Thank you everyone who replied to my refrigertor problem. The unit was taken to the dealer a couple of days ago and they can't find the problem so they have contacted Norcold for help. Norcold has not returned theri calls as of this time. Not sure I trust the dealer because there were several other issues and the service manager told me the parts were on order and another told me they never gat ordered. Now I find out some of the parts will be here next Tuesday. Not sure what I believe t thispoint. I tried to contact Jayco for some help but have not had any reply. Jayco needs to upgrade their product final checkout before shipping and the dealer needs to make sure the units are operational prior to the customer pickup.
We do annual trips to Lake Pleasant NW of Phoenix. Temps typically around 110-115. In the evenings we sit around outside and enjoy ice cream.... still solid. Our 2000 Jayco Class C... 313H has never had problems keeping things cold. Don't believe the 80 degree f story.
Thanks for your reply but I can't even get the refer to cool. The dealer has the RV now and they can't figure out the issues either. Norcold is supposed to help but I have heard nothing yet. As you can imagine I am not happy at this time.
I can only imagine your frustration when your new, expensive, RV is not working properly. Especially such an important part. Makes it basically unusable. I hope they find it too be some dumb part not correct that they can replace and you never have another issue with it. Just expect very good performance as it is possible. You may need the fans others have spoke of for best airflow. Not sure how they have it placed. I do know that is important. I also keep one of those smaller cube battery powered fans on the lower shelf of the fridge. Keep a "chimney open top to. Bottom for good airflow. Keeps everything's temp better balanced. Wishing you many happy miles and great memories!
I have a 2020 Jaycoi 29RKS with a Norcold N8X absorption fridgethat we took delivery of in April 2020. When we got it home I was testing all functions and found that the fridge did not cool. The dealership tested it and said it was okay and that the ambient temp on the day I tested it was "cool". I brought the TT home and for the remainder of last season the fridge ran fine and it now has a permanent home at a Seasonal camp. Today was the first day back to camp since September. Fridge ran for seven hours on 120V AC with no cooling whatsoever. I fired it on gas and it ran but I am not comfortable leaving it run like that when we are not there. I would be grateful for any and all replies and suggestions as to what the problem may be. I am regretting not having them install a residential fridge as the TT will not be towed. Cheers to all, Rick
Thanks JimD. I downloaded the document and saved it on my laptop. I left the fridge running for two days on the coldest setting. It has now cooled to below recommended temp so it looks like all is good. I have reset to allow temp to rise to recommended. I am considering placing a 12 volt fan in the rear, as well as getting a remote temp sensor for the cabinet. Thanks Jim. I have read your replies before on many other issues. The forum is lucky to have you. Cheers and regards, Rick from N/W Ontario.
My Norcold N8x fridge is not getting cold on gas or electric. The green light is on and the temp gauge is on but not cooling
The pilot goes on too but still nothing
Any ideas ? What the problem is?
My Norcold N8x would cool then stop and a few days later would cool again. I made an appointment with an authorized dealer and Norcold gave him a program to try. It was something like let it run for 1 day and then shut it down. Start it back up and do the same thing for 0 days. The dealer did this and then kept it for a few days running on gas and everything worked great. Took it home and it has been running great, actually with the temp set a 3 starts on the panel the freezer is staying at about 0 degrees and the refrigerator is staying at about 32 degrees. I put a jug or RV antifreeze in the freezer and a bottle of water in the frig and it works great. Staying cold now.
My Norcold N8x fridge is only 3 yrs old
It will not get cold The green light is on
the temp lights are on
It won’t work on power or gas ( pilot lights up)
Any ideas what the problem is?
Fuse…. Thermostat…
My Norcold N8x is 3 yrs old. It does not get cold
The green light is on. The temp controls are lit
The gas pilot comes on and stays lit … still nothing
It will not get cold on ac or gas !! Any ideas what the problem is??
It sounds like mine was doing. Mine is only 3 years old as well but when the dealer ran the Norcold program they gave him it is running great now. Like I mentioned in an earlier post they would run it for 1 day and then shut it down. Then start it back up and then shut it down after a day and start it back up again, They did this for 10 days. It has run every since and I have the setting at 3 and the freezer is at about 0 degrees and the refer is at about 32 degrees.
I don't know this fridge but assuming it is absorption:
I have not seen this mentioned in this thread but this issue, while it could be related to some other problem with the unit, is more likely the dreaded "too hot or humid outside" during summer months. Not always but the units do not do well when the outside temp goes up. The freezer will get very cold, - Temps but the fridge itself will not cool below 50 and sometimes higher. Nature of the beast. A fan in the outside compartment helps a few degrees, but what I have found works the best is shade on that side of the RV. We see this complaint every summer.
For cool parts of the country it is not as bad as for the south and south west where temps get into the 100+ during the day time. It is impossible to get the fridge portion into safe temps and we generally load and leave in the early morning hours because the fridge will drop into the mid 40s overnight. Again, just the nature of these units.
I think with a search on Google you can find scads of the same problem listed. They just are not designed to cool that well in high outside temps.
