Norcold refrigerator

One word: Residential.

I got tired of my Norcold. I replaced every part on the fridge over the years (some parts were replaced many times). It was always something with that thing. Last Fall, I bit the bullet and swapped it out with a residential fridge of the same dimensions. It was $299 well spent. Now that your Norcold is working again, it is something to think about for next time.

Fridge is up and running again! The recall box that was installed two years ago was bad!!! It wouldn't reset.

This recall box has never "tripped" as far as we can tell. The red light has never actually come on. The refer was working great when we turned it off last October, but would not come on this Spring. No light in the refer, nothing. No red light. Drove it to town and the refer came on. Came home and plugged in the coach and refer went off! No red light. Technician checked and said there was 12 volt to the recall box, but nothing coming out........no red light. This recall box has never been reset.....

IF the recall part is bad and cannot be reset without tripping again Norcold WILL pay to replace the recall kit. You replace the COMPLETE kit, not just the board. I would state that you need another QUALIFIED tech to look at your refer. I have NEVER had a recall kit or refer continually fail after a CORRECT diag and fix. Is it possible your refer cooling unit is BAD? Have you done a complete cool down after the reset's? I HAVE had recall kits continue to trip because the cooling unit was bad. That means the recall kit was doing its job. THAT is why Norcold wants the refer (cooling unit) completely checked after a recall box has tripped. IF the CU is defective, there is no reason to replace or keep resetting the recall box. Doug

This Norcold fridge is becoming a nightmare! One month today from the first time a service tech looked at it! After being in storage for 6 months, it wouldn't turn on. Made an appt to have it checked out. Drove it 5 miles, tech looked at it and it was on! He wanted $20 for his time! Got home, turned it off. Two days later tried turning it on again and nothing! Technician came by the house....same guy....checked it out and said the recall part was bad. Norcold won't send the new one because "your rv has already had the recall done"!!! Now they wanted us to have a technician check it again with Norcold on the phone so they can tell him how to reset it! Three weeks later and no one wants to work on it because they say Norcold won't pay them anything for fixing or replacing this recall part! We are trying to sell this Motorhome with potential buyers coming Sunday and no working fridge! I finally found a service technician that said he would stop by this evening. Hopefully, we'll get some help!

snowbird47 wrote:
After a couple weeks, a service tech has said it's definitely the thing they put on the Norcold refrigerator a couple years ago when they had that recall. He said all he gets done is replacing these and that Norcold gives them such a hard time about replacing them. On top of that, he said Norcold doesn't want to pay hardly anything when they are replaced! If there is such a problem with these things, why can't something be done to Norcold? The service tech said Dometic uses a much simpler deal to prevent overheating.

Your 1200 has the ONLY Thermocoupler system that Norcold uses. NO OTHER refer or model uses this specific recall kit. Norcold will pay for a DEFECTIVE 1200 recall kit if it cannot be reset and is defective. Norcold will not pay to reset them or to pay for the operational check to verify that the cooling unit is OK and the recall did not trip from a bad cooling unit. Norcold pays the exact same labor to replace as they did to install the kit. Same time to do that is involved. We charge .5 labor to reset and verify the cooling unit integrity. IF the recall kit needs replaced we get an additional .5 from Norcold to replace it. You MUST replace the complete kit, not just the black box. Doug

After a couple weeks, a service tech has said it's definitely the thing they put on the Norcold refrigerator a couple years ago when they had that recall. He said all he gets done is replacing these and that Norcold gives them such a hard time about replacing them. On top of that, he said Norcold doesn't want to pay hardly anything when they are replaced! If there is such a problem with these things, why can't something be done to Norcold? The service tech said Dometic uses a much simpler deal to prevent overheating.

Thanks Dennis! Yes, we only tested it, then put it back the right way. No luck. It's getting dark so we'll look at it more tomorrow. Thanks for your help. 19 yrs of rving and this is a first for us. We've had this RV 10 yrs and never really had a problem with the fridge before. I'm sure we'll get it figured out. We'll let you know if we get it going tomorrow! At least we're not out on the road somewhere!

Thanks for your help Ivylog. We tried that but nothing! We're taking it in to get new tires Tuesday so we'll stop by our small rv dealer to see if he can find the problem. He's the one that did the recall a couple years ago.

Ivylog wrote:
Since it's stopped working while not on, it's easy enough to bypass the recall box as it only has four wires. The two small ones go to the sensor in the flue to detect an overheat and a 12V in wire and a blue 12V out wire going to the control box. Put the 12V in to where the blue wire goes and see if you have power to the indicator and that the light comes on when you open the door.

CAUTION! CAUTION! You CAN bypass the recall box to TEST ONLY...I would not operate the fridge WITHOUT the protection of the recall box.

You have TWO fuses INSIDE the black box you'll find just forward of the recall box. One is for 120VAC and the other is for 12VDC. Use a meter to check them for continuity. My guess is one of them is blown.....easy fix, just make sure you replace them with identical fuses......Dennis