Norcold N8XRT issues

[jenkno]

Long post warning. I think I've read every post on here regarding Norcold & refrigerators in general and I'm still not sure I've done all the troubleshooting there is to be done. We bought a 2020 Jayflight, 29RKS, in October of 2019. Had a few kinks (like the slide motor going out on our first extended trip away from home🤦🏼*♀️) but everything was easily & quickly remedied.... Until the 4th day of our Christmas trip. We got a surprise 6" snowfall overnight on the 2nd night & temps down to the single digits for each night to follow. Good times right? Well that 4th morning we got up to stuff in our freezer thawed & the fridge warm. Chunked everything into the trash & enjoyed the rest of our trip. Took trailer in to have the fridge looked at. Dealer couldn't recreate but replaced the cooling unit since that seems to be the common denominator in a lot of them. I keep the unit plugged up at home & the fridge on for the most part and everything seemed to be working great. So first 2 camps this year completed without a hitch. 3rd & 4th ones not so much. One trip was only 30 minutes from home & the other about 3 hrs. Yes the trailer has been level both times (like off by less than 1°). Opening the door to load up will raise the temp very quickly, particularly if the room temp is warm. Like by 20-30° in just a couple minutes. Then on electric it just won't come back down for at least 24-36 hrs. In all all my troubleshooting I do know that switching to gas will bring it down within a couple hours (enough time to be worried about the mayo) so I've found that adding frozen bottles of water helps cool it quicker.

I checked the thermistor with an ohm meter & it appears to be working as it should responding to both hot & cold very quickly. I've ordered another just in case tho. I'm also looking to order a small fan for the inside. Any recommendations? We were looking today at the ventilation on the outside and from what I can tell we DO NOT have a vent fan outside. It just has the mesh with the cover on the roof. Would adding one there make much of a difference? Is it reasonable in a 85° trailer to have a temp increase of 20-30° in a 1-2 minutes? If so should I look to turn on the camper AC & cool it off prior to loading? We have 2 more week long extended trips planned between now & October, with a couple of weekends in between so I'm not looking to take it somewhere for repairs & it sit for weeks. Open to hear any suggestions!

In all the years with my little pop-up we never had refrigerator issues so this has me stumped. I'm not ready to give up yet but my husband is ready to pull it & put in a residential.

[Edward Shomock]

I'm having the same problem. Any suggestions?
Eddie S

[jenkno]

I honestly have no idea. Over the last 2 weeks I have tried multiple settings and nothing seems to be exactly right. Theoretically, since it has been sitting in the same spot, if it runs correctly at a certain setting for over 24 hours, it should be expected to continue. Nope. It performed better on the hottest day of the year than it did the day after. No reasoning behind it whatsoever. I have found that I do get colder temps & quicker reaction since I moved the thermistor to the 7th fin from the left & almost all the way to the top.

I have a 5 hour drive trip coming up in a couple of weeks and intend to load the day before. If it is extremely hot/humid I'll put the AC on & wait until it's at least mid 70s ambient temp before I load. When I get it loaded, I have several frozen bottles of water in the freezer that I'll move down to the fridge overnight. Plus I've bought a small fan that I'll place in there as well. Before we leave out in the am I'll put the bottles of water back in the freezer then manually switch to gas. I intend to leave it on gas for at least 24 hours. If needed I'll move the frozen bottles back to the fridge.

Unless there is marked improvement in performance during this trip, I plan on pulling it & putting a cheap residential unit from Sam's for $200. We've already measured & will only need to add a couple of trim pieces to hold it in place.

[Hippie]

Our fridge cools goods overnight..Down to 34 -37 degrees. Daytime hits mid to high 40's. ... any suggestions. So frustrated.
We have added fans- inside and out.-- Insulating around fridge---coils are clean. Again, overnight gets to correct temps but won't maintain. No problem with freezer.

[SmokerBill]

Originally Posted by Hippie

Our fridge cools goods overnight..Down to 34 -37 degrees. Daytime hits mid 40's. ... any suggestions. So frustrated.
We have added fans- inside and out.-- Insulating around fridge---coils are clean. Again, overnight gets to correct temps but won't maintain. No problem with freezer.

If the fridge isn't full, try loading it up with water bottles. They'll chill down overnight, then the thermal mass will help keep the fridge cooler during the day. Keeping the freezer filled should help too.

If you open it regularly during the day (to grab drinks, etc.), remove your daily needs in the morning and place them in a separate cooler with an ice block.

My Norcold seems to stay cooler when it's running in Gas mode. Electric doesn't seem to keep it as cool for some reason.