Frig not cooling

Knee Deep · 10-16-2015, 01:47 PM

My husband and I bought a new 2015 White Hawk 20 MRB.
Took it out for our first trip and couldn't get the refrigerator to cool on AC or on propane. Tried everything the tech suggested. It had a nice flame, produced condensation, but didn't cool. It is now in for servicing. Anyone else have this problem?

mike837go · 10-16-2015, 01:52 PM

How long you give it to cool down?

Did it ever smell bad?

Left on when the RV was not perfectly level?

SmokerBill · 10-16-2015, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike837go

Did it ever smell bad?

What's your line of thought on that Mike? My Norcold smelled like ammonia once, soon after I got the TT in 2010. It worried me somewhat, but since then no smells, and has worked perfectly.

Quahog · 10-17-2015, 05:06 AM

Our Norcold worked great until it stopped working 4 months from being new. Never smelled any ammonia but the signs were there... yellowish green stain under the cooling unit. Had to get it replaced under warranty but it still prevented us from going out for about 10 days.

bucko · 10-21-2015, 03:54 AM

It takes our fridge a good 2 hours to cool from start; reaching cold status at around 4 hours (plugging into AC at campsite). For this reason, we will start it on propane when we hook it up to the truck and start out for the campsite. This way, the fridge starts to cool while we are driving, so when we switch to AC at the site, our fridge has already begun to cool.

GMC · 10-31-2015, 01:53 PM

I've had the same problem with my Norcold N302R. It gets cool but not cold. It almost seems the colder you set the dial the warmer it gets. The last time we used it, it was hot and humid. I know that can have an effect on the absorption type refrigerators. I was thinking of plugging in a small fan behind the fridge in the wall. Something that will move air through the cavity behind the fridge. Any thoughts?

sailor · 10-31-2015, 06:49 PM

Do you a thermometer to check the actual temps in the fridge and freezer?

BigJohnD · 10-31-2015, 07:35 PM

For all issues mentioned above, we ditched ours and put a residential in. Fit the opening of the Norcold 8 cf. It always works, cools faster, cools better, frost free etc. I've had my share of the norcold / dometic fridges, and my share of problems, but never again. Can buy 3 of the residentials I have for the price of one norcold. Doesn't help the OP, but then again, if the fridge doesn't work.....

Knee Deep · 11-09-2015, 11:04 AM

No odor. We ran it over 12 hours with no change in temperature. Trailer was level. Just got it back from being serviced. They told us they had to replace the cooling unit, but then they weren't able to tell us exactly what they meant by "cooling unit." So we're not sure what they replaced. Working great now.

mike837go · 11-09-2015, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knee Deep

No odor. We ran it over 12 hours with no change in temperature. Trailer was level. Just got it back from being serviced. They told us they had to replace the cooling unit, but then they weren't able to tell us exactly what they meant by "cooling unit." So we're not sure what they replaced. Working great now.

The 'cooling unit' is 100% of what 'makes the cold' inside the box.

The entire back of the refrigerator. All the plumbing and the insulating back wall.

You've still got 5 of the 6 sides of your box. The liner for the freezer and doors. You may have your old controller board. Everything else was replaced as a single unit.

Knee Deep · 11-25-2015, 02:43 PM

Thanks Mike 837. We suspected that, and appreciate your verification.

North of 49° · 11-26-2015, 08:44 AM

I replaced the cooling unit myself in the Norcold fridge in our old hybrid. $1000, doing the work myself, was the cheapest I could get it, which was far cheaper than getting a dealer to do it, or replacing the entire fridge. There's lots of guides and videos on the Web that show how to do it, but it's still not for the faint of heart.

Ours was a victim of the infamous Norcold fridge recall a few years back. The dealer installed the factory-supplied kit, which was meant to prevent a fire in case of an ammonia leak, but did nothing to prevent the leak itself. Ours leaked, and we didn't realize the fridge wasn't working until we were loading it up for a trip, so I grabbed the electric cooler and we used that all weekend. When we got home, that's when I did a little more investigating, and sure enough, the cooling unit was leaking ammonia (yellow crusty stuff) from around the boiler:

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