Norcold N8XRT cold pack broke

Diesel_tke · 05-24-2019, 12:00 PM

Really bummed out! We were supposed to go camping at the river this weekend for memorial day. So we plugged the RV (2019 Greyhawk 26Y) into power so we could get the fridge cold. After a day it was still warm. So I put some containers with ice out there, checked to make sure the power light was green, ran it on propane, and made sure everything was good. It should have been working. So we waited another day. Still nothing. I called Norcold and they said to unplug the thermistor and then give it 8 hours and let them know what happens. So, I did that and it still didn't work. So they told me to take it to the dealer. I let them know that the dealer is an hour a way. So they gave me a list of places local to call. All of them are booked up. So we drove to Dixie RV and dropped of the RV. They thought they would be able to get to it and get it back to us before our trip.

Well, that didn't happen. She called and said it needs a new cold pack, whatever that is. And the part won't be in until Wednesday. So our trip is done. I complained a little that this is a brand new fridge. We've only had the RV for 2 months. She said that she has had to replace at least 5 so far. All 2019s with the same fridge.

So you may want to be aware that this is an issue. Glad it's under warrantee but bummed out about the trip being cancelled. We had a bunch of people all planning on meeting up. We had all the food already purchased and packed up. It's all in the camper right now. All except for the refrigerated food.

Hope no one else has to deal with the same issue.

Jagiven · 05-24-2019, 12:20 PM

Still go. Grab the MH, load up a cooler or 2, and enjoy the weekend on plan B. Return the MH next week for the repairs to be completed.

Diesel_tke · 05-24-2019, 12:34 PM

Yeah, we are still going to go. We just won't be able to stay over night. We were planning on doing some trips down the river, which we will still do. If we would have used the local people, we would still go, but my wife and I can't take off work next week to be able to drive the RV out there and then drive back and then drive out there when it's done and then drive back. They close at 5, so we would have to take two hours leave each day, which we can't do.

We are going to try and make the best of it at the river. Hopefully this will be the worst thing we deal with. But being prior RV owners, we know it comes with the territory.

SloPoke · 05-24-2019, 03:52 PM

If you open the lower vent door, is there yellow powder all over the place?

Was your GreyHawk level when you started up the fridge? Have you tried to "burp" your fridge (google search this...)

Diesel_tke · 05-24-2019, 08:08 PM

No, I didn’t see any yellow powder. What would cause that? I’ll look up burping the fridge. I haven’t heard of that. Thanks.

SloPoke · 05-25-2019, 12:13 PM

When the cooling unit goes bad(leaks) it generally will leave a yellow powder residue all over the cooling unit.

If your unit has not leaked, it has a good chance that it may have been left on while it was (seriously out of level). These absorption fridges use gravity and mixture of ammonia, water, hydrogen to distill ammonia. If there is liquid trapped in a vapor tube, it won't work. Burping it is what you should try.

I've helped others with the process, but there is a lot of info on the internet about burping the unit. (and yes, it needs to be all 4 directions at the steepest incline you can find - we went to a railroad loading yard and used the siding once)

Diesel_tke · 05-25-2019, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SloPoke

When the cooling unit goes bad(leaks) it generally will leave a yellow powder residue all over the cooling unit.

If your unit has not leaked, it has a good chance that it may have been left on while it was (seriously out of level). These absorption fridges use gravity and mixture of ammonia, water, hydrogen to distill ammonia. If there is liquid trapped in a vapor tube, it won't work. Burping it is what you should try.

I've helped others with the process, but there is a lot of info on the internet about burping the unit. (and yes, it needs to be all 4 directions at the steepest incline you can find - we went to a railroad loading yard and used the siding once)

Thanks, I really appreciate all the info. The dealer has it right now, so hopefully they will. Get it working. For future reference, how level does it have to be? Should I not run it when we are driving? Like if we are going up hills?

Murff · 05-25-2019, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diesel_tke

Thanks, I really appreciate all the info. The dealer has it right now, so hopefully they will. Get it working. For future reference, how level does it have to be? Should I not run it when we are driving? Like if we are going up hills?

Get a round bubble level and put it on floor of the freezer compartment. If the bubble is inside the circle, you are good enough. Once you have the refrigerator level, find a counter top or the floor that matches the same as the level in the freeezer and then, when you have moved, use the bubble level on the counter to make sure you are level again.

Don't worry about running up and down hills and you can leave the fridge running as you drive. For the most part, you will be on level ground while traveling. Most problems begin when the fridge is off level while parked for extended periods.

Murff

SloPoke · 05-25-2019, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by murff

get a round bubble level and put it on floor of the freezer compartment. If the bubble is inside the circle, you are good enough. Once you have the refrigerator level, find a counter top or the floor that matches the same as the level in the freeezer and then, when you have moved, use the bubble level on the counter to make sure you are level again.

Don't worry about running up and down hills and you can leave the fridge running as you drive. For the most part, you will be on level ground while traveling. Most problems begin when the fridge is off level while parked for extended periods.

Murff

x 2 ^ ^ ^ ^

Diesel_tke · 05-30-2019, 07:21 AM

Just a quick update. We called Dixie RV in DeFuniak Springs yesterday, as that was the day they said the would be done. After getting the run around for about 4 hours, finally spoke to someone who said that they hadn't been able to get around to the fridge. He said that they hadn't even looked at it. So we told them to get it ready because we will be picking it back up today. We have a 5 day trip planned for this weekend.

The parts manager, Mary called us back and said that they had ordered a new cooling unit for the fridge. That apparently they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it so they are replacing the whole cooling unit. She didn't have any definitive day that it was ordered or would be in. She also said that they hadn't got to half of the warranty items that we needed fixed also.

