Norcold 1201LRIM not cooling

Bob O · 10-24-2008, 08:16 AM

My refrigerator has quit cooling in the refrigerator,the freezer is working. The temperature yesterday in the refrigerator would not get much below 50 degrees and today it climbed to 60 degrees. I do not hear the two fans in the back of the refrigerator coming on at all. I talked to a service man over the phone (we are in Key West,Florida) and he suggested I turn it off for a few hours and then turn it back on and let the thermistor hang loose away from the fins after I turn it back on. I have had it back on for a while about two to three hours now on LP. It is getting hot in the back of the refrigerator,the fins are not cold and still no fans are on in the back of the refrigerator. I transfered my freezer goods to my basement freezer so this is not the end of the world for me, I could wait till I get home Tuesday. My refrigerator is in a curb side slide-out. Any suggestions?
Thanks Bob O

Bob O · 10-24-2008, 08:16 AM

My refrigerator has quit cooling in the refrigerator,the freezer is working. The temperature yesterday in the refrigerator would not get much below 50 degrees and today it climbed to 60 degrees. I do not hear the two fans in the back of the refrigerator coming on at all. I talked to a service man over the phone (we are in Key West,Florida) and he suggested I turn it off for a few hours and then turn it back on and let the thermistor hang loose away from the fins after I turn it back on. I have had it back on for a while about two to three hours now on LP. It is getting hot in the back of the refrigerator,the fins are not cold and still no fans are on in the back of the refrigerator. I transfered my freezer goods to my basement freezer so this is not the end of the world for me, I could wait till I get home Tuesday. My refrigerator is in a curb side slide-out. Any suggestions?
Thanks Bob O

troth · 10-24-2008, 08:33 AM

-Can't tell you where the fan fuse(s) is, but I can say that from reading many other posts in the Winnie forum, the fan operation is critical to good fridge performance on units like yours with upper & lower outside vents. Go to Wal-Mart and buy a compact little desk/office fan, slip in the backside and plug into 120vac with a short cord. At least that will start moving the air and get your fridge cooled down. I have a friend who has two such little 120vac fans that "push/pull" in his fridge compartment. He never uses the 12vdc fans because he runs propane to the fridge driving the highway, then uses 120vac pedestal power when parked.

Good luck.

Harry B · 10-24-2008, 08:41 AM

Bob, We had a similar problems with our fridge. Had it in for service several times and they claimed it worked normal.????

After getting frustrated with the service departments, I finally attemted to resolve the problem on my own. Replaced the inside thermal sensor on the fins first and intially it improved operation but then it started again. After reseating all the wires on the control board mounted on the lower back of the fridge, we have not had a single problem anymore over the last 3 months. Our symptoms were almost the same as yours, no refrigerator cooling but freezer worked OK and I also would not hear the fans run when it malfunctioned.

John_Canfield · 10-24-2008, 02:22 PM

The same cooling unit cools all compartments - the left freezer (of a four-door) should be around zero to +10 F. If you don't have those temps in that freezer, the refrigerator compartments will never be the right temp.

Bob O · 10-25-2008, 06:27 AM

Thanks for all your suggestions. I tried unplugging and reconnecting the connections on the board with no luck and can't find a small fan to fit in that area down here in the Keys anywhere. I have shut it down and will take it in for service when we get back home on Tuesday. I will post the results when it's fixed.
Bob

Paul T · 10-25-2008, 01:29 PM

Please pass along the final cure you or your dealer come up with. I've recently had simular problems however they disappeared while operating the refer on propane while driving. I'm curious how your unit works on your way home if you run it on propane.

Billy S · 10-25-2008, 05:46 PM

My Norcold is not working right either, the temperatures are up and down. The freezer is as low as 4 than it jumps up to almost 32 or higher, refigerator part goes up and down the same way, from 24 up to almost 50. Service guy says we may have a plug. Will run more tests next week. I cleaned the ground wire and all wire on the board, that dosen't help anymore. Temps will change in a short time, 6 to 8 hours.

rv rick · 10-26-2008, 05:57 PM

We had a similar problem with our 1200 Norcold. First, we found that neither fan was operating, but even after this was corrected with new fans, the temp would climb when the back of the fridge was in the sun.

