Norcold problem

[arby]

I knew that subj line would draw attn. If you have one you either have had or will have problems. Don't ya just love this early 19th century technology!!!!

I have an unusual problem with my 1200LMR. I have been in Dallas last 2 months. For the past 2 weeks it has been at or near 100 every day. Fridge side is in direct afternoon sun. Even so, it has been working pretty good and making ice cubes.

2 days ago I defrosted the top left freezer. Now it won't cool nearly as well. The right freezer is in the teens, fridge below is not near as cool as it should be and here is the really strange part. Using my infra red temp gun the lower half of the left freezer is in the high teens/low 20's on left and right wall and back wall. The top half of the freezer is in the high 20's on left and right and back wall and the roof of the freezer is barely 32 and dripping moisture. Takes many hours to make cubes but not cold enough to dump.

Cooling unit was replaced a year ago and fans are running and I even sat a 3rd fan on the floor of the outside compartment blowing up with little noticable improvement.

What in the world could defrosting have to do with this?

Help. I need ice cubes!

Thanks,

RB

[Fred Longhi]

I am sorry to say I don't have an answer for your problem. But I also have a strange one. My Norcold 1200 series frig has been doing this for two years now. It will work fine for a week or two (time varies). Then it seems to go into a defrost mode. But when it does this the temp at the fins will go to over 50 degrees and, of course, the frig temp goes to 60 or so. Not a good thing. At that point I usually disconnect the thermister and put the frig on back up system (BOS) and it immediately drops temp. I run it on BOS till the temps are good. Then reconnect the thermister and it works again great for some undetermined time, until it decides to go to defrost or what I call "fail" mode. I have gone through three thermisters so I am thinking it is a power board or mother board. When I call Norcold they suggest I take it to a repair facility, which means leave it in the shop until the frig goes into it's fail mode (which could be two weeks). I refuse to go into a hotel while techs check the temp of the frig twice a day for who knows how long! Wish I had a house refrig!!

[Diplomat Don]

I'm not a techie, but maybe we need one of the smarter posters to figure how to disable the defrost mode permanently. I would be willing to defrost by hand if necessary.

[nodine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diplomat Don I'm not a techie, but maybe we need one of the smarter posters to figure how to disable the defrost mode permanently. I would be willing to defrost by hand if necessary.

When we are using the coach I try to remember to turn off the frig every 24 hours to reset the defrost timer. That keeps the frig from going into defrost and making our ice cream soft. It will build up a little frost but we usually only use the coach for one or two weeks at most before returning home. I then let it go into defrost after I have removed the ice cream to the stick house. I have it on my to do list to call Dinosaur Electronics to see if the new control board they have for the Norcold 1200 has different software and a shorter defrost cycle. I was hoping that the Amish cooling unit would be more efficient and keep the temps from getting to high during defrost but that does not seem to be the case. All the feedback I am getting from folks who have installed the Amish cooling unit indicate otherwise. I have now come to the conclusion that my best path forward will be to install a residential unit and figure out how to get a few more inches at the top of the cabinet. I will probably install a second inverter and battery for the frig.

Bob

[William Willard]

Bob -- I installed a Samsung 197 & it does just fine on the 2000 modified sine wave inverter, & 4 batteries, that was stock in our 07 Camalot -- It`s an Energy Star appliance, & uses very little power -- Less than if your RV frig is on electric -- Cabinet modification after removing the Dometic 1402 was not a big job -- Removed the window in the curb side slide, & removed the 1402 -- Have made 2 trips with the resdential, & so far, really pleased -- Bill Willard

[nodine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by William Willard Bob -- I installed a Samsung 197 & it does just fine on the 2000 modified sine wave inverter, & 4 batteries, that was stock in our 07 Camalot -- It`s an Energy Star appliance, & uses very little power -- Less than if your RV frig is on electric -- Cabinet modification after removing the Dometic 1402 was not a big job -- Removed the window in the curb side slide, & removed the 1402 -- Have made 2 trips with the resdential, & so far, really pleased -- Bill Willard

Thanks for the info Bill,

I had a suspicion the newer high efficient fridges would work just fine on the 2000 watt modified sine wave inverter that came stock in our coaches. I was holding on to the concept of keeping the Norcold with the propane option for boondocking and rallies. The thought on the additional inverter and battery was to extend inverter time before needing to crank the generator when dry camping. Perhaps just additional batteries for the stock inverter would be sufficient. This line of thought may just be me being over cautious. We will try it first with just the stock inverter and batteries.

Bob

[RustyTools]

Arby -

I feel your pain, mine's been doing the exact same thing (even to the same temps in the same locations). I'd surmised that somehow defrost-water got down between the freezer back and the freezer-plate, causing poor heat/cool transfer, but several people said it wasn't it. So I'm lost.

I've been trying to learn and ask what/where/how it could do what it's been doing, but these things seem to have a bit of magic in them. You'd think they either did or didn't work... not some subtle crippling defect.

