No refrigeration but yes freezer - Help

[lslerea]

Hello - we have a 2014 Tiffin Allegro Breeze 32BR. We used it about 3 weeks ago for a short trip and everything worked well. We just plugged it in this afternoon in preparation for another outing and the refrigerator is not cooling but the freezer is working fine. No difference with AC or gas. Any thoughts on how we might be able to trouble shoot this issue without bringing it to a repair place? Thank you.

[Wmjp]

Not sure what type of refrigerator you have but typically there is a small fan behind it that needs to be working in order to cool properly. You should be able to access it from outside through the large vents. Our fan quit once and I temporarily got the refrigerator to cool by putting a bag of ice in the freezer. Not sure why that worked but it did. Hope this helps. There’s plenty of posts here regarding your very problem. Spend some time looking at them. Lots of good information can be found. Good luck ��

[dons2346]

Keep it running over night and check it in the morning. Also make sure the thermocouple hasn't fallen off or been moved on the fins

[Arch Hoagland]

Our Norcold refrigerator has to run a good 12 to 14 hours to get down to about 35 degrees.

Let it run overnight and I suspect it will chill down.

We do not put warm stuff in it, we chill everything in our house refrigerator first.

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by Arch Hoagland

Our Norcold refrigerator has to run a good 12 to 14 hours to get down to about 35 degrees.

Let it run overnight and I suspect it will chill down.

We do not put warm stuff in it, we chill everything in our house refrigerator first.

Wow, our Norcold 7 goes from about 85 degrees EMPTY inside to 35 EMPTY in about 4 hours. Like you, it is rare we ever put warm stuff in maybe few bottles of water from basement, but generally; we turn on & put beverages and food items from home fridge about 2 hours before departing. My beer stays Ice Cold

To OP

We have a 29 year old GE Freezer that we keep in our garage, we had been waiting for it to die; but we gave up and bought a new Samsung for the house and putting the GE outside. One day it stopped cooling in the fridge just as you say. I was gladly about to chunk it When I got it in the drive way and had it upside down I notice a lot of dirt behind & underneath. I took a simple water hose and was amazed at how cleaned it wash off. Then I saw a fan on the bottom. I cleaned it out too and turned fridge on and the fan would never come on. I took it off and found the part number for about $8 online. I put in the new fan and that fridge still works today

[Old-Biscuit]

Absorption fridge cooling process is 1st the freezer then food compartment

Freezer has to cool down so there is absorption available to cool food compartment

12 hrs run time or more is normal for both compartments to cool adequately

Brand/Model would help for specifics

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by Old-Biscuit

Absorption fridge cooling process is 1st the freezer then food compartment

Freezer has to cool down so there is absorption available to cool food compartment

12 hrs run time or more is normal for both compartments to cool adequately

Brand/Model would help for specifics

I have a tough time believing 12- 14 hours is Normal? Maybe Normal meaning for the typical 10 year old Norcold unit or so...

I say this because I have read many many articles about Norcold aka Nevercold That name reference has always been puzzling to me because some people say they go two days with fridge on before departing

So for $20 I bought a Freezer / Thermometer sensor. It works really good.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

I emptied my fridge and watched it stabilize to ambient temperature of about 85 degrees in both freezer & fridge and turned it on, 4 hours later it was as if it were normal freezer / fridge. I am sure if I had put cold items in it; it would have been faster. I raise this because if 12-14 hours were truly normal ( my unit is under 2 years old), I would think what I have seen with my unit would be impossible

I am thinking 6 hours MAX; but as the years pass, maybe my Norcold is going to get worse? But for now, until I learn what I am missing this topic always baffles me.

i.e. we keep our RV at home on shore power but both fridges are always OFF. But lets say we wish to go to the lake on a Saturday morning, 1st thing I do to pack is to open up the slide, start the ACs, and turn on the fridge. The beverages come shortly thereafter, but I don't recall us waiting for any specific time, we just put them in as we may trips in and out of the house. I would say 80% of the time all of our beverages are cold before we put them in. I would also say we never spend more than 2 hours with every thing running before we are on our way. i.e. I bring slide in, turn off AC, start the engine and switch the fridge to Inverter for the rest of the day.

While 12-14 hrs may be true (and I know you know what you are talking about ), I just can't imagine the norm is someone turning on the fridge at 8:00 am in the morning, and by 8:00 PM it is still NOT cold To me that is useless, I just assume carry a cooler

I may have to test it again this weekend...

Few other side notes.
- We keep our Fridge on 3 Frostflakes, which is the middle of possible 5 Frostflakes
- While we don't freeze water to make ice, we do put little plastic containers with ice from home to carry with us. It is mostly for mixed drinks etc. I would think if the ice would melt if it took 12-14 hours?
- we have 2019 Norcold N7X

[Xmcdog]

As usual I agree with "Old Biscuit"

[phnguyk1]

Is your freezer really working or does it just feel cold. The freezer should be 0°.

[mr.tommy]

Originally Posted by Old-Biscuit

Absorption fridge cooling process is 1st the freezer then food compartment

Freezer has to cool down so there is absorption available to cool food compartment

12 hrs run time or more is normal for both compartments to cool adequately

Brand/Model would help for specifics

2x
Yes, these things take time to chill down. 12 hrs run time or more is normal for both compartments to cool adequately if the unit has been turned off and sitting warm. You can speed up this process a little by placing some frozen water bottles of jugs in the fridge during this period.

[lslerea]

Thank you all for your help and suggestions. Things are looking up this morning for us and our refrigerator!! We kept it running overnight and indeed it seems to be on and cold this morning. I greatly appreciate the rapid and helpful responses. Live and learn!!

[Dom]

I wouldn't disagree with Old Biscuit. He was wrong once, but I can't remember when!

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by phnguyk1

Is your freezer really working or does it just feel cold. The freezer should be 0°.

Yes, the freezer is working.
Yes, it really feels cold
and it actually go below 0 degrees but not sure how long it takes for that?

In my book anything below 32 is good in freezer to keep things frozen or to freeze things that are not.

The question, I am puzzling is NOT whether it get to freezing in Freezer or cold in refrigerator, but how long?

[NXR]

Originally Posted by dkoldman

I have a tough time believing 12- 14 hours is Normal? Maybe Normal meaning for the typical 10 year old Norcold unit or so...

...

I emptied my fridge and watched it stabilize to ambient temperature of about 85 degrees in both freezer & fridge and turned it on, 4 hours later it was as if it were normal freezer / fridge. I am sure if I had put cold items in it; it would have been faster. I raise this because if 12-14 hours were truly normal ( my unit is under 2 years old), I would think what I have seen with my unit would be impossible

Our two year-old Norcold 1210 installed in a slide (8 cubic feet fridge with two freezer compartments) works the same as yours. So ours has the added complication of the exhaust heat needing to make 90-degree turn to exit.

Even with the slide in direct sun in 80+ degree temps it's four to six hours maximum to get to 37 in the fridge and into the high single digits in the freezer. I use a digital temp sensor so I can see the inside temps without opening the door. This is with the "1 to 9 with 9 being the coldest" selection being set to 4. For the first two hours or so the freezer temp barely drops then away it goes.

Now, prior to a factory repair trip where they actually fixed every installation defect made in the original install the performance was horrible. It would go above 50 degrees even when set to a "9". Because I wrote up so many specific installation deficiencies, the factory requested that a Norcold rep supervise the repairs and educate their installers. Norcold did send someone out.

It's kind of amazing what happens when you actually follow the directions...

Ray