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Old 01-05-2018, 07:26 AM   #1
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Norcold Cold Weather Kit

Has anyone installed the NORCOLD Cold Weather kit on their refrigerator? I saw a Norcold Cold Weather Kit available that applies heat to the coils to prevent freeze up. Has anyone installed this? How difficult is it? Thanks for any info.
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Old 01-05-2018, 10:42 AM   #2
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Tom, not exactly what you asked but I've done two things in cold weather for the 'fridge: plug in a 60 watt incandescent bulb and run the fridge on propane (and duct taped the vents shut).

I tossed a thermometer in the mechanical bay of the fridge and it seemed to keep the cabinet pretty warm during an evening where we hit temps in the teens.

Might not be adequate for super cold weather tho.
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Old 01-05-2018, 04:44 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by tom463219 View Post
Has anyone installed the NORCOLD Cold Weather kit on their refrigerator? I saw a Norcold Cold Weather Kit available that applies heat to the coils to prevent freeze up. Has anyone installed this? How difficult is it? Thanks for any info.
It came on our Seneca... It is essentially a heater for the Ice Maker water plumbing and line that goes up the back of the fridge. It is wrapped around the water valve and then follows the plastic water tube that fills the Ice maker.

We live in cold country... have traveled in temperature down to +5 without winterizing (110 electric and propane heat available) with no issues.

**And the irony is... we are in Florida right now- where it is was 28 last night in our Seneca. Still better than +15 at home!
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Old 01-06-2018, 04:56 AM   #4
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Cold weather operations

Steve,
To me you will always be the RV Refigerator expert as you bailed me out of my first RV screw up when I owned the thing for less than a week (running fridge on an excessive slope). Is this upgrade necessary to keep the fridge safe in freezing temperatures if I winterize the fresh water line to the fridge. I have since isolated my ice maker line the whole way into the wet bay on its own valve, so now it can be winterized while the rest of the Seneca has heat taped and insulated water lines.
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Old 01-06-2018, 05:27 AM   #5
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Further Research

Ok, so I woke up way to early; too much anticipation for Greensboro RV Show. I found some things on the internet.

From the RV Doctor dot com
Temperatures below 10 degrees Fahrenheit probably will require some form of additional heat applied near the cooling core components at the rear of the refrigerator for it to operate properly. But rather than adding yet another droplight, packing insulation behind the refrigerator, or blocking off the lower vent openings, I contend that at temperatures well below freezing, you simply don’t need refrigeration anyway! Just put the lobster tails and prime rib in a cooler and set it outside! Once the ambient air gets closer to the freezing mark, then you can move the food back inside; the RV absorption refrigerator should operate fine at temperatures near freezing and above. Try to position the coach where maximum sunlight can be directed onto the lower refrigerator vent at the side of the RV when operating the absorption refrigerator during cold weather.

Then I found this on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Norcold-63491...ld+weather+kit

Now, I value Steves opinion more than the RV doctor, because he understands this better than myself and has the experience, so I await his reply. That being said, I have been transferred to IL and temps there appear to be very low (-17) on a consistent basis, so I will either be installing of have installed the cold weather kit this summer (at the same time as tank heaters).
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Old 01-06-2018, 06:12 PM   #6
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I think that what RV Doctor is discussing and the cold weather kit are two different things. Rv Doc is referring to additional heat on the refrigeration coils of the boiler assembly of the fridge - The cold weather kit that the OP is asking about that Norcold is selling is really just heat tape that goes around the solenoid water valve and along the water line going along the back of the fridge - to keep the water in the ice-maker system from freezing at the back of the fridge.

I will agree that the RV Doctor is correct in regards to how much energy it takes to boil the ammonia/water refrigerant to keep the fridge running at full capacity, as the amount of heat needed would differ in sub-freezing temperatures than would at 50F.

So from our experience... last year we left our RV Fridge running on AC all winter. Some of those days were well into the teens at night, and it ran just fine.
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Old 01-07-2018, 06:26 AM   #7
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RV Handyman

We where at the Greensboro RV show yesterday. The highlights where spending about an hour chatting with a Jayco rep about our Seneca (I think he was actually on the design team for the Seneca); things we liked and things we don't alike. Then, we had been able to see a Renegade Verona; very beautiful super C. But the best of all was the 30 min lecture on absorption refrigerators. Upon further questioning, the RV Handyman, as he calls himself, explained that he has an exceptional relationship with Norcold and has never heard of problems with running them in temperatures well below 0. That being said, he agreed to contact Norcold directly and verify with them. I will let you know what the response is.

Steve, he also agreed that the cold weather kit is for the purpose of preventing the ice maker hose from freezing. I have isolated this back to the wet bay to allow for keeping it full of antifreeze during the winter.
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Old 01-07-2018, 08:43 AM   #8
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The reason I asked about the cold weather kit is because when we left NW Indiana Jan 1, going to Tucson, it was -7. Not knowing any better, I turned on the refrigerator and when we finally got to warmer weather the refrigerator was not cooling. There were no error codes and the burner was ignited. After turning off the refrigerator over night, I retried the next morning and the fridge turned on and began cooling normally. I figured I would order the kit and install it to prevent any further freeze ups.
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Old 01-07-2018, 01:38 PM   #9
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Not frozen

We picked up our Seneca in Florida and drove to NC with the fridge on electric and gen running as it was very hot 4th of July weekend. Not knowing any better, I parked it in my driveway (which has a significant slant) and plugged in to 15 amp to keep fridge cold and batteries charged. A week later the fridge was hot and would not cool. I shut the fridge off and posted the question here.

Seams that these absorption refrigerators cannot run if greater than 6 degrees off level lateral or 3 degrees front to back. I tried my fridge again on the drive to Virginia and was still warm when I arrived. Steve gave me the information on how to get my fridge back on line. From my lecture yesterday and the information I received on the forum, it seams that the condensate can pool in one of the zig-zag pipes and, after getting hot, flake; thereby blocking the flow further.

In my case, a trip on a back road with the unit off must have dislodged the flake and allowed fluids to once again pass. From this threads discussion, and my lecture yesterday, I don't think they can freeze. But, I also think they can get off level enough during your drive to damage them. I have turned mine off when I am not up on jacks. Food is good for 6-8 hours if mostly full.
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Old 01-07-2018, 03:14 PM   #10
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But, I also think they can get off level enough during your drive to damage them.
As you learned, it's very important to be as close to level at your campsite/home etc to run the fridge with the most efficiently. Running the fridge while driving is fine because the fluid is not stationary and should not cause any problems. Many of us do it whether we have Class A's, B's, or TT's.
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Old 01-07-2018, 05:20 PM   #11
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After Mark S left from his visit today... I took a couple of picture of our kit installed.

If you focus on the white wires wrapped around the water valve and the blue/silver foil wrapped around the plastic water line. That is what the kit consists of.

Note that Jayco does nothing to help insulate / heat the incoming water line to the Norcold valve... that is all up to you!
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Old 01-07-2018, 05:50 PM   #12
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Last year I purchased a Norcold "Cold Weather Kit" or "weak solution tube heater" from Amazon for my Seneca but it is designed to be installed on the refrigerant piping to allow the absorption system to continue working at lower temps. My unit already has the icemaker line heat tape. I don't have a .pdf of the kit instructions but I could dig the kit out and take pictures of them.

I have not installed the kit yet since the easiest way to do it is to pull the unit out of the cabinet. Too difficult to work through the two access panels. But I likely will do so this year since we do plan on some winter camping next year.

Here is a link to the kit I have: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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