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Island Ranger · 10-01-2019, 05:47 PM

Anyone had this experience. We drove from the Westcoast to Eastern Canada and back, mostly via Hwy 2 in the US. Great road by the way. Keeps you far from big cities. After about 6 weeks of working great, our Norcold Fridge quit working. We lost about $200 of food. No warning codes and the light green on. I tried changing from shore power to propane without any improvement. I located an RV tech who spent about 5 minutes with the fridge and found the coolant wasn’t moving from the heater elements up the pipes to the boiler tank (his term). He said the system was plugged up near the heater element. Everything 4 inches from the heater element was cold. After we drove about 300 miles and stopped for the night we found the fridge had started working again and worked for the remaining two weeks or our trip. The fridge is just over 13 months old. Has anyone else had a fridge do this?

ALLOY · 10-01-2019, 06:20 PM

The anti corrosive materiel (not sure which one Norcold uses) in absorption refrigerator can crystallize if the fridge get (too far out of level?) hot.

APR alarm will shut the fridge off before it gets too hot then allow the fridge to restart once is has cooled.

https://www.arprv.com/

Old-Biscuit · 10-01-2019, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ALLOY

The anti corrosive materiel (not sure which one Norcold uses) in absorption refrigerator can crystallize if the fridge get (too far out of level?) hot.

APR alarm will shut the fridge off before it gets too hot then allow the fridge to restart once is has cooled.

https://www.arprv.com/

YES the sodium chromate can crystallize if overheated due to lack of flow.
BUT once it does it does NOT dissolve or get reabsorbed ---it is permanent and hard as welding slag.

The Absorber Tank (small tank at bottom) supplies the boiler section with the ammonia coolant.
Hydrogen gas in this section (absorber tubing/tank) can inhibit flow to the boiler section

brulaz · 10-02-2019, 05:26 AM

Were you parked on a tilt when this happened?

I parked our trailer in front of the daughter's house, left the frig running on propane, but didn't notice the side to side tilt. As our frig is in the rear wall, this tilt allowed the condensed liquid to collect in the absorber/evaporator coils and block it's cycling (see biscuit's picture above). So everything started to warm up.

It happened twice, both times parked in front of her house, before I realized what was happening. Not sure if there was much damage as a result, the newer Norcolds apparently have some protection against this, and the frig has worked fine since. But in an abundance of caution I added in the ARP device mentioned above.

The Norcold manual gives the the max degrees of tilt that the frig can operate with.

rpeders · 10-03-2019, 02:41 PM

Wanted to post this earlier but scenario is difficult to describe. We also have a 12 month old Norcold N81X that quit working on a recent trip even though light was green, flame seemed good on propane. Range fridge 1 week prior to departure and worked fine on shore power, switched to propane but only shortly before departure. Problem likely precipitated by our first night at a rest area that was not level. Next night rest area was more level but still not quite and still no cooling. 3rd night was completely level but still no cooling. 4th night was in level RV park with power and cooling started again. Propane seemed to also be working with several hour test. Back on the road it started failing again. Several nights later with flat ground and using generator and still no cooling but there was a 20mph+ wind blowing from rear of trailer so maybe killed draft?? Several nights later and back on shore power and cooled just fine. Propane worked after that also. Back home and have yet to do any significant testing but not confident this won't happen again. Had RV tech take quick look mid way through trip and all he could suggest was gas orifice was getting partially blocked causing reduced flame. Luckily we brought an ice box as backup and also the restaurants along the way were great so created less need for items in fridge.

brulaz · 10-03-2019, 03:06 PM

That is confusing. Not sure if it's a gas versus electric problem though.

The Norcold specs I've seen say a max of 3 degrees side to side and 6 degrees front to back. So if your frig is installed in a side wall, 3 degrees is the max trailer tilt front to back that you want.

When traveling we often don't un-hitch at night, and 3 degrees front to back tilt is not a lot.

But my frig is installed in the rear wall so I've got a max of 6 degrees front to back for the trailer, but only 3 degrees side to side. And we've only had a problem when the trailer wasn't level (side to side).

LeisurePursuits · 10-03-2019, 03:47 PM

I had a problem with my Norcold a couple weeks ago. Wasn't cooling but flame was on and light was green. Talked to a tech and he suggested unplugging the thermistor which is supposed to signal when it is time to start cooling. Without it the fridge goes into backup mode and will cool. It worked. I plugged the thermistor back in and it worked normally again. Since a new one is less than $20, I replaced it anyway thinking maybe it is an intermittent issue. You might want to try this. The thermistor is clipped on to the cooling fins inside the fridge.

rpeders · 10-03-2019, 04:30 PM

Tried disconnecting thermistor to force max cooling at one point during trip but no luck. Also measured resistance and it seemed to measure in correct range. (don't remember exactly at this point what value was) I've definitely learned my lesson not to take these RV fridges for granted - my last trailer never had a problem which lulled me into thinking they just work!

Ret.LEO · 10-03-2019, 04:43 PM

If you have some extra money you don't know what to do with..........get rid of the absorption and install a Nova Kool compressor fridge. Mainly used in marine applications but they are expanding to the RV market. They're built to work and last

Highway 4x4 · 10-03-2019, 04:54 PM

Just like many other things, the fridge always works, till it doesn't.

nicfroo · 10-15-2019, 08:14 AM

I have a 2019 OUTDOORS RV- 21FQS-I live and camp in Colorado,always over 7000 ft.--My Norcold fridge works on propane,but not well at all on 30 amp shore power. Model #N8XC-the light on the panel says it is on the ac mode,and no other problem lights.Any ideas ? Also, i tried moving the thermostat slide on the cooling fins up for colder (is this correct ?) I would like to set it and be done-Fridge is level. Thanks-Cheers

Solo_RV_Guy · 10-15-2019, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicfroo

I have a 2019 OUTDOORS RV- 21FQS-I live and camp in Colorado,always over 7000 ft.--My Norcold fridge works on propane,but not well at all on 30 amp shore power. Model #N8XC-the light on the panel says it is on the ac mode,and no other problem lights.Any ideas ? Also, i tried moving the thermostat slide on the cooling fins up for colder (is this correct ?) I would like to set it and be done-Fridge is level. Thanks-Cheers

If you call Norcold they'll walk you though the troubleshooting or email the instructions and diagrams.

Here's the hint - if it works fine on propane but not on 120v, it's the heating element, thermostat, or there is something keeping the electrical element from having sufficient heat transfer to the boiler stack.

Ammonia absorption reefers are pretty simple devices at heart. Don't overthink things when troubleshooting.

Cumminsfan · 10-15-2019, 09:00 AM

If I understand the calc charts right 3 degrees = 5/8" per ft.
So a TT being 8' W would need to be 4.96" plus out of level to reach 3 degrees.
8' x .62=4.96"
Doesn't help the OP but just an FYI thing.

brulaz · 10-15-2019, 02:54 PM

One of the nice features of the ARP frig monitor is that you can read the boiler(?) temperature and see if it's working ok under electric.

Might be possible to use an infrared temperature gun and compare coil temperatures under propane versus electric ...