Winnebago added a simple baffle about the rear, bottom access panel that directed the cooling air directly on to the coils. This seemed to have really helped the problem. You can see a picture of the baffle http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=9588&...ields&name=rv%20rick here

Bob O · 12-28-2008, 06:50 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bob O:
My refrigerator has quit cooling in the refrigerator,the freezer is working. The temperature yesterday in the refrigerator would not get much below 50 degrees and today it climbed to 60 degrees. I do not hear the two fans in the back of the refrigerator coming on at all. I talked to a service man over the phone (we are in Key West,Florida) and he suggested I turn it off for a few hours and then turn it back on and let the thermistor hang loose away from the fins after I turn it back on. I have had it back on for a while about two to three hours now on LP. It is getting hot in the back of the refrigerator,the fins are not cold and still no fans are on in the back of the refrigerator. I transfered my freezer goods to my basement freezer so this is not the end of the world for me, I could wait till I get home Tuesday. My refrigerator is in a curb side slide-out. Any suggestions?
Thanks Bob O </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Update:
I finally have my refrigerator fixed. The first thing I replaced was the thermostat on the top fins on the back of the refrigerator that control the on/off for the fans because they were not coming on, this did nothing. I called the factory and they are about as helpful as you know what (big surprise). I also found out because I did not do the maintenance in the second year by a qualified Norcold Tech they were not going to cover it under warranty (another big surprise). I think people look for a way to get out of covering things under warranty.
I decided to fix this on my own. I pulled the refrigerator and gave it a thorough cleaning inside and out, It was not that dirty as we do not use this but two to three times a year right now as I am still working full time. I cleaned the baffle and flue, the fins in the back,the coils in the back and the burner. I also replaced the mother board in the back. I caulked all open spaces to seal the refrigerator cabinet chamber from the inside of the coach that were not sealed properly from the factory and gave the inside of the cabinet a good cleaning. I reinstalled the refrigerator and started it up yesterday. The fans finally came back on after about an hour or two and I left it on for the night. I went back this morning and I couldn't believe it but the temp was down to 29 degrees at number 7 on the control panel. I have never been able to get this refrigerator below 39 degrees since we had it. I am thrilled right now. In the course of checking everything out, I also found out the gas pressue needs to be boosted up some to 10.5-11.5 inches of water column. Right now it is around 9.5 inches. I am going to get one of my Techs at work to give me a hand adjusting the regulator next weekend.

Bob O

KIX · 12-28-2008, 01:43 PM

Good job! Glad you got it fixed.

DonGee · 12-28-2008, 03:20 PM

I too have had nothing but grief from my fridge and nothing but runaround from Norcold, not even a response from letters sent. It is the old head in the sand routine if you don't see it, it does not exist. Forest City did say fans were not connected, no trouble since then.
At $120.00 an hour I could have bought a new fridge and dumped this one with all the shop time spent.

Don, WIT 70041

wagonmaster2 · 12-28-2008, 06:00 PM

I can't understand why Norcold has to be so cantankerous when it comes to helping their customers. The 2 little pins on the left side of my frig are getting hot and melting the plastic case they are mounted in. When contacting Norcold, they offered to replace the whole frig with a "rebuilt unit". When I offered to pay the difference between a new unit and the rebuilt one, their response was "Oh we can't do that". I had been told by a couple of Techs that rebuilt units are nothing but trouble and I'd be doing it all again in 6 months to a year. They are kind of like Maw Bell, there aren't that many games in town.

Wagonmaster2

Bob O · 12-29-2008, 07:44 AM

Norcold's customer service is nothing short of arrogant.I guess you can be that way when your one of only a few shows in town. They have a phone number listed to talk to technical. Try it and see if you can get technical advice. They flat out refused to help me fix this on my own. All the advice I got from the lady on the other end was, how to find a service tech and how they were not going to cover it because I failed to follow their procedure.
I didn't need her to tell me that. I fixed mine without their help no thanks to them.
On the flip side of this argument I can see where they are probably trying to limit their liability for unqualified people working on them that shouldn't.
Bob O