norcold 1210 IM AFU

[powerboatr]

SOOOOO
my lovely norcold has begun a weird set of steps
the left side freezer is 20F the right side is at 30F and the food box is at 40F
it started doing this about three weeks ago and i chalked it up to weather.
i had the new high temp recall installed last week and it netted zero change in temps

yesterday
norcold phone techs had me bypass the food box temp thermistor to see if it would go FULL cold
which it did not, the temps stayed the same after 2 hrs
so i put in a new one to be sure.....after 3 hrs the temps where.....the same
the hot tubes out side are hot 127-145F and the cold tube sides are cool 57-65F and the heater tubes are 300F plus or minus
all taken with a thermo heat device

i just did a Hard reboot and reinstalled suspect thermistor since it worked perfectly in my lab (garage) and cold and hot liquids
all power 12v and 120 v killed and unplugged for two minutes
then restarted, so now we wait to see if it gets cold like it used to

its on 9 temp selection and i used to run it at 5-6

any ideas.......
does the same on lp or a/c


at 10 am we did a complete shutdown
no 12v or 120 volt power, defrosted and dried the unit, let it sit until all the tubing and burner area were at the same ambient temp of 30 ish
at noon
plugged her in and set the temp to 9
waited until 5 pm to check internal temps
Lh freezer 15, rh 20F food box 50F
no ice build up on fins.
did a phone consult with my repair guy and I braved the cold and did a few more temp readings on the coils and we determined there is a blockage of some sorts in the loops and its not allowing the fridge panel to get the benefit of COLD.
new cooling pack is no on order
if it wasn't in warranty i would be replacing it with a household unit

i also yesterday removed the roof access cover and inspected for debris or nests etc, and bypassed the fans to make sure the temp switch had not failed.

[Gary - K7GLD]

JUST on general principles - and assuming you have the RV on a reasonably level surface, I'd do another "reset" of the box controller, and take the RV out for a short drive in an effort to slosh the inner chemicals around and perhaps restore proper flow...

["007"]

There was a thread where someone had similar problems after he had the 2nd recall done also.
Will look for it and post.
What new cooling unit did you order if its a Norcold you will have same problems in the future?
What Gary said did work for my fridge when we bought new coach, dealer was ready to pop the windshield and I said wait a minute I'm going camping. IT shook it enough going to camp site fridge was working when we got there. Has worked good for last 7 years.

[powerboatr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary - K7GLD JUST on general principles - and assuming you have the RV on a reasonably level surface, I'd do another "reset" of the box controller, and take the RV out for a short drive in an effort to slosh the inner chemicals around and perhaps restore proper flow...

yes sir we did that after the recall or say to and from the recall place, was optimistic it would fix itself, but it just wouldn't cooperate, even drove on a rough road about 10 miles I had thought about yanking it out and giving it a flip upside down for a day or two.....


told dw it means we need to head south NOW and let everyone else around here take a number and wait.
i am busier now retired than i ever was working


i assume it will be a norcold unit, since warranty will pick up the tab.
it used to work really great

[FreeByrd]

Just a thought, have you been hearing the fans kick on every 15 - 30 minutes ? You may want to look at the Thermostat on the Condenser. It might need replacing or not seated flush on the condenser fin. It's the "switch" that actuates the fans when the fin temp gets up to 130*, I believe. I even added some thermally conductive "grease" (impregnated with silver) to maximize the thermal conductivity between the condenser and the Thermostat.
I did this back in July when I still had a Norcold cooling unit in my 1200 LRIM. It's not any issue anymore now that I installed the Amish Cooling Unit.

