Refrigerator warm freezer cold

[Mike_B]

We are on our 4th trip in our 2020 Jayflight. All previous trips Norcold fridge has been fine. I usually turn fridge on 1-1/2 days prior to traveling.
We are camping and fridge portion not cold. My freezer is 24° but fridge is 67°. These temps were this morning with doors not opened all night. Doors seal good, no constant opening of doors. I thought fridge cooled off freezer. Freezer plenty cold. Any thoughts on what I need to check?
TIA

[Grumpy]

It's actually the opposite the freezer cools first. Have you checked the little temp slide on the refrigerator fins to be sure it hasn't moved. I believe it's on the right side.

[CAG]

Are you camping in a hot location? They do not work well with the outside temps above 90.

[Mike_B]

Thanks Grumpy. I posted incorrectly brand is Norcold. I got on YouTube as you suggested and this brand has a Thermistor versus slide you suggested. Looks like my themistor could be bad.

[Rustynuts]

I just read about this unit to race the Thermistor to give you better control over the fridge.

https://www.snip-the-tip.com/NorcoldThermistor.htm

[Mike_B]

Thanks for link Rusty

[bankr63]

Also be sure to leave air circulation space, especially around the perimeter. If the freezer is jammed full, then the cold won't circulate down to the fridge level. There are a few good YouTube videos that explain how these fridges work and how best to load them.

Good start is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugw0pw-EXK8

from All About RV's.

[Mike_B]

yes i did

[Alerider]

Similar problem here. Norcold N8XRT worked well over a year. Now, in hot weather it cools but not much. 'Fridge temps are 60-65. Weather is 90+. The unit cycles on and off with propane or elect. It isn't overloaded inside and air circulation looks OK.

[RedHorse1]

I would suspect one of three causes.
1) bad thermistor
2) poor air flow in the back (our 4 door Norcold has 2 fans on the back side, they failed and produced the symptoms you describe)
3) bad control board

[Mike_B]

I just got my TT in May, its a 2020. I have serviceman coming out Wednesday Aug 05. I will let you know what he finds. As note freezer is great 18° to 24°. Fridge 68°. It is not packed, I have a fan inside fridge to circulate air. I checked thermistor with OHMs meter and ittracks with Norcold chart.

[CAG]

So just to give an idea of how ineffective these units are when the temps are hot out side, and this is not just the Norcold in the Jayco, the Dometic in the toy hauler was the same way. At one point I called my local RV repair shop and asked why the Dometic was not cooling well. They said they have a terrible time diagnosing fridge problems here in the summer.


Day before yesterday I brought the rig home and turned on the fridge to do some precooling, knowing it was a lost cause. The freezer and fridge were both 97 F. At 2 PM the temps were 30 in the freezer and 80 in the fridge. At 8 PM the fridge was 100 and the freezer was 56. The outside air temp was 118F.



At 6:30 this morning the freezer was -2 and the fridge was 36. The overnight low was 87. I just checked it at 2PM today and the freezer is 35, the fridge is 80, outside temp is 109, the dew point is 70 (it is not a dry heat this time of year).



So the story here is these units do not do well with direct sunlight on the outside vent area and they do not do well if the outside temps are high. If the outside temp in in the 90s and the sun is on the side of the rigs with the fridge louvers the fridge temps will go up and the freezer might stay under 32 but the cold does not transfer to the fridge that well. It is just the nature of the beast.



A small fan in the outside compartment may help some but over the years I found it was not much. We pack the fridge early in the morning of the day we are leaving and get on the road before it gets too hot, but here it can be 100 or more at 8AM.

[Vista]

Ditto the above.

Learning these fridges aren't going to cut it in 115 temps, no matter what we may try.

[Rustynuts]

Our fridge installation by Jayco in our Seneca was a joke, everything was wrong. After every tip, trick, hack and modification I gave up and installed a JC Refrigeration HVAC 120v cooling unit and could not be happier. These were our temps in 107 degree weather a couple weeks ago.

[outlaw7377]

Originally Posted by Rustynuts

Our fridge installation by Jayco in our Seneca was a joke, everything was wrong. After every tip, trick, hack and modification I gave up and installed a JC Refrigeration HVAC 120v cooling unit and could not be happier. These were our temps in 107 degree weather a couple weeks ago.

Rustynuts, do you run the JC unit on a dc converter or strictly while plugged into shore power / generator?

How long have you been using the JC unit?

If you had to do it again would you use the same unit?

I have a Norcold N841 that is having issues and if I need to spend a bunch of money to fix it I plan to look at other options.

Thanks.

[Cavie]

'snip the tip" thermisterr on amazon.