Norcold refrigerator

[cbr046]

17 minutes ago, Gospel said:

I have a  Norcold 12101M and I can smell ammonia so I assume it has a leak . . . .

Yes, it's DEAD.  Don't even try to to revive it.

If you like the style and especially the ability to boondock / dry camp consider JC Refrigeration for a guts replacement.  They're in Shipsewanna IN (N IN) and can do the replacement in a few hours by appointment.  Takes them less than 4 hours.  Others can do the replacement but I'm not sure about quality.  JC Refrigeration can even turn  your Norcold into a 12V compressor type fridge.  No ammonia, requires some re-wiring and not as convenient for boondocking (needs more frequent generator / shore power connections). 

If you want something reliable that will always be cold in blistering summer months then you're looking at a residential type fridge.  The Samsung RF18 is pretty popular and will fit most coaches (except mine LOL).  There's others that are single door and smaller, but still more capacity than the Norcold 1210.  Again, you'll need more frequent generator / shore power connections.  How much depends on how much solar (if you have it), battery condition, fridge efficiency, etc. 

But your fridge?  Sorry, it's DEAD. 

- bob

[Tom Cherry]

41 minutes ago, Gospel said:

MODERATOR EDIT

This topic has been combined with an ongoing  one.  Please, per the rules, do a search prior to posting.

Thanks.

NOTE . If you use the search in the upper corner, use NORCOLD and select Topics.  There is probably 10mor more with all the information you might need.  Read the or skim and you will find about every solution as well as help there.

Original post is as follows:

I have a  Norcold 12101M and I can smell ammonia so I assume it has a leak, It was operational a month ago on a 3 week trip. Has anyone replaced the absorption unit. I see JC Refrigeration has a replacement unit for the absorption unit for the Norcold.  Has anyone replaced theirs. I have a 2008 Monaco Knight 'that it's in.

The gist of many comments is this…

Replace the unit with a Residential.  There are some issues depending on whether you have a furnace vent or opening under the Norcold.  If nothing under it, the Samging RF179 (memory) is the most popular.  It is a 3 door French style.  I have one….probably hundreds of others.  If you have a furnace outlet there, then there are two door or maybe 2 door side/side that are close to the original that are about 1300 cu inches compared to the 1700/1800 Samsungs.  You install a shelf man’s install it there.  There was a write up recently. 

the issue is two fold.  You have to restrain or have a method to hold the unit in place without drilling into the cabinet as there are refrigerant lines.  The second is to remove all insulation.  You need airflow around the refrigerator.  The Norcold’s were insulated to keep the burner heat and potential carbon monoxide out.  You must also insulate the lower refrigerator vent and the top one or the roof vent.  If not, they will not work reliably in colder temperatures.  All new refrigerators will no longer work in an unheated garage or back porch.  I KNOW….mine would not work until I did this and the Samsung tech said it is a common complaint….but the new Government Energy standards allowed the units to be made so that if the air is below or near freezing…..they will shut down.

Next up is fixing the old unit.  Very few replace the cooling unit with an aftermarket, but some have.  Others opt for a propane, I think unit.  Some have found a conventional AC compressor, I think.  Typically not cheap.  Also bear in mind that the gaskets on the doors are MOLDED or permanently attached.  If you get a leak and the dreaded DOOR OPEN alarm, then you can not buy a new gasket.  Either find a set of doors or order NEW $1,600!  Plus the printed circuit boards go out.  I traded off a Winnebago that was acting up….and was going to have to have new doors.  Not the reason, but certainly did impact.  

BUT, the labor for a quality install is around $1,00 - $1500 or so….but varies by repair shop.  The Samsungs can be bought for $1,000 and the smaller 1300 CI models can be bought in the $700 or so range….but some are more expensive.

FIRE IS A MAJOR RISK.  If you are smelling ammonia now, that is a sign to SHUT OFF!  How you proceed is up to you.  But a few hours of quality reading after doing the search and finding the latest topics will be worthwhile.  if your budget can work it out and your intended plan is to keep the MH, MOST have opted for a new res refer.  Some that upgraded wished they had not done that….others are happy…and others finally did, after the new cooling unit failed, then go res refer.  There is NO ONE PERFECT answer….that is why you need to read, find out, research, get prices and then decide.  
 

Good Luck

 

[MyronTruex]

As an additional refer because we full time and were carrying two extra people for a time we added a large 12/24 110 volt refer/freezer. It works on all those voltages and our modified sine wave converter as well.

