Norcold 1200 RIM

tropical36 wrote:

Ivylog wrote:
Cooling after tapping on the coils is an indication that you may have a blockage in the cooling unit. Unless it's 50 degrees outside a 1200 needs the fans running to cool properly. How many times do you have to be told to fix your fan problems?

Build/find a platform that is almost as high as the bottom of your 1200. Remove the four screws top and bottom plus probably two at the back through the vent. With someone prying on the bottom from the back and pulling on the front you should be able to slide it out onto the platform. Read my first post and put it back in after fixing the fan problems.

I for one, didn't even know this fridge had fans, but did put one in of my own back there. Could be that mine aren't working either, although it does cool pretty well, if you do everything right, including not loading it with a lot of warm items and turning it up to 9 when it's hot outside.
I did look at the wiring diagrams and yes, it does show two fans. Where they are, pray tell and how they actually provide cooling to the coils in back, I haven't a clue. Also don't hear a thing, if not for my self installed fan, running.

1. the fans are right below the upper condenser
2. 1200 Fans are REQUIRED for the refer to operate correctly
3. How do they provide cooling? Analogy. You have a Radiator on your car. WHY do you need the Fan? To get a good volume of fresh COOL air THRU the radiator fins. Especially when in heavy stop and go traffic and idling. 1200 model refers are HUGE. They require more volume of fresh air from the bottom up thru the top than normal convection air can flow. So, they have 2 fans to pull and push the air thru the Condensor fins and out the top.
4. LACK of adequate air and the refer will not cool correctly. Remove the fan on your Auto. Think it will run cool enough now:B Doug

Ivylog wrote:
Cooling after tapping on the coils is an indication that you may have a blockage in the cooling unit. Unless it's 50 degrees outside a 1200 needs the fans running to cool properly. How many times do you have to be told to fix your fan problems?

Build/find a platform that is almost as high as the bottom of your 1200. Remove the four screws top and bottom plus probably two at the back through the vent. With someone prying on the bottom from the back and pulling on the front you should be able to slide it out onto the platform. Read my first post and put it back in after fixing the fan problems.

I for one, didn't even know this fridge had fans, but did put one in of my own back there. Could be that mine aren't working either, although it does cool pretty well, if you do everything right, including not loading it with a lot of warm items and turning it up to 9 when it's hot outside.
I did look at the wiring diagrams and yes, it does show two fans. Where they are, pray tell and how they actually provide cooling to the coils in back, I haven't a clue. Also don't hear a thing, if not for my self installed fan, running.

Cooling after tapping on the coils is an indication that you may have a blockage in the cooling unit. Unless it's 50 degrees outside a 1200 needs the fans running to cool properly. How many times do you have to be told to fix your fan problems?

Build/find a platform that is almost as high as the bottom of your 1200. Remove the four screws top and bottom plus probably two at the back through the vent. With someone prying on the bottom from the back and pulling on the front you should be able to slide it out onto the platform. Read my first post and put it back in after fixing the fan problems.

faucet1 wrote:
Even though the frig did start to cool after tapping on the coils, and cool good for at least a day so far, as I mentioned, what might cause the fans to not come on. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

99 percent of the time, it is the FAN tstat which is on the upper rear condenser fins and only accessed by pulling the refer, unless it is in a slide room. Rare for BOTH fans to break at the same time. Doug

Even though the frig did start to cool after tapping on the coils, and cool good for at least a day so far, as I mentioned, what might cause the fans to not come on. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

DON"T use that so called tech. I AM a Tech. Tapping on the rear coils???? Give me a break. The FANS are the FIRST thing to fix. You MUST pull the refer to diagnois the fan system and fan tstat. There is NO other way. Period. Doug

I called a tech who seems fairly knowledgable. After a check of the system it appeared that circulation is the problem. After some tapping on the boiler and lines near the burner, the unit cools down at night w/freezer at 19 degrees and frig at 39. Once the next day starts and heats up to about 70, the temperature in freezer rises to 32 and frig gradually rises to 58 degrees by 5 in the afternoon. I never hear the fans running. Could this be the problem? Tech said to call him in a couple of days if the problem didn't correct self. Any one have a further suggestion?

faucet1 wrote:
The recall by Norcold whereby they put a safety switch on the back of the frig...the small control box has a red light on it. Is this red light suppose to be on if the box is working properly? Or is it suppose to be off and come on if the control box is not working? Mine is off.

Thermistor could be bad. Try unplugging it and to see if it'll go full on.
Also....
Thermistor troubleshooting
Then there's .... This thing...

The thing is if this is a bad control unit, those are fairly expensive especially including labor. For the OP I would totally go through everything, make sure to blow out any dust, look for bad fuses and overall go over it with common sense. Look at components for anything burned up (electronics).

For me after being through MORE expensive fridge repairs on my 3 coaches, I decided to just start replacing them with $150 fridges from Walmart. When it came time to do one in the bounder, the replacement was a $100 full size from Craiglist. Ice cream is always frozen. It is also possible to freeze huge ice blocks for going down the road to keep the fridge cool. It also works for boondocking.

Put a fan in the vent blowing in and see if this makes it cool better. If it does then it needs to be pulled out so you can get to the back of the refer and check the tstat or fans for proper operations. Before putting back in run two wires from the tstat down to the vent so you can turn the fans on manually.

I added a third computer fan inside the vent and would run it 24/7 when it was hot before giving up on my NoCold. If your cooling unit is bad think seriously about going residential before wasting any serious money on your 1200... NOT like I did.