Melbourne Norcold fridge

[bbbreezy]

Evening all,
Hope someone can help. Have 2021 jayco Melbourne prestige. Noticed last night at camp norcold fridge not working. Checked breakers, checked fuse at bed, checked all fuses and resets. At back of fridge there is 110 plug and there is power there. Plugged fridge into shore power. No go. Generator no go. Propane no go. Battery no go. Start engine and fridge runs. Any ideas from anyone. Am 3000 km from home with fridge full of food
Thanks for reading 👍

[watchout]

Your fridge needs 12VDC to run the control board. Even if you have AC voltage at the outlet, the fridge won't run on AC or propane unless it is getting 12V from the battery. When you fire up the engine, your house battery gets fed a charging voltage from the alternator, so everything powered from the house battery should run. Sounds like maybe your house battery is not holding a charge?

[Pfflyer]

Ditto what watchout posted. I learned this our first trip preparation. Night before I was going to get the fridge pre-cooled but switched the battery disconnect off after the fridge powered up.

[bbbreezy]

So what to do? House batteries showing full charge. When we stop on road, interior lights and water pump still work

[bbbreezy]

And slide works on house power.

[Scoutmaster253]

Did you check that you are getting 12 volts at the back of the fridge? This could be a result of a bad 12volt ground connection. Or a critter ate through a wire somewhere.

[bbbreezy]

I am sorry am not mechanical but if the fridge works when we are on road does that not mean 12 volts working ? Will not start when stopped and Plugged into shore power. Will not start under generator power. Will not power with propane. Everything else appears to work on shore power, battery and generator

[1950]

make sure your house battery is up to 13.6 volts could be low voltage refer needs to see good voltage to work when you start coach the alternator throws 14.6 volts to system which over rides low voltage on house battery so refer works. water pump and lights etc are not as sensative to low voltage as refer is i know i found out the hard way 5 volts to refer won't work rewired mine works perfect hope that helps also check for good ground connection

[Scoutmaster253]

Originally Posted by 1950

make sure your house battery is up to 13.6 volts could be low voltage refer needs to see good voltage to work when you start coach the alternator throws 14.6 volts to system which over rides low voltage on house battery so refer works. water pump and lights etc are not as sensative to low voltage as refer is i know i found out the hard way 5 volts to refer won't work rewired mine works perfect hope that helps also check for good ground connection

X2
1952 beat me to the response.
Best of luck.

[bbbreezy]

Thank you all. Stopped in at Pine Acres Rv in Kensington PEI. Had 5 techs take a look. They originally thought it had been wired backwards as it happens often. Ends up needing new board which they did not have in stock. Technician ended up bypassing a switch to have fridge work on shore power until we can get new board. HUGE thanks to Pine Acres Rv who went above and beyond and thanks to all who replied here. Have a great night

[RetiredAndFree]

Side note to this topic but why wouldn't all dealers and repair facilities keep a small supply of these boards on hand? We had ours go bad 1500 miles from home near Yellowstone this June and couldn't find one nearby. Ordered one from Amazon and was waiting for us when we got home. Greyhawk was under warranty and talked to dealer about getting it in as soon as we got home and you can imagine how that conversation went. Replaced it myself at home and Jayco reimbursed me for it and had me ship the bad one to them postage paid. One of the most common items to be replaced on the Norcold fridge and would be easy money maker when they need replacement.

[thenovaks]

Not sure this is pertinent. On our 2016 Precept, we found that the 12 volt circuit for the fridge ran from the panel under the bed in back to the front dash then back to the fridge. When we were on coach batteries, the distance of that circuit caused the 12 volts to drop enough to keep getting low voltage warnings from the fridge display panel. I finally ran a 16 gauge wire direct from the batteries to the back of the fridge with a 20amp inline fuse on that run. All better. You may want to consider adding that circuit.
We also had a problem with the control board. Our control board was mounted flat horizontal and susceptible to rainwater shortouts. Norcold provided a new board free of charge that mounted at an angle, keeping the rainwater off the board. I would hope that your Norcold had the upgraded board mounting, but it worth a look.

[Retired mountain folk]

Originally Posted by bbbreezy

Evening all,
Hope someone can help. Have 2021 jayco Melbourne prestige. Noticed last night at camp norcold fridge not working. Checked breakers, checked fuse at bed, checked all fuses and resets. At back of fridge there is 110 plug and there is power there. Plugged fridge into shore power. No go. Generator no go. Propane no go. Battery no go. Start engine and fridge runs. Any ideas from anyone. Am 3000 km from home with fridge full of food
Thanks for reading 👍

Sounds like it’s not hooked up right, it should be under warranty so take to the dealer. Meanwhile, use an ice chest so you don’t lose your food. We always take a yeti with us, just in case, you never know when it will stop working. When our propane tank blew, we had to use ice, still lost a lot of food, but got to save a little.