It is ten years old now and works fantastic. It lives in the garage right now and keeps a ton of drinks as cold as you want.

It is not light and when full takes a couple of husky folks to move about. It is incredibly efficient. 

This might be an option for you. Many have a side that can be used as a freezer. No messing about with ice and the full area inside can be used versus being crowded with ice.

And we too have converted to a residential several years ago. One of the best modifications ever. 

[Fasthobie16]

Home Depot   This will fit your space with room to spare without a bunch of modifications.  13.9 cu. ft.   Someone just posted this a few days ago. Think may have been BobJones. This unit is without an ice maker. They say optional. I did the JC 120volt conversation to mine. Did it myself but that was still $1200.  I like the results. 3 years  working  great. Probably would go with the Frigidaire w/ ice maker now. 
2000 Dynasty 40’

Home Depot   This will fit your space without a bunch of modifications.  13.9 cu. ft.   

[timaz996]

9 minutes ago, Fasthobie16 said:

Home Depot   This will fit your space with room to spare without a bunch of modifications.  13.9 cu. ft.   Someone just posted this a few days ago. Think may have been BobJones. This unit is without an ice maker. They say optional. I did the JC 120volt conversation to mine. Did it myself but that was still $1200.  I like the results. 3 years  working  great. Probably would go with the Frigidaire w/ ice maker now. 
2000 Dynasty 40’

I did the same thing and I agree with you in that I would go Frigidaire route also. My Norcold ice maker quit for the second time so now using a countertop model. 

[Fasthobie16]

Tim and Rosa

When my ice my quits, I turn off the refer, empty the side with the ice maker , direct a fan to it , mop out the water , put the frozen food back that I put in. a cooler , turn th ridge back on and it makes ice again. (Ice maker freezes up sometimes).

[timaz996]

32 minutes ago, Fasthobie16 said:

Tim and Rosa

When my ice my quits, I turn off the refer, empty the side with the ice maker , direct a fan to it , mop out the water , put the frozen food back that I put in. a cooler , turn th ridge back on and it makes ice again. (Ice maker freezes up sometimes).

Mine was leaking and I had a 1" thick block of ice on the floor of the freezer. I got tired of messing with it.

[Ivan K]

2 hours ago, Tim-AZ said:

Mine was leaking and I had a 1" thick block of ice on the floor of the freezer. I got tired of messing with it.

There is nothing to leak but they can overflow when not turned off while driving or by misadjustment. There is a little screw that controls duration of valve opening. Unfortunately the way it is installed in norcold, it has to be either removed or know exactly where to drill a little hole in the white plastic cover to access the screw while in place. This type is easy to repair and test if the motor still works. Peeling of the teflon coating is an other problem

[timaz996]

Yep, I just tired of messing with it.

[CAT Stephen]

On 7/15/2022 at 10:51 AM, Ann Henry said:

NOTE.  The THREADS HAVE BEEN COMBINED.

No punitive action taken  Please do not do coninuations or new threads with similar topics unless at lease a Month has transpired.

We are having trouble with our Norcold refrigerator. A red light is on behind the outside refrigerator panel. we rest it using a magnet so the red light goes off. We then start the rigerator with either electric or propane, it runs for about 15 minutes and then it shuts off and the red light is on again. any ideas as to what we can do?

Here are your options depending on your use case.  Your use case has a substantial impact on which option will fit best for you:

- Option 1: If you are on the grid nearly full time and do not have significant solar power, then stay the course with your existing absorption refrigerator, but make the following changes: 

• Buy a new 12V compressor style cooling unit for your existing refrigerator from JC Refrigeration.  Then, if you are within a reasonable driving distance from JC Refrigeration in northern Indiana, have JC Refrigeration install the new compressor based cooling unit.  You may also have JC refrigeration ship a cooling unit to a qualified local installer
  • https://jc-refrigeration.com/product-category/norcold-12v-hvac-cooling-units

 

- Option #2: If you have significant solar power (i.e. more than 300 watts) and have more than 200 amp hours of usable battery capacity (this is 200 amp hours of lithium or 400 amp hours of Lead Acid), and your solar power is available while your RV is stored , then do proceed exactly the same as Option #1:

