Post Norcold Recall Performance

[MaverickBBD]

Anyone else having difficulty with the performance of their Norcold Refrigerator after having the recall work completed? I am having difficulty starting the fridge on 20 amp AC without tripping G.F.I. I know others who have horror stories to tell. I was wondering if this is a result of poor installation and workmanship or the result of the thermocouple itself. I hated having something that isn't broke fixed and now my fears may come true.

[Jimmyzw22]

I have had the recall work done. but I fired it up once after the work was done and it seemed fine, but didn't run it all that long then parked for winter. Maybe I need to fire it up and let it run for a few days. I have been reading about the Amish Coil Systems and know what I will do if mine fails or does not work properly.

[LVJ58]

Hi Tom,
Haven't had any problems with ours after the recall, however in between the 1st and 2nd recall I did experience a problem with the GCFI tripping, thought it may be a bad GCFI unit so I replaced it. Still had the tripping problem so on the back of the refrigerator I found the 110vac connections to the icemaker and disconnected them. No more tripping but when I reconnected them it tripped again.

Long story short I replaced the icemaker and now all seems to work well.

I would first make sure the wire connections on the back of the GCFI unit are tight.

Good luck and let us know when you find the cause

[Stevegd007]

No problems operating refer after install of recall equipment. Don't understand why your GFI is poping off. I do know some of these are very sensitive and pop quickly. Check the back of the refer for wires that may have come loose or were not reattached right. Correct wire instructions can be found from someone.

The one time, previously, that our refer failed to operate, the unit would turn on, but not cool. Turned out this was caused by a bad Thermister (yes it is spelled correctly). This is a small black sensor located on the cooling fins (back of refer, top right, with a that wire goes to interior lamp). If this devise fails the refer will not operate. Easy fix by user, just order a new one and install yourself.

Best of luck. Keep us posted.

["007"]

If your GFI is popping the only other 110V to your fridge are the electric elements that work of power cord for fridge. If a element starts to short with high resistance it will trip the GFI.
If you bypass the GFI and go to straight 110 outlet fridge may work normally until element blows fuse on control board for electric elements.

[KIX]

Suggest you try another source other than GFI

[powerboatr]

your going to laugh
REALLY

a few months ago my norcold went nuts, then turned into a super chiller
30-32 on the fins at temp setting 3
then the recall came and it went good then bad then back to great,


recall vintage was "C"

then sunday the fridge went belly up
got real hot and would only cool to 55-60 in the food box and freezers were in the 40s
so Tuesday we ventured to the rv repair place, (mcclains rv denton, great folks, treat you like family, campground for rvs under going fixes etc, stay in your rig in the shop if you like etc)

weds morning norcold insisted the recall had nothing to do with the fridge and its erratic behavior since said recall was done in feb. and the cooling unit could not be bad....... several folks at norcold had such poor attitudes, i was nice as a peach.

so after many spirited phone calls with norcold by us and the dealer, then insisted on a new set of checks...24 hrs of bypassing the thermistor and measuring the vents openings , heater ohms, flame color, yada yada yada to no avail.
they said they would ship one next week. I said NO NO NO, you will get one locally, I mean we are in dallas and there are many available,
to my surprise it was done and we had a new cooling unit going in on Friday around noon
and it had recall update "D" already installed....
so it was switched on and started to cool off, SLOWLY
then by 9pm last night it was a CHILLIN again
this morning after being on all night at temp 9 it was 22F in the food box and 5 in the freezers
now its set again at 3 and is right at 32 on the fins with a lower box temp of 34
i missed a pic of my bad unit....but it had a severe clog, the upper large tubing had a place about 4" that was devoid of paint and had turned color from heat, and was swelled. i think maybe a few more days and it would have burst

norcolds LACK of a timely response has really soured me
each time we got through to a human at norcold the response was rude and met with distrust of our technician. and they really were peeved that I can read and knew their book by page number and what was next in each trouble tree, i am sure the recall is giving them fits, but i am not one of their engineers and therefore as a customer feel i should have been treated a bit more humanely

[The Big Guy]

Hello All,

I have found this forum very useful over the years and just now decided to join since I retired last year, and now have more free time. (That is, when DW lets me.)

