Norcold Stopped Working - Help Needed

Love To Travel 2 · 12-06-2020, 06:43 AM

We're on day 2 of a 9 day trip in Florida. I noticed last night, our first night, that the fridge didn't seem as cold as it should be so I put a thermometer in the freezer. It was 32 degrees...way too warm. I have the controls on the coldest setting (9) and the mode is on LP gas. The light comes on when I open the door so it is getting power. There are no error codes on the control panel. I opened the cover outside and there is a flame in the chimney tube. The condenser tubes are cold. I can touch the chimney tube and it is hot, but for some reason it doesn't seem to be as hot as it usually is, or maybe that's my imagination. The Norcold was turned on 24 hours prior to our departure, so that's not the issue and it seemed cold during the 250 mile trip. I would think that from 10PM last night to 7AM this morning I should have seen a positive change, but it's just getting warmer. This is a Norcold 8 cu. ft. single door unit in our 2018 Greyhawk 29MV. Of course it's Sunday and dealer service departments are closed. We carry a cooler so we're getting ice to try to save what we can. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated and can hopefully save our trip. Thank you!

RedHorse1 · 12-06-2020, 08:37 AM

Our Norcold developed symptoms similar to what you report. The vent fans (2) had died. They help move air up the back side of the unit that cools the exposed coils. I got us thru the trip by putting a small 110V fan in the space behind the vent and pointing it up. I can hear the cooling fans humming by listening at the outside vent. Depending on the fridge size you may only have one of these fans.
Replacing mine required pulling the fridge out of its mounting space.
It’s also possible the thermistor has failed, I seem to recall reading that removing it will cause the fridge to run 100%.

gprapim · 12-06-2020, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Love To Travel 2

We're on day 2 of a 9 day trip in Florida. I noticed last night, our first night, that the fridge didn't seem as cold as it should be so I put a thermometer in the freezer. It was 32 degrees...way too warm. I have the controls on the coldest setting (9) and the mode is on LP gas. The light comes on when I open the door so it is getting power. There are no error codes on the control panel. I opened the cover outside and there is a flame in the chimney tube. The condenser tubes are cold. I can touch the chimney tube and it is hot, but for some reason it doesn't seem to be as hot as it usually is, or maybe that's my imagination. The Norcold was turned on 24 hours prior to our departure, so that's not the issue and it seemed cold during the 250 mile trip. I would think that from 10PM last night to 7AM this morning I should have seen a positive change, but it's just getting warmer. This is a Norcold 8 cu. ft. single door unit in our 2018 Greyhawk 29MV. Of course it's Sunday and dealer service departments are closed. We carry a cooler so we're getting ice to try to save what we can. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated and can hopefully save our trip. Thank you!

Sorry to hear this. I think you have done all you can do to diagnose the problem. You need a tech to take a look at it. I have a 2017 GreyHawk with a Norcold 8 cu ft and this same thing happened to me this past year. Unfortunately, I wound up having to buy a new frige. I wish you the best.

Jay2504 · 12-06-2020, 11:12 AM

Is the fridge in a slide? If so fan failure can cause problems. If it’s not in a slide and has a roof vent, it may not have any outside fans at all. Jay

javamon · 12-06-2020, 03:48 PM

I always test and eliminate the simple stuff first. Test your thermistor...there are several videos on Youtube and I'm sure the Norcold website has testing instructions. It's an easy and inexpensive fix. I carry a spare...it's less than $20.

Love To Travel 2 · 12-06-2020, 07:23 PM

It's not in a slide and as there are no vent fans, just a roof vent, so the fresh air should enter through the side opening and exit through the top.

DanNJanice · 12-06-2020, 08:05 PM

Is there a reason you cannot plug it in to AC?
That would immediately tell you if the issue is related to the propane side of the system or something common to both systems.
When on electric these systems simply use a heating element to take the place of the flame, everything else is the same.
If it appears to be a propane only issue, then I would check for spider webs in the tubes running to the burner. This is very common, I even had this issue on my fireplace insert at my home. Would not light, pulled the tubes off, cleaned all the tubes/jets and sure enough, found a spider web.

Love To Travel 2 · 12-06-2020, 08:52 PM

DanNJanice,
I am hooked to shore power so I can use either AC or LP. The problem with RV refrigerators is that they take so long to cool you can't make a change and expect immediate results. I'll look at the tubes in the morning. Thank you!

Superseneca · 12-08-2020, 11:02 AM

The fact that your chimney is hot indicates the lp system is working. Switching to ac mode takes seconds. The problem sounds like the gas charge in the coils may have leaked out. Do you see any yellow stain or residue. That would be a clear indication. There is a hard reset procedure that may reset the entire system. Utube has a video for that.