• Buy a new 12V compressor style cooling unit for your existing refrigerator from JC Refrigeration.  Then, if you are within a reasonable driving distance from JC Refrigeration in northern Indiana, have JC Refrigeration install the new compressor based cooling unit.  These units only consume 60 watts when the compressor is running.  You may also have JC refrigeration ship a cooling unit to a qualified local installer
  • https://jc-refrigeration.com/product-category/norcold-12v-hvac-cooling-units/
• Another equivalent choice of a 12V compressor RV style refrigerator that has the interior storage and features of a residential refrigerator are the RecPro RV 12V refrigerators.  These refrigerators have doors that will not open when you are on bumpy roads just like your existing Norcold and they include standard mounting hardware so that you don't need to do a custom installation. The only catch is that they may or may not fit your existing opening, so measure carefully:
  • https://www.recpro.com/rv-12v-refrigerator/
• Another alternative, just for this use case, is to purchase a counter depth residential refrigerator that fits your existing opening, but keep in mind that will be a custom installation which requires that your inverter is on full time since residential refrigerators run on 120VAC.  Although most residential refrigerators run on 75-200 watts, the issue is that most inverters draw a significant amount of additional energy (typically 45-100 watts) which put a substantial additional load on your solar system and battery bank.  Be careful of advice to run a residential refrigerator without considering the additional electrical load of running an inverter full time.
  • Other big disadvantages of residential refrigerators verses the JC refrigerators compressor cooling units is that the don't have a provision to keep the doors from opening when encountering bumpy roads and they expel their heat into your RV instead of outside your RV.  Most RV rooftop ACs are barely sufficient, thus adding a residential refrigerator heat load will make make cooling your RV more challenging in the summer.

- Option #3: If you are not on the grid nearly and do not have significant solar power, then stay the course with your existing absorption refrigerator, but make the following changes: 

• Buy a new absorption style cooling unit for your existing refrigerator from JC Refrigeration.  Also, buy the ARP Absorption Boiler monitor (Called the Fridge Defend) from https://www.arprv.com to eliminate the potential of a cooling unit fire.  Then, if you are within a reasonable driving distance from JC Refrigeration in northern Indiana, have JC Refrigeration install the new absorption based cooling unit with the ARP Fridge Defend boiler monitor.  The ARP Fridge Defend will also substantially increase the lifespan of your absorption cooling unit by protecting against boiler overheating conditions which lead to internal corrosion and failure of the cooling unit.  For additional peace of mind and an absolutely "safe" refrigerant for an absorption cooling unit to make a fire impossible, JC Refrigeration also offers  helium based absorption cooling units so you can optionally select a helium based cooling unit instead of an Ammonia based cooling unit:
  • https://jc-refrigeration.com/product-category/norcold-gas-electric-cooling-units/
  • https://www.arprv.com/purchase.php
    • Purchase Option #1 from ARP because JC refrigeration controls their fans with a thermostat to maintain your warranty

Above all things, your personal safety comes first.  So, if you fit into use case #3 above, be advised:

• In all cases, never buy the Norcold or Dometic OEM new gas absorption refrigerators or their associated replacement cooling units due to the risk of fire.  Although both Norcold and Dometic have partially addressed their fire issue via safety cutoff safety switches for runaway boiler overheating situations, their cutoff switches don't turn off the boilers until a much higher temperature is reached versus the ARP Control.  Also, the JC Refrigeration units have much thicker tubing than the OEM units and are MUCH more efficient at keeping your refrigerator and freezer temperatures down in the safe range.  
•   The #1 insurance claim in the RV insurance industry is refrigerator fires.  NEVER run an ammonia based cooling unit without an ARP Fridge Defend and / or a fire suppression system attached to the cooling unit.  If you are depending on the Norcold and Dometic recall kits alone (i.e. thermal runaway switches) then you are at risk for an ammonia fire when the thin OEM cooling unit tubing corrodes and dumps flammable ammonia on your open propane flame or electric heaters.  I have personally been there and done that with my Norcold OEM cooling unit when it failed and was very fortunate. 
• The JC refrigeration Helium based absorption units are vastly superior to the OEM ammonia based cooling units from a safety perspective as there is no potential for fire as Helium doesn't burn.

[Chuck B 2004 Windsor]

On 7/15/2022 at 3:37 PM, Dr4Film said:

It's not about the number of fires versus the number of refrigerators. Or whether you are a Full-Time or Part-Time RV'er. These RV's are fully engulfed in flames within 4-5 minutes and totally crispy in 15-30 minutes.

The rear of the NotSoCold is like a chimney flue and that's why the fire escalates so quickly.

What it boils down to is whether you want to take the risk or not.

