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Winepress · 11-29-2012, 09:40 AM

I'm the second owner of a Four Winds class A with a Norcold 1200 series fridge and ice maker. Bear with me as I describe my issue. When I bought the coach (last summer) I did some inspection and found a 12v fuse was bypassed at the fuse block. The fuse was marked awning. I didn't think much of it, replaced the shunt with the proper fuse and went on my merry way. About three weeks ago I was getting ready for a trip and found that the refer, front heater, and front AC were not working. After checking all the 120 v circuits without any problems, I looked at the 12v side. Found that the "awning" fuse was blown. So I replaced the fuse and everything came back on. The 12v feeds the circuit boards. So I concluded that the fuse in question had nothing to do with the awning. Everything worked just fine, but then a week later, the fuse blew again. So, let me cut to the bottom line. I found a thermodisc in the outside fridge box that was wired directly across the incoming 12v line. Uh? When the temp dropped below 38F the disc closed and blew the fuse. Now this thermodisc is not the same as the ice maker heater circuit. That thermodisc closes when it gets too cold to engage a heater to keep the water lines from freezing, and is working just fine. This extra thermodisc looks to be factory installed by Thor. It was secured by two Robertson screws to the wood frame at the bottom of the lower fridge vent. Obviously it was wired incorrectly. I took it out and the problem is gone. If i had to think of a practical joke to play, this would be near the top of the list. So here is my question, does anyone have any idea as to why this extra thermodisc was installed, or how it should be wired?

jlfbatonrg · 11-29-2012, 06:40 PM

I have never seen a thermodisc wired to a Norcold 1200 refrigerator. I have replaced the cooling unit on four of them , and don't see where the disc woud help anything. I would suggest you contact Thor and find out if it was factory added for some reason, otherwise, if the coach were mine, I woud probably discard it.

There are recalls on that unit, and the Norcold workaroud is a temperature sensor added to the circuit with a small black box to shut down the unit if an over temperature in the boiler occurs. If it shuts down the unit a red LED lights.

Winepress · 12-01-2012, 12:47 PM

The Norcold ice maker uses a thermodisc as part of a heater that runs along the water lines and the ice maker solenoid. When it gets cold enough outside, the thermodisc closes to engage the heater to keep the lines from freezing.
This extra second thermodisc is still a mystery. I think that when Camping World installed the retrofit, they miswired the wiring to this secondary thermodisc, but I still don't know it's original purpose.
It's a head scratcher!

Winepress · 12-18-2012, 04:29 PM

I spoke with a tech at Thor and found out what this second thermodisc purpose is. The first disc energizes the ice maker water line heater only when the refrigerator is on. The second one, installed by Thor, energizes the heater in the event that the refrigerator is off.
Unfortunately when Camping World did the recall they mis-wired the second disc causing the fuse to blow when the temperature dropped below 37F.