So, we will be picking it up today, using coolers for our trip, and I will take the RV to a local Norcold service vendor. We have a good RV service place locally, they can't do Jayco warranty service because they are not our dealer, but they can do the Norcold one year warranty.

I've contacted Jayco to see if there is any way we can get a local place to do our Warranty work from here on out as Dixie RV is terrible to work with. We will see what they say. If they don't, I'll most likely be fixing everything myself in the future and dealing with the manufactory warranties if anything messes up. One of the things we liked about Jayco was the 2 year warranty. But this makes it pretty much useless, for us.

You know, I wish they just put regular fridges in these units. Funny thing, we had an old travel trailer for 10 years and the fridge worked fine through the whole time we had it. Zero issues.

Crossingover · 05-31-2019, 08:23 AM

On another rig we had, the fridge go out during a trip and we bought a small 110V fridge from Wal Mart to bridge the gap. Worked fine for us to keep the trip all happy and stuff.

Grumpy · 05-31-2019, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diesel_tke

She said that she has had to replace at least 5 so far. All 2019s with the same fridge.

It's a little disappointing to hear all the NORCOLD issues since they are a USA company. The cooling units are all made in Ohio.

Diesel_tke · 06-11-2019, 11:30 AM

Well, I figured I would update this just to let everyone what has happed so far.

We went to the dealer and picked up the RV. When we got there, we spoke to Mary who was at a loss as to what was going on. And we got the background on why they haven't done some of the warranty work.

So, they did some of the warranty work, but one of the main ones is the track where curtain separates the back bed area from the dinette and front area. Well the track is all messed up, it's got spots that are crimped together and some where it is jagged. So the curtain doesn't go through. They ordered another one to put in but Jayco sent the wrong part. That happed with a couple things.

So the funny thing was she gave us the keys and we went out to it to get it ready to drive home. The slides were out and AC on with it plugged in. I walked back to the fridge just to look in it, I don't know why, because she said they hadn't done anything to it. Well, I opened the door and the fridge was working. Perfectly. I walked over to her, she was in front of the rig with my wife, and I said, the fridge is working. She was shocked. She said, well, I don't know why, we didn't fix it. lol

So everyone went in and looked at it and it worked. She said we should bring coolers anyway just in case because she didn't know when it would stop working again. But they still have that part on order and will replace it when it comes in.

So we drove it home and plugged it in. Then took our trip with it and camped for 5 days. It worked the whole time. I ran it on shore power, generator, and propane while driving. It worked the whole time. Matter of fact, when we got home we left it plugged in because we have trips every weekend this month. Right now, it's still working.

So, I don't know what the deal is. I kind of think that maybe driving it around loosened up the clog that was in there and got it going again. Maybe the drive being a little bumpy to and from the dealer was enough to "burp" it?

Either way, I'm happy and glad we are getting to use it. I'll keep you updated if it craps out again.

SloPoke · 06-11-2019, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diesel_tke

I kind of think that maybe driving it around loosened up the clog that was in there and got it going again. Maybe the drive being a little bumpy to and from the dealer was enough to "burp" it?

.

There are two schools of thought... before burping ended up involving taking out a fridge... We tried the first, Drive down the steepest hill, driveway, loading dock you can find, then drive up the steepest. Then go at a side angle as far as you feel safe to do, and then the other side. Then take it home and level the fridge and turn it back on.

It worked on our Seneca, our prior motorhome and our prior TT after we forgot and left the fridge on when it was put in storage where it was far from level - Then quit working.

che57vy · 06-12-2019, 05:13 AM

I remember long ago I had a travel trailer had a adsorption refrigerator after it sat all winter would not work, the only way I found to get it working again was I would take it out roll it around the yard a few times then it worked fine all summer.I know the neighbors thought I was nuts. I guess it was plugging up internally from rust.

Berjr · 06-12-2019, 05:54 AM

We had trouble with out re-fridge in our 2018 Greyhawk. it started after washing the exterior turned out we got some water on the circuit board and it trip off on a safety. After some research we discovered that the relay could be reset using a magnet. placed on the circuit board. that worked for us

Jacyko rookie · 06-15-2019, 12:21 PM

I have a brand new jayco 29 mvp..first trip out the fridge quit..they finally decided to send a new cooling unit after running out of options...sounds like it is becoming a common thing !!

JesseS · 06-15-2019, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diesel_tke

I've contacted Jayco to see if there is any way we can get a local place to do our Warranty work from here on out as Dixie RV is terrible to work with. We will see what they say. If they don't, I'll most likely be fixing everything myself in the future and dealing with the manufactory warranties if anything messes up. One of the things we liked about Jayco was the 2 year warranty. But this makes it pretty much useless, for us.
.

I had the same issue, a crappy local dealer service center, and a really good independent repair center, but without Jayco warranty authorization. I called Jayco 2nd tire CS and requested that my independent service center be authorized to do warranty work, they took all of the information on the center, name, address, phone and contact person, and in 2 weeks they were authorized by Jayco to do warranty work, now it is the only place I go.

Chuck V · 06-16-2019, 06:30 AM

Had same issue with my 2 week old motorhome. I have a great dealer and he replaced the whole fridge so we could go on our trip. I have heard a lot of complaints about this brand of fridge you would think Jayco would go to a different brand.

MoToYel · 06-16-2019, 02:15 PM

Have a 2018 Alante MH. Frig did not work when we brought it home.I’m 30 minutes from Norcold. Got me a local place to repair. It had to be replaced. This was in September of 2018. We left for Florida in October. First of January right after Christmas it quit again. No warning or error on door. Just quit being cold. Couldn’t get replaced until February. I am now on refrigerator #3 . Good luck . I got no explanation but it was exactly what yours was doing. Gas and electric both worked just wouldn’t get cold.

You may also like: