looks like the drain gets frozen. I removed the outside cover and found a white hose that sits in a black plastic pan that has an plug in it. Does anyone have the water problem and should the plug be removed from the hose? Also what temp setting do you use to keep food from becoming frozen?

[RVDude]

That hose is the condensate drain hose which comes from the skinny pan under the fins inside the refer itself. Do not remove the "black plug" it isn't a plug. You should be able to pour water from the skinny pan in the refer and you should see it come out the backside at that hose. If not, then that hose is plugged. Remove the black thing plug-like thing (using fingernails) and blow it out (mouth might do the job) and that should clear it. Reinstall the black thing. If not, you'll need to find the source of the blockage, doubtful, but possible, it is a freeze up. Turn refer off and let it all warm up to see if it clears indicating a freeze up.

When you replace that outside cover make positively sure it is secure, give it a little tug. It is a $50 part with a $400 paint job.

Maybe you are running the refer way too cold i.e less than 32F? A mid range temp setting should work fine. If not, you might have a thermistor issue - continued freezing/frosting of the fins is a sure sign of this failure. I run a 5 setting and it nails a 34-38 F range all the time except when in defrost mode.

Be advised that when you manually defrost the refer, if there is a lot of frost, you'll need to hang that hose over the outside of the coach or that little black pan will overflow.

[Iowa Travelers]

Our 2008 DSDP has the Norcold 17 cu.ft. model 2117 refrigerator (a special order - i am told the MA uses the same refrig).

On the evening of delivery, this last Feb. we found water running down the shelves and out the front door. We had cooling issues as well with this fridge and the complete refrig was replaced the first week in April. Then the following night we found water on the shelves of the new refrigerator! We went to get the service manager and after looking closely water was also found under the bottom compartments.

Upon watching how this occurs we put a small dish directly under the plastic funnel on the top shelf. This kept about 90% of the water contained. You could see water overflowing the funnel arrangement at times. (You do have to remember to dump the water in the container or it overflows on to the lower shelves)!

The little plastic plug in the drain line was removed to aid in draining the line. We had the MH at Nappanee in mid-May for these as well as several other issues. We advised our tech of the plug removal and he stated to leave it removed. Our cooling issues may or may not be resolved but we have not been in any warm weather to know for sure.

Interesting that the drain line that Jeff describes will actually spray water across the refrigerator service opening if you wiggle the hose. In our case the small plastic plug "is" open at the end. The hose has been blown out a a number of times but will still retain a large quantity of water unless the plastic plug is left removed!

I doubt that your refrig is freezing. Ours is not. We cannot even approach freezing temps in the fresh food area while the freezer will cool to zero with a mid-range setting (5 of 9). With overnight temps in the low 40's, mid 50's in Nappanee during the 10 days we were there the fresh food area stayed between 36-40 degrees.