Norcold.......How Cold?

[Jim Stewart]

My Norcold 1200LRIM does not get very cold (set on 9 also tried lower settings). The fridge is 42 degrees and the freezer is 28 degrees. The book says it should be colder. I have tried the normal stuff; moved the thermistor to the far right with no change (fin test per book reads 28 degrees), checked the roof vent-no obstruction, 12 volt fans are working, 12 volt supply is OK, no leaks in doors, no yellow powder below coils, works in both LP and 120 volt and no error codes. It just plain does not get cold enough.

The only thing I can find, is in the installation manual it discusses baffling which appears to be correct on mine per the manual, however if the space (hole) it is installed in is more than 26 inches deep it shows a second vent cover higher up above the coils installed on the outside wall. My 2005 Safari Cheetah 38 PDQ has no such second vent cover and the depth of my hole is 29 inches. Do any of you have it installed in a hole that is deeper than 26 inches and if so does it have a second outside vent cover? If not do any of you with a Norcold 1200 see temperatures colder than what I am seeing.

I called a mobile service that will take a look at it in a weak or so, but he says the 1200 series Norcolds do not typically get colder than 42 degrees, that just seems so wrong to me.

Any ideas or suggestions?

[mikedes]

Jim
I don't have an answer for how cold but this has been a concern for me also ( doesn't keep my ice cream frozen enough) and I seem to remember seeing a thread concerning the installation of a fan in the chimney to help this condition
Mike

[alan1]

My Norcold would not cool very well also. It ended up burning up the cooling unit. Turned out that Monaco builds a one size cab. for both the 12 cf and the 14 cf. When a 12 cf is installed it should have baffling at the back that continues to about 3/4 of the top side vent. Mine did not and that is the reason I got to pay to have a new cooling unit installed, since it was a little over 2 years old. My Norcold is in a slide, so it has 2 vents.

[mfire1339]

Jim ,

I just checked our freezer = 0 deg. refer = 35 deg. fins in refer 35 deg. has only been opened once today. 26" deep cab. no extra vent on wall.

Mike

[Jim Stewart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikedes Jim I don't have an answer for how cold but this has been a concern for me also ( doesn't keep my ice cream frozen enough) and I seem to remember seeing a thread concerning the installation of a fan in the chimney to help this condition Mike

Mine does have 2 12 volt fans on the coils.

[Jim Stewart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfire1339 Jim , I just checked our freezer = 0 deg. refer = 35 deg. fins in refer 35 deg. has only been opened once today. 26" deep cab. no extra vent on wall. Mike

That answers the question of is it possible to be colder!

I think my problem may be in the baffles or extra vent.

I did forget to mention that the first time we used the refer when we first got the MH we had to turn the setting down to 4, we went to bed with it on 9 and when we woke up in the morning, items in the fridge were frozen. Never noticed it again until we actually checked temp with a thermometer and could not get it to go below 42 degrees.

[alan1]

I thought the only time you have a second vent was when a frig. is in a slide? Otherwise it vents out the roof when not in a slide.

[RVDude]

ditto on mfire1339's reported temps. I get those temps consistently in any ambient condition (-20F to 100F) and even at altitudes of 11,000ft with my Norcold set on 5.

Remember, these absorption refers do NOT have anywhere near the "heat capacity" (read that as "cooling capacity") of a residential refer. "Heat Capacity" means recovery time, not the ultimately achievable temperature.

So opening the door or putting in warm food will all DRAMATICALLY increase internal temps until the unit can "recover". But typically by then, the door's been opened again or more warm food inserted. The big high temp culprit is opening the door frequently or for long periods of time.

Low heat capacity (don't confuse temperature achievable yes these units can easily cool 35F refer 0F freezer if given the time to do so) is the price we pay for the exceedingly low amperage draw and overall efficiency of an absorption refer.

You can only properly measure internal temps after (at least) an overnight of no opening, no warm food inserted time period.

[Jim Stewart]

The 42 degrees is after several days, all cold food and in the morning when the refer has been closed all night.

In the service manual it shows 2 outside wall vents, one over the other for opening depths of greater than 26 inches. I took another look at the drawing in the manual and with the two outside vents, it does not show a roof vent. The manual did not distinguish whether it was for a slide installation or not, just for installations with a depth of greater than 26 inches.

Still stumped! Does anyone know how often their fans run in say 80 degree non-direct sunlight. Mine seem to run for about 10 minutes each hour, could that be a problem? Could it be that the temp sensor disc is not sensing accurately or not turning the fans on often enough?

[Gary - K7GLD]

Yours a reconditioned freezing unit install?

On my Norcold of a different model (8360) that I did a freezing unit replacement, the instructions emphasised that the *boiler unit baffle* be transferred from the old unit into the rebuilt one for proper cooling operation - and that the #1 cause of poor cooling was for installers to MISS transferring that baffle - it's just a simple section of flat stock formed into a corkscrew shape, and suspended by a 16 inch or so long piece of wire down into the lower part of the boiler section to retain heat for maximum efficiency - sorta like a chimney damper.

My rebuilt Norcold will easily freeze ice cream in the freezer, and start freezing condensation on the fins of the refrigerator compartment - with the temp control set at about mid-scale.

Sorry if this is way off what you are talking about, but wanted to point it out just in case...

[Jim Stewart]

No, it is an original new unit. Thanks for the input. I still think my problem may be improper baffling on original install. The one time it seemed to work well would likely rule that out, but who knows. Surely the Shadow Knows!

[mhansen]

I have the same fridge with very similar issues. Mine will work fine in the garage but it seems like once I get outside it doesn't cool consistently. It doesn't matter with it is running on LPG or Electric.

I tried all the baffles, moving the thermistor, replacing the thermistor, etc. and nothing seemed to make it work consistently. I talked with the services guy at De Martini this summer and he was at a loss on what it could be. I even hot wired the electric elements to 110 and bypassed the control board and it still didn't cool to where I think it should.

It has been parked inside for that last few months and plugged in. I checked the fridge the other day and it was 34 degrees. My freezer always works well.

The last remaining option that has been suggested is to burp the fridge and see if there may be an air pocket. I haven't tried that yet.

FYI. The fans should kick on if that top fins get to 130 degrees. I have also tried turning the fans on full time and that didn't seem to help either.

Sorry I am not much help just wanted to share that others have similar problems. I always bring a 12V portable fridge and end up using that on most trips. Very frustrating.

[Gary - K7GLD]

You trying all this on gas - or AC? Have you checked down in the burner area for proper flame? Checked the gas orifice? Dunno about the later units, but instructions on our older unit are pretty clear that the AC operation is purely a temp MAINTENANCE position - not for actual freezing of warmer items - on ours, the AC position is only rated at about 2/3 the efficiencey of gas.

[Jim Stewart]

Mine works in both LP and 120 volt modes. In does the exact same in either mode (not cold enough), so I assumed another type of problem. I am leading towards baffles being improper, but I keep going back to the fact that at least one time it worked correctly (cold enough).

The ambient background temperature or sunlight do not seem to make any difference. In the shade or direct sun, 65 degrees or 100 degrees, it stays at 42 degrees in the fridge. One of the things that is also puzzling, is that the fin test specified in the service manual to see the actual fin temp, shows the fin temp at 28 degrees and the fins do ice up! One would think that if the fin temp is 28 degrees, the overall temp would be less than 42 degrees.