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Old 11-18-2021, 06:46 PM   #1
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Help, AK full time living, fridge and freezer not cooling

HELP PLEASE!! We live full time in Alaska in our Jayco 2021 Northpoint 377rblh. It's currently sub zero temps, about -10. One thing we checked on was what temps can this rig actually do? So after much research we bought it and here we are. We've lived in it not quite a year. Last winter was in idaho. Same sub zero.. BUT- the freezer nor the fridge is cooling all of a sudden. No error codes, Propane full, but using electric. We've swapped back and forth on the two to see if any difference and none. We didn't have this issue on Idaho.. had read somewhere about colder temp outside it can't cool like it's supposed to..?? You can hear the fans running but can't really feel the air or it's warm enough coming out that we can't feel it. Can someone help with what we can try or test that hopefully won't break the bank?? We're desperate and can't be without a fridge and freezer. It's a Norcold 4 door residential 18cu fridge/freezer. Thank you so much!
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Old 11-18-2021, 07:22 PM   #2
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I believe Norcold has a cold weather kit.
Given your outside temp and it being an ammonia fridge the chemical reaction might not be working.
I would try putting a protected incandescent 40 watt bulb in the lower access area. Might help. Try to make sure you don't melt wires with the bulb.

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Old 11-18-2021, 08:17 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by RoadrunnerII View Post
I believe Norcold has a cold weather kit.
Given your outside temp and it being an ammonia fridge the chemical reaction might not be working.
I would try putting a protected incandescent 40 watt bulb in the lower access area. Might help. Try to make sure you don't melt wires with the bulb.

RoadrunnerII
Thank you.l for your reply! Maybe somehow it needs to be warmer inside the back then. We will open it and see what kind of room we're messing with. We are not even to January which is our coldest month so we need to figure this out quickly! Plus living in it! Thanks again!
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Old 11-18-2021, 08:29 PM   #4
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Cold weather kit: https://www.amazon.com/Norcold-63491.../dp/B00T36VI30
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Old 11-18-2021, 08:57 PM   #5
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So took a quick look and Norcold still shows a low ambient temperature kit.
I would be calling them and get the kit and the install instructions. It looks like a two wire hookup... 12 volt and a ground.

You may have to get a dealer to order it but I would be calling Norcold first

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Old 11-18-2021, 11:16 PM   #6
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Regarding the Norcold Cold Weather kit - our ORV came with this installed from the factory. The documentation I've seen for it indicates that it is designed to operate down to 0F ambient temperatures. You may still need supplemental heat in the fridge vent area if the temps are going to be lower than 0F for any length of time.

Based on your description of an 18cf 4-door gas/electric fridge it looks like you probably have the Norcold 2118. Page 11 of the online owner manual summarizes that it can operate down to 0F ambient with a cold weather kit installed. A kit like Robbyr linked to should work but it is probably worth checking with Norcold as RoadrunnerII suggested to see if there is a kit specifically intended for your larger fridge.

I'm attaching the the Cold Weather kit installation document that was in my owner packet along with an annotated picture (see #2, 3 and 4) of my smaller Norcold unit showing what the installation of the cold weather kit looks like. You will probably need to pull the fridge out in order to have enough room to complete the installation. We have limited experience so far with running the fridge below 32F, but the couple times we've encountered those conditions the fridge continued to run just fine.
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Old 11-19-2021, 06:27 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RoadrunnerII View Post
I believe Norcold has a cold weather kit.
Given your outside temp and it being an ammonia fridge the chemical reaction might not be working.
I would try putting a protected incandescent 40 watt bulb in the lower access area. Might help. Try to make sure you don't melt wires with the bulb.

RoadrunnerII
ttavasc's fridge is not the same model, the heat tape placement is in a different location on that one.
X2, the norcold 2118 should have the cold weather kit already installed, look for a heat tape on the left hand side tubes that run up. As RR2 said, put a carefully placed incandescent bulb in the rear. Also you may try to partially block the lower vent, but NOT when running on LP gas.
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Old 11-19-2021, 06:36 AM   #8
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Our daughter and SIL have SOB with a gas absorption heater. She did a traveling nurse stint in OK last winter, and it get really cold there, like -10F. They do NOT have a kit on theirs for cold weather, and it ultimately quit working.

Some of the research that I did for them when this happened, indicated that if you continue to try and run it in this condition, will ultimately kill the gas absorption unit, so she turned theirs off, and used the outside as her fridge!

I never did find any information on how long it has to be in this condition before it's destroyed, but if it continues, it's probably wise to turn it off when the conditions are too cold to keep from ruining the unit...

Good luck!!
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Old 11-19-2021, 06:48 AM   #9
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Conditions like this is where a compressor refrigerator would have been a better choice, over an adsorption refrigerator; providing the RV is either grid-tied or has a robust solar/battery bank setup.
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Old 11-19-2021, 10:16 AM   #10
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As ARoamer pointed out if you have the cold weather kit installed it will be in a different location than the picture I provided. I would confirm whether or not you do have the option installed - the heat tape will be similar if not the same as what shows in my picture. The online manual is written in such a way to imply that it may or may not be included by default. If you do have it installed then that will be helpful. If not then I would see about getting one installed.

I would also recommend installing a simple wireless thermometer in the vent space so that you can understand what the ambient temperature is and know whether or not you are able to keep it within the range specified - either 0F or above with the cold weather kit or 32F and above without it.
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Old 11-19-2021, 03:42 PM   #11
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Thank you all. You've been a huge help! You've given us some ideas we will try this weekend! Thank you!
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Old 11-19-2021, 10:37 PM   #12
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Thank you all. You've been a huge help! You've given us some ideas we will try this weekend! Thank you!

Did you see the part about just moving the food outside?


Except the beer.


Growing up in Wisconsin, as college kids, we'd hid our beer in the snow outside on the window ledge. Until it froze. Ugh - frozen beer was awful! Even to a college kid!
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Old 11-20-2021, 05:30 AM   #13
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Did you see the part about just moving the food outside?

...
Except, where my daughter was, there are no bears.
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