I (also from Rochester) have a 2018 entegra Odyssey, I believe constructed by Jayco and have had off and on problems with refrigeration for 5 years. First I thought it was a leveling problem when on propane as we were parked at a hotel in Florida. That went away and I was good for a year or so, totally aware that it was slow to cool things and tried to fill the fridge 3-4 days before we went away ( we generally do a 2 month trip in the fall) I did get a fault 2 years ago and replaced the control board and got a spare as I was told they were sensitive and would go out quickly or last forever. It has been hot this summer but I left the fridge on for the past few weeks in the driveway and we left 2 days ago. While running on propane the past 2 days the fridge got to 60F and the freezer crept up to 32. Arrived in NC yesterday plugged in and looked at the forum for some ideas. I took the thermister off last night and put a fan in the area under the fridge where the hot water heater resides. This morning I have 40f in the fridge and 18f in the freezer with the fridge turned all the way up. I looked at the picture of the fridge in the post and it looks like the cooling fins are on the top of the fridge. with the access door at the bottom of the fridge, the only space I could see that gets air to the back of the fridge I am not sure how it cools at all. I am interested in putting a fan in but not sure where to put it. The fridge is boxed in at the top and perhaps putting a 3 inch vent hole on the inside of the RV and install a fan there.
This will allow outside air to come in the RV or inside air being pushed out but at least it would circulate air around the cooling fins and improve the efficiency of the unit. Other option would be to put a chimney in the roof or outside but I am not excited about that option.
A 12 volt fan with a thermostat sounds like a great idea, again not sure where to mount it.
I am good for now but we are headed to texas, New Mexico in a couple of weeks and I hate my Ice cream to melt. Any suggestions would be appreciated
Doc
A 12 volt fan with a thermostat sounds like a great idea, again not sure where to mount it.
Doc
Based on the little research I've done - it seems like there's a fork early on in the road of fan location: inside the 'fridge or outside.
Inside fans apparently work well when some part of the 'fridge is cold enough.
Outside fans, for absorption style 'fridges, try to keep the back of the coils cool to promote better cooling. Since it can be really hot where we camp, I went for the outside fork first.
I had a few spare computer fans lying around so I just cobbled up something like this as a prototype. Other people go up onto the roof and put the fans up there to pull the air thru and out. Mine kind'a pushes the air thru.
Does it work? Is it effective?
I have no idea, since I wasn't ready to do A/B testing or a double-blind study.
But the project kept me occupied and out of my wife's hair for a few hours. So she considers it a "win".
I suspect having the external fans almost anywhere would be a big help, the goal should be to create a chimney effect if at all possible where the hot air is pushed out of the top replenished by air from below. ~CA
I suspect having the external fans almost anywhere would be a big help, the goal should be to create a chimney effect if at all possible where the hot air is pushed out of the top replenished by air from below. ~CA
I had dual fans in the outside compartment on two different RVs and later one inside the fridge. I also had remote thermometers in both the freezer and fridge compartment so that I could see what the temps are. I still do that but fact is the difference was a degree or two at most and the fan inside the fridge more often raised the temp. Some have said that they noticed big differences with the fan inside but that was not my observation in several different RVs and makes of refrigerators.
As I wrote earlier in this thread, and often in others of the same topic, outside temps are the determining factor and really from my experience there is little that one can do to help drop the temps especially when it is 90+ outside.
RV makers need to put some sort of notice inside the fridge when selling these things explaining their warm operation on warm days so that owners know it is "normal" if there is such a thing.
My experiences are that an inside the fridge fan doesn't really help with cooling but instead provides for more even cooling. If the fridge will not get cool enough, the fans will not make up the difference, but for conditions where the items on the door and away from the fins are not as cold as other areas, an interior fan works great for providing for a more even cooling.
External fans are not of great value in most cases. Some external fridge vents are not setup correctly and\or don't allow for the chimney effect that I mentioned. External fans in many cases though will keep some air flowing that otherwise wouldn't have (maybe a couple degrees as you stated).
I agree with what you stated though that there is little you can do with high temperatures, my experience is that I can keep the fridge cool (<=~40f) up to around 100f outside temp as long as the RV is also cool and I keep the door shut (I have a wireless thermometer), it also helps and something I do is set the thermostat almost to the point where the fridge is freezing or just below freezing (~30f) by early morning and before the afternoon heat is at its highest. Even then, there are certainly limits. ~CA
One other thought, as space allows, I freeze drinking bottles of water in the freezer and place them in the fridge around lunch time if I know the temps are going to be 100+ in the afternoon. Also, I rarely camp in 100+ temps although sometimes it happens even if that wasn't my plan to do so.
What did the dealer finally do? I put fans in the bottom that run when I am plugged in and the freezer gets down to -5 but the refrigerator is running 50-60 3 days ago it was 40 when I was plugged in. We would drive 300 miles and the temp would rise to 5/50. When we arrived in Shrevesport La it was hot but i plugged in with fans running and the temp in the freezer actually went up to 15 fridge 60.. I thought I saw a post where the dealer "reset" the fridge by turning it on and off 3 or 4 times is this correct?
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