I chose not to over 10 years ago, so I sleep very well at night not thinking about how to use the emergency window and taking all of my important stuff with me.

Another RV fire that looks like it started in the Norcold frig this morning at 12:38.  The man sleeping in it was sent home to his maker on fire.  What a painful way to go.   It was in Gulfport Mississippi.  

[bonfield]

With reports of so many fridge fires i decided to purchase a small JOGOSWALL permanent fire extinguiser. Has anyone got the iinformation on where and how to postion this for best affect and for some piece of mind.Pictures would be good if possible.

[cbr046]

On 10/12/2022 at 3:16 PM, Chuck B 2004 Windsor said:

Another RV fire that looks like it started in the Norcold frig this morning at 12:38.  The man sleeping in it was sent home to his maker on fire.  What a painful way to go.   It was in Gulfport Mississippi.  

Smoke inhalation.  Not painful, but still dead.  A working smoke detector would have saved him.  Ours works, as testified by our last meal this week. 

No mention of the age of the camper (looks old) but the deceased was sleeping in it while renovating it for the owner.  I can't imagine how the owner must feel.  https://www.wlox.com/2022/10/12/victim-identified-downtown-gulfport-camper-trailer-fire/

It would have been a smaller single door fridge, not large like our Normedics (as if it matters). 

- bob

[lusgi]

Didn't see any mention of cause?

[Chuck B 2004 Windsor]

The Norcold, Inc. refrigerators listed below have been recalled.

It is important to implement this safety enhancement to prevent an unsafe elevation in the temperature of the cooling unit should the unit fail in operation. This enhancement seeks to minimize the risk of injury or death due to fire.

Norcold Inc. has decided to recall certain 1200, 1201, 1210 and 1211 model gas/electric refrigerators with serial numbers from 315525 to 13088811, non-consecutively. The refrigerator’s model and serial number are located inside the fresh food compartment. These refrigerators may have cooling units with a cooling unit serial number between 700000 to 13085759. This is a new recall campaign to include all 1200, 1201, 1210 and 1211 models.

Even if your refrigerator was repaired as part of a previous recall, it is necessary to have it repaired again to minimize the risk of injury or death due to fire.

If you have one of these refrigerator models, use the following procedure:

1. Identify and write down the refrigerator model. If it is a Norcold 1200, 1201, 1210 and 1211 model, go to step 2.
2. Identify and write down the refrigerator serial number. If the serial number falls in the range of 315525 and 13088811, go to step 3.
3. Identify and write down the cooling unit serial number. If the serial number falls in the range of 700000 and 13085759, go to step 4.
4. Call your dealer immediately.

The installation of the High-Temperature Sensor will be at no cost to you.

Owners of recalled refrigerators should NOT operate their refrigerator until it can be professionally repaired by your dealer or a Norcold authorized service center.

If you have one of the recalled refrigerators and you:

Currently reside in the RV, you should immediately:

• Set the refrigerator controls to “OFF”.
• Unplug the refrigerator through the service vent on the outside of the vehicle.
• Contact your dealer, a Norcold authorized service center or Norcold’s Recall Center at 1-800-767-9101 as soon as possible to get assistance.

Do not currently reside in the RV, you should immediately:

1. Set the refrigerator controls to “OFF”
2. Unplug the refrigerator through the service vent on the outside of the vehicle.
3. Disconnect from shore power.
4. Contact your dealer, a Norcold authorized service center or Norcold’s Recall Center at 1-800-767-9101 as soon as possible to get assistance.

Failure to follow these instructions can result in a fire causing injury or death.

To locate an authorized service center, click the button below.

SERVICE CENTER LOCATOR

Norcold, Inc. cannot accept responsibility if you do not immediately arrange to take your refrigerator into a Dealer/Service Center for repair. Moreover, you could be personally liable to third parties for property damage or bodily injuries resulting from your failure to have your refrigerator immediately repaired.

If you have any questions, please contact us at 1-800-767-9101,

Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Models 1200, 1201, 1210 and 1211

1200, 1201, 1210 and 1211, 4 door refrigerators with cooling unit serial numbers ranging from 700000 to 13085759.

These refrigerators were installed as original equipment in vehicle model years 1997 to 2010. Other recalled refrigerators may have been purchased as a replacement during the same period.

N600 and N800 Series Models 1082 Free-Standing LP Model

Smaller Gas Absorption Models

N305/ N306 Recall

You need to bite the bullet and get rid of the frig.  Why try to pour additional money into a recalled frig?