Norcold fires...

Last week I heard from a friend from Arizona. He bought a 2005 coach similar to mine a year ago. This summer they were traveling and the Norcold 1200 LRIM burned the coach to the ground in 20 minutes.

I do not know if he had the recalls (some or all) completed. I do know enough about mechanical engineering and product liability law to conclude that Norcold 1200 LRIM refers obviously are defective. Whatever the actual failure rate, it is higher than it should be.

Last week I heard from a friend from Arizona. He bought a 2005 coach similar to mine a year ago. This summer they were traveling and the Norcold 1200 LRIM burned the coach to the ground in 20 minutes.

I do not know if he had the recalls (some or all) completed. I do know enough about HVAC engineering and legal product liability law to conclude that Norcold 1200 LRIM refers obiviously are defective. Whatever the actual failure rate, it is higher than it should be.

good post fredbon, lots of good information there.

I have to agree with Doug. We are going on eleven years with our coach and the Norcold 1200LRIM has worked to perfection whether it is on gas or electric. The temperature in the frig stays at around 36 degrees and the freezer I am not sure because I have never put a thermometer in there, but the steaks and the ice cream stays frozen like a rock. The ice maker works great. So I can not complain about the Norcold. But I do agree with Doug that you can get a fire with any refrigerator whether it is a home type or a RV type. If it is mechanical things do break.

If the refrigerator is not cooling enough, just slide the sensor that is mounted on the back fins up just a little at a time until you get the cooling that you want.

If you take time to view the video's at Ford's RV Refrigerator Repair Videos you will gain valuable information.

Fred

hey doug, i have a 2005 itasca that had a new norcold rim1200 refrig installed in it in 2009 because of a california lemon lawsuit. thats how i acquired the unit. i bought it from winnebago industries.
there was nothing wrong with my insulation period.i am aware of the insulation problem, and i installed the cooling unit myself.
the cooling unit just was not adequate in temps above 85 degrees. the higher the outside temp, the worse the refrig performed. i was in phoenix all last week with the temps near 100 degrees, and the the new amish cooling unit maintained the correct temps even with the sun on that side of my coach.
the bottom line is that in my situation, the new amish cooling unit did what the norcold cooling unit could not do.

We got our coach in January and by summer the 1200 Not-So-Cold was living up to its name. One fire in a coach is one fire to many so we just had the Samsung 197 and Magnum 2812 inverter installed all in about 7hrs by Bobby and Scott at Amazing Creation in Junction City, Or at a price far lower than anyone in the area. If any one is thinking of doing the switch, do it. Now my ice cream is as hard as a rock and my beer is at 38deg and it is quiet plus it looks cool.
JR

Back to the original question. Do more fires occur on elect than gas? Most likely yes by a huge margin. The number of hours on elect are far more than gas. In my case, the only time my 1200 (before I replaced it) wasn't on elect is when we were traveling down the road. The opportunity for failure on elect is far greater due to the number of hours running on elect as opposed to gas.
Ron

Doug...thanks for your input. I agree completely.

dougrainer wrote:
I am NOT saying it does NOT happen. I am saying that the possibility is EXTREMELY remote. I HAVE seen residential Refers catch fire at HOMES. My parents was one and I put out the fire. That said, that does NOT mean that Residential refers are now a hazard, but they can cause a fire if the icemaker line supply leaks and contacs electrical systems in the refer. That is what happened to my parents refer. I have also read about fires and I do not doubt them, but it is extremely rare. Doug

Good point on the residential perspective. If there is electric or gas involved fires can happen.