As far as problems with the Norcold 1200 series, we did experience several issues after the recall work was preformed. The only previous problem we had was a "no co" alarm that I was able to reset myself thanks to input from this forum.

After the recall work was done at a local RV repair shop, I noticed the flame was making an popping sound due to the flame lifting off the burner and re-igniting over and over. I took the RV back to the shop and was told that it was having the problem when we brought it in. (Not true!) After convincing the service manager that it didn't happen until after the recall work was completed, they called Norcold and were told that the burner had to be replaced because it needed more slots than the existing and that wasn't part of the recall work. Being somewhat mechanically inclined, I simply used a small hose clamp an choke down the primary air orifice and problem solved. Then we were told that the control board was bad and needed to be replaced. Fortunately I had purchased a replacement when we were getting the "no co" errors, so we changed it out right there.

Thinking all was swell, we took off on our three month trip across country and after the first day, the refer wasn't getting cold enough. (Maybe 46 degrees.) The freezer was OK but also not as cold as it needed to be.
After searching forums online, I heard that placing a fan at the top of the evaporator might help as the existing fans seemed to have quit working. We bought a small box fan and plugged it into the ice maker outlet, 120 volts, and left it on during the entire 3 month trip. To my amazement and DW's delight the refer and freezer worked like a charm for the entire three month trip during all sorts of weather.

Upon arriving back home I dug into the fan problem and got everything working fine again. Had to replace the thermistor and thermostat.

I do have one question. Will the continued use of an exhaust fan above the evap coils damage the unit in any way?

Thanks

["007"]

Hello,Welcome Big Guy to irv2.
No the fans will improve your cooling in the box. The thermostat should be controlling the fans so once the coils cool down the fans will shut off.
If it is a hot day fans will run continuously.
Your freezer will not have a problem in most cases its the box temps that really need the cooling fans.
There are some threads that will give you the heat limits of the thermostat operation for operating the fans.
With everything else you have done your fridge should give you service, I'd just check for correct thermostat.

[dportem]

I had the recall done and a week later went on a trip. Bam, fridge is dead. I called norcold who asked if the red light was on on the little black box they installed with the recall. Yes, light is on. Long story, I went to rv dealer today, they switched out the little black box and tadda, it works. He said he's replaced three fix the fixes so far. Who knows how long until the little red light comes on again and shuts the fridge down. Just venting. Again.

[thirst4more]

So my little red light is on, can I go to any rv place to fix it and for free? The place I had the repair done a week ago is 10 hours away.

I didn't have a problem before the recall. Just glad we didn't have the problem at a campground. We are at a house in the keys for a week and were able to pull our food inside.

Anyone know how to fix the recall fix problem? (little red light)

["007"]

Rewire the fridge to bypass the recall, they wired the 12V feeding the fridge through the recall devise.

[MaverickBBD]

Thanks everyone for your input. I have a friend who had the recall done in Nov. and dealer didn't reconnect fans in the stack. He is now looking at a new cooling unit. He went and checked things out himself and found that the tec. even left tools behind (a hex extension). Found it after 1,500 miles plus. He is awaiting an Amish cooler. Going back and forth with the dealer and we all know how that goes. I am thinking if mine bites the big one I am going to bite the bullet and go with a residential replacement. In the meantime will continue to chase down the GCFI issue. I failed to mention in the original post that it is the one for the shop outlet that the motor home is plugged into that pops. Will be easy enough to by pass. Hope running it on 30 and 50 (and non GCFI 20) amp circuits don't fry it's little brain.

[two2go]

Recall done in Nov. Fridge worked fine on AC Dec. to Mar. After 1st time on propane, would not restart on AC or gas. Red light lit on little black recall box. Had to bypass box so fridge would work to get home. Norcold says needs to be checked out. Whose $, I can pretty well guess--mine.
If my old 1982 travel trailer is still on the planet, I'll bet the refrig. in it is still working fine, never had a recall, and always did the job. Seems like technology has not helped the RV refrigerator business, and the quality has gone south.