Community Forums

durhamj · 03-24-2019, 11:44 PM

Wife and I have been full timing for the last 18-months and finally had to defrost the freezer. Well we cleaned it up, and fired it back up. Now the freezer section freezes but the refrigerator section doesn't get very cold (50 degrees). Before we defrosted it was hovering around 38. Any suggestions on how to get cold again and solve this issue? Is it time to bite the bullet and put in a residential all electric frig?

TIA

Old-Biscuit · 03-24-2019, 11:56 PM

How long has it been running since defrosting??

Can take 8 hrs for Food Compartment to recovery after fridge has been warmed up

Freezer section has to get down to 10*F before Food Compartment can effectively cool down
Low Evap Coil (freezer) is 1st in line to have heat absorbed and then High Evap Coil (food compartment) heat is absorbed......but only when freezer is cold so the ammonia can absorb heat from food compartment

If fridge has been running for hours and food compartment NOT cooling down could be an obstruction/blockage in tube between freezer/food compartment cooling coils..........that means cooling unit is bad.

OR could be faulty circuit board....not allowing for long enough cooling cycles.

Then you would need to test cooling unit functions by running fridge with AC Elements wired directly to AC Outlet

Have you tried swapping heat sources...AC to LP?

Post back with more info

G Schulz · 03-25-2019, 02:39 PM

It does take a while to cool down. One thing you might want to check are the door seals. Mine were torn top and bottom and I repaired them with duct tape. My fridge is actually working quite well but I am planning on installing a Fisher Paykel this summer. We are full-time now and it’s my understanding that running the Norcold on electric is a lot more expensive than running a residential.

Old-Biscuit · 03-25-2019, 03:13 PM

Norcold 1200/1210 series
225W element...requires TWO
450W at 120V AC = 3.75A per hour of run time

G Schulz · 03-26-2019, 07:34 AM

Wow, I didn’t realize how much power they consumed running on AC. That’s almost 4 times what a residential draws when it’s running. Over the years a residential should pay for itself in power savings alone. In the winter months our Florida park charges 0.16/kWh. It adds up quick, I would rather use that money on air conditioning.

durhamj · 03-26-2019, 07:45 AM

We let it run for about 24hours on electric, No cooling to the refrig area, then switched to propane for a day, still no cooling. Switched back to electric, after a few hours it started to cool, then warmed back up. Probably on the 4th day, frig compartment started to cool , then freeze. I turned the thermostat down to 3/9, then back up to 4/9. It seems to be running okay for now.
but I have already contacted JC Refrigeration about replacing the cooling unit.

Jake21 · 03-26-2019, 08:28 AM

You will like the new cooling unit. Install an ARP controller while you are at it.

GREGORYJ · 03-26-2019, 03:26 PM

I see that the Norcold 1200 series fridges can now be converted to the residential fridge cooling system that use between 60 watts or 100 watts when operating, depending on whether a 12 volt or 120 volt compressor motor package is chosen.

https://jc-refrigeration.com/

G Schulz · 03-27-2019, 07:40 PM

The other reason we are going residential is the extra capacity. We will be going from 12cu.ft to 17, and it will fit in the same space. We are full-time so the extra 5 cu.ft will be nice.

Arch Hoagland · 03-27-2019, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by durhamj

We let it run for about 24hours on electric, No cooling to the refrig area, then switched to propane for a day, still no cooling. Switched back to electric, after a few hours it started to cool, then warmed back up. Probably on the 4th day, frig compartment started to cool , then freeze. I turned the thermostat down to 3/9, then back up to 4/9. It seems to be running okay for now.
but I have already contacted JC Refrigeration about replacing the cooling unit.

3 is not very cold. Set it to 9 and see what happens.

I normally set mine to 5.

durhamj · 04-06-2019, 08:02 AM

Back up and running. We went with the Amish He cooling unit, new fans, new electric heating elements, new control/power board, and the ARP monitor. Took 2-1/2 days , and four trips to the hardware store to install. In just over 3 hours the fridge compartment got down down to 34-degrees.

JRhann · 04-10-2019, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GREGORYJ

I see that the Norcold 1200 series fridges can now be converted to the residential fridge cooling system that use between 60 watts or 100 watts when operating, depending on whether a 12 volt or 120 volt compressor motor package is chosen.

https://jc-refrigeration.com/

This is a good choice for getting rid of Norcold problems

JRHann
Bounder 39Z