Oddly enough, mine has been doing better day-by-day lately. But I've been driving myself nuts looking at alternatives (new Norcold, new Amish cooling unit, new residential frig, etc) but nothing has stood out as THE solution yet (except the Samsung talked about right above - nice).

Long story short, I don't have an answer for ya, but maybe there's "misery in company"?

Hope you figure something out!

Rusty

[Sammie]

Hi All, It's definatly hot out there and all of the absorption type refrigerators are going to have a tough time trying to stay cold that includes Dometic and Norcold. The best and only thing you can do is try to keep the refrigerator side of the coach in the shade and refrain from opening the refer and freezer doors as much as possible. That being said, there is a newer design cooling unit being made that seems to work more efficiently than the OEM cooling units. They are avaliable at RV Cooling Unit Warehouse. I installed one in my Norcold 1200 and it has been working great for the last few weeks. You can view my installation here.

‪Norcold 1200 to Amish Cooling Unit Conversion.mpg‬‏ - YouTube

Feel free to ask any questions.

Sammie

[Diplomat Don]

Bob....I read on another forum that a guy is placing a piece of tape over one of the contacts in the upper left side of the refer where the left door connects to the defroster. This prevents the defroster from coming on.

We leave for Yellowstone on Saturday and I had the tape in my hand to defeat the process of the defroster coming on. Before I did it, I started having second thoughts about taping off the contact and sending a funky message to the circuit board. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

****Side note: The same guy "Ivylog" installed the new Amish unit with a twist in the installation. He spaced out the new Amish unit a 1/2" from the back wall of the refer and installed a 1/2" piece of foil backed rigid installation that covered the back of the refer. He had taken heat gun temps from several areas inside the refer and freezer and found irratic temps with higher temps directly opposite the burner flue. Once the extra installation was added and secured with siver tape, the refer and freezer temps were all similar. Apparently, the insulation on the back of the box is not sufficient. I thought this was good news. I plan to eventually add the Amish unit, add the extra installation and rebuild the fan housing to hold three fans as others have done. For our use, I prefer to keep the 1200 Norcold.

[nodine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diplomat Don Bob....I read on another forum that a guy is placing a piece of tape over one of the contacts in the upper left side of the refer where the left door connects to the defroster. This prevents the defroster from coming on. We leave for Yellowstone on Saturday and I had the tape in my hand to defeat the process of the defroster coming on. Before I did it, I started having second thoughts about taping off the contact and sending a funky message to the circuit board. Anybody have any thoughts on this? ****Side note: The same guy "Ivylog" installed the new Amish unit with a twist in the installation. He spaced out the new Amish unit a 1/2" from the back wall of the refer and installed a 1/2" piece of foil backed rigid installation that covered the back of the refer. He had taken heat gun temps from several areas inside the refer and freezer and found irratic temps with higher temps directly opposite the burner flue. Once the extra installation was added and secured with siver tape, the refer and freezer temps were all similar. Apparently, the insulation on the back of the box is not sufficient. I thought this was good news. I plan to eventually add the Amish unit, add the extra installation and rebuild the fan housing to hold three fans as others have done. For our use, I prefer to keep the 1200 Norcold.

Don,

I am not positive, but I bet that only defeats the heating element around the door that helps to reduce condensation on the gasket. I called the tech support folks at Dinosaur Electronics about their control board. He indicated that they get a lot of complaints about the defrost cycle being to long. He says if you have an older unit, as we do, they might benefit from a newer control board because improvements have been made over the years. He confirmed that the defrost cycle is based on time and occurs about every 48 hours. Their control board only looks at the temperature of the frig via the thermistor on the cooling fins and does not care about the freezer. Norcold is the same. The defrost cycle is terminated when the fin temp reaches 38 degrees. This summer I have only been monitoring the freezer and have replaced the temp monitor in the frig. I now am monitoring both. My suspicion is that the frig will work just has he said but the temp in the freezer will go way to high before the cycle is over. Yesterday I read a post over on the Yahoo Monaco forum from a gentleman that replaced his Norcold with the Samsung that Bill Willard has. He has been having very good results with the Samsung running on the inverter and dry camping. I am just about fed up with the Norcold and also worrying about fire. Maybe I should just quit throwing money down the NotCold rat hole and put in a Samsung. At any rate, I was out in the coach yesterday with a tape measure and pulled off the panel at the bottom where the furnace is. I don't see any problem lowering the floor two inches and removing two inches at the top of the cabinet. What really got me was that the guy who just installed the new Samsung said it was at operating temperature in the frig and freezer in about an hour!

Bob

[Diplomat Don]

Thanks Bob....I didn't know enough about the defrost cycle and that the doors were only part of it. That's why I asked. We don't really boondock that often, but I hate to change a major item like the refer for an all electric, even though we'll probably have this coach for a long time. If I did, I think I might have room for two more six volt batteries in the battery box as long as the Magnum inverter/charger can handle six. My heater door under the fridgeis pretty tall. I would have to check for space issues.