Norcold 821 No Longer Cold Enough

[Pauline73]

Our Norcold 821 was working just fine until about 3 days ago. We are plugged in and while it is in auto mode, it is on AC. We are level and have been parked for over a month.

What I have found is that our unit is not in the recall. The information in the sticky post is overwhelming and I'm not sure where to start.

The freezer is cold enough for the meats, but not ice cream and the refrigerator is not cool enough at all.

What should I be looking at?

Thanks!

[navychop]

Try some videos on Youtube withFord Refrigeration for RVs.

[Lt Dan]

Originally Posted by Pauline73

Our Norcold 821 was working just fine until about 3 days ago. We are plugged in and while it is in auto mode, it is on AC. We are level and have been parked for over a month.
What I have found is that our unit is not in the recall. The information in the sticky post is overwhelming and I'm not sure where to start.
The freezer is cold enough for the meats, but not ice cream and the refrigerator is not cool enough at all.
What should I be looking at?
Thanks!

I'm not familiar with that model, but most of the Norcolds have fans on the back to aid in air flow. If it has fans, check to see if they are running after the unit has been on for a while. There should be a thermal switch attached to the upper condenser fins that turns the fans on when the fins reach a certain temperature. Check for any obstructions to the air flow in the rear. There should be two heating elements on the boiler tube and one of the elements may have failed. Those are the two primary things to check first as low heat and poor air flow seem to be the biggest detriment to cooling in the absorption refrigerators.

You might try switching to LP mode and see if it cools better. If it does, then that could indicate low heat from the AC elements.

The recalls have to do with overheating in the boiler tube area, not lack of cooling.

[Papa_Jim]

Our old Norcold was model 683, older than your 821 but comparable in size. Ours began to fail the same way. Freezer still freezing, but not well. Fridge not cool enough. The situation was worse on electric, OK on LPG. However, eventually the fridge wouldn't cool at all. In our case, the cooling tubes failed, and the fridge became inoperative.

We elected to replace it with a residential fridge. There are several brands available that will fit well. We bought the cheapest fridge we could find at the time, and it has been working flawlessly ever since.

We really enjoy the increased storage space in the new fridge.

Jim