Berjr · 12-08-2020, 01:44 PM

We have a 29MV as well but with the double door refrigerator. We also has a cooling issue but found that the doors where miss-aligned and allow a lot of leakage and the refrigerator could not keep up, this we noticed mainly when we where moving and had a roof vent open creating a vacuum. We realigned the doors with a couple of washers to shim them up into the correct position as they where too low and the draft was coming from the top of the door. Then lightly coated the seal with some Vaseline to help complete the seal and now it works perfectly.

Crossingover · 12-08-2020, 09:23 PM

Have you been running the fridge when your unit is unlevel by a half bubble or more? That can permanently damage the cooling unit.

Love To Travel 2 · 12-10-2020, 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crossingover

Have you been running the fridge when your unit is unlevel by a half bubble or more? That can permanently damage the cooling unit.

No, we make sure the rig is perfectly level with a spirit level, plus our RVi Brake Command Center also has a leveling function. Then we use the auto-jacks to finish it off and check it one last time before we put the slides out and fire up the fridge.

Love To Travel 2 · 12-10-2020, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berjr

We have a 29MV as well but with the double door refrigerator. We also has a cooling issue but found that the doors where miss-aligned and allow a lot of leakage and the refrigerator could not keep up, this we noticed mainly when we where moving and had a roof vent open creating a vacuum. We realigned the doors with a couple of washers to shim them up into the correct position as they where too low and the draft was coming from the top of the door. Then lightly coated the seal with some Vaseline to help complete the seal and now it works perfectly.

Berje,

Norcold sent me replacement doors for our fridge and freezer last year which helped immensely, but this was something else.

Love To Travel 2 · 12-16-2020, 01:39 PM

As an update, Jagiven sent the following post:

"There is a safety device that restricts flow incase of an accidental rupture of the propane line. If you turn on the propane tank valve to quick, the inrush of gas can trip the valve. My experience, sometimes I still get some flow, but it is highly restricted. Other times I get no flow.

Recommendation, try to reset the safety valve. Turn off the tank valves. Try to light the stove (removes pressure from the line). On a MH not sure if you can do this, but I personally like to disconnect the hoses from the tank, and then reconnect them, this can speed up the reset process (at least in my experience on my TT), I theory you do not need to do this. Most people will then wait about 10 minutes for the safety valve to reset.

Key item, turn on the propane tank valve(s) really slowly not to have an inrush of gas into the system and trip the safety valve.

Light your stove, and see if you have a good flow of gas."

I tried his suggestion and it worked. I turned the gas off, bled the lines the best I could, then after 9 hours I opened the gas valve very slowly. I fired up the Norcold and the chimney got warm/hot, but the tell was the BBQ grill. The lid got too hot to touch within minutes, so I knew that the safety valve was now not restricting the flow. On our drive home, the Norcold only went from 36 degrees to 45 degrees, which is much improved. Thank you Jagiven!

Pokie · 12-16-2020, 01:46 PM

I usually try start propane 2 days before trip. First day start n load some liquids. Come back second day n load rest of items. Third day leave. Once at RV park go to AC, it still takes another day or two to get to desired temps. Keep in mind these frigs don't have a circulating fan working off your freezer as in a household frig. So it depends on food temps and how much food you are loading. I will bring ice for freezer if not full to assist in cooling down. I start w setting at 9 and move to 6 on 4th day I believe. They previous posts are great if you have a mechanical problem by the way

16WhiteColly · 12-16-2020, 03:05 PM

When you have some free time, go to YouTube and search for My RV Works channel and watch some of Darrin’s repair videos. The best you will ever find. Very good refrigerator videos.

Snowmanmj · 12-16-2020, 04:11 PM

My 2018 greyhawk had the cooling unit fail, this is a known problem

ffrederff · 12-16-2020, 07:21 PM

This may sound odd but a close friend of mine used to work in the appliance repair business. He also worked as an engineer for a major refrigerator manufacturer. He told me that they would often have people bring in their camper refrigerators (absorption type) saying they weren’t working properly anymore. He said that they would just turn them upside down (unplugged) and let them sit overnight. The next morning they would turn them upright and let them sit for a bit. They would then work perfectly. He said the issue was that an air bubble would develop in the coolant and this practice would clear it up. I’ve never had to try this but if I ever have problems I will certainly give it a try.

mlumia · 12-17-2020, 02:22 PM

Hi,

Darren is an awesome RV tech and has numerous frig videos - on our old Jayfeather I followed his tips on close out voids over the frig and it made our unit super efficient for very little money: https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...s+refrigerator

the void video: go to https://myrvworks.com/ then look for the 'Achieving Proper Air Flow Behind Your RV Refrigerator For Better Performance' video - it is on page 13/32 of his videos.

BDScott · 12-27-2020, 11:32 AM

I just had this problem. A mobile tech determined that the refrigerator was working correctly. He checked the vent for the refrigerator on top of the RV. A piece of wood 1/8" x 4' x 3' (approximately) had dislodged and covered the air flow behind the refrigerator. This piece of wood was originally held in place by staples. Hot air was not able to exit causing the cooling process to be inefficient. The tech reinstall the piece of wood. The refrigerator is working again.

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