[powerboatr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FreeByrd Just a thought, have you been hearing the fans kick on every 15 - 30 minutes ? You may want to look at the Thermostat on the Condenser. It might need replacing or not seated flush on the condenser fin. It's the "switch" that actuates the fans when the fin temp gets up to 130*, I believe. I even added some thermally conductive "grease" (impregnated with silver) to maximize the thermal conductivity between the condenser and the Thermostat. I did this back in July when I still had a Norcold cooling unit in my 1200 LRIM. It's not any issue anymore now that I installed the Amish Cooling Unit.

i did clean the temp switch contacts and bypassed it to make sure it works.

tonight i decided "hey" its been on 8 for two days waiting on norcold to let us know a delivery date of a new cooling package.

so i turned the temp down to number 1
then an hour ago i opened the lh freezer.......guess how cold it is....
your gonna laugh .... 0.F and the rh is 5F but the refer box is............42F
really weird

["007"]

When people had problems with box temperatures the freezers were always freezing items as they should to get the box temperatures down they placed additional cooling fans in vent opening out side to get the heat out of vent cooling area to help the original two fans.

[powerboatr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 007";783901]When people had problems with box temperatures the freezers were always freezing items as they should to get the box temperatures down [B][URL="http://www.irv2.com/forums/f84/i-need-better-refrigerator-venting-70687.html they placed additional cooling fans[/URL][/B] in vent opening out side to get the heat out of vent cooling area to help the original two fans.

when i had the roof cap off , i checked for flow of hot air and blockages....
imo it was moving pretty good for convection, i floated a few pieces of kleenex up and away on hot air

my food box used to run 38F - 35F on setting 5, no matter what the temps where outside.
its really puzzling.
i would like to get some feedback from norcold if they do an autopsy on my cooling unit after its changed out
i bet telling me to have it in the OFF mode November - feb as part of the recall may have caused an issue.

[westie gal]

Free Byrd, would you please email. I have tried to sent you an email as we would love to come to Quartzite and visit with you about the Amish Cooling unit. We think it is time to order one and install it. Like you we don not want a 2000# parer weight.
Thank you, we winter in Yuma.

[KIX]

Powerboatr..........Should you decide on a residential reefer take a look at the Samsung RF197........available at Lowe's. If you need some more info PM me......we changed our 1201 out for one about two weeks ago. I never knew I could get so much satisfaction out of a kitchen appliance.

["007"]

Powerboatr I do not think that should be the answer my fridge is off Nov to April & 7 years old.
Has work with out a hitch for the 7 years.
There maybe a small leak through the sealant for cooling coil some where allowing warm air into box.

[powerboatr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by "007" Powerboatr I do not think that should be the answer my fridge is off Nov to April & 7 years old. Has work with out a hitch for the 7 years. There maybe a small leak through the sealant for cooling coil some where allowing warm air into box.

i thought about that....
only problem is the outside temps the last few days haven't been above 40.
and the fridge side is shaded all day,
and last week we had 30's in the day and 20's at night
last night it was down in the mid 20's outside...i swear the fridge warmed up inside.

[FreeByrd]

Hey PowerBoatR,
Had the same issue in FL in the High Temp & High Humidity of the Southeast. Had to reduce the setting on the fridge to get the unit to cool. It appears as though the ability of the unit to "get hot" far exceeds it's ability to turn that heat into processing the ammonia/water mixture into "cooling power" for the fridge. The unit gets so hot back there that I think it starts "bleeding through" the foam insulation on the back and starts a temperature increase within the fridge that can't be fixed unless you reduce the setting.
It was 80* in the rig today and ran the fridge on power setting 3 with the temps climbing to 36 - 37*. . . . been 2 months and the Amish Cooling Unit still "kicks" !

[powerboatr]

i ran the diagnostics again at 7pm
thermistor said it was 39
but real gauge showed 42 in the top of fridge near coils
out side temp 40F


sooooooo
i put in a new thermistor and placed it in the middle of the fridge

temp setting to #5
rh freezer 5F lh 10F
fridge lower compartment crisper 41, thermistor at door diagnostic 36

soooooo
i set temp to 9 and will wait till 1AM and see what changes.

outside air temp now is 31F
rv interior 72F


going to be pizzzed if the cooling unit is good and i wasted a week here vice heading south