Residential vs Repair RV Fridge
Another problem here and found out on the land yacht's maiden voyage that the 4 door Norcold in never cold and now using the freezer area for the fridge. So, I know this has been around a number of t...
Forum Discussion
OP, DO NOT try and fix your 1200 like I did and now regret... assuming your problems are not just your fans not working or something obstructing your air flow.
I forgot to turn my 1200 off when parked on a incline overnight leading to it's even poorer operation. Went the Shipshewana/Amish route five years ago with fair results as we boondock often and could not find a home refer that did not require 6 more inches of height taking out the drawer below that the DW wanted. Several years ago it started warming up when traveling on gas and electric so I threw some more money at it...replace drain line, new control board, ARP control, more fans, better insulation....... no change. Between finding a unit that only required 1/2" more height and just tired of fooling with it almost every day I finally went residential last year. By putting in a separate AGM battery bank(500 AH) with it's own PSW inverter/100A charger/transfer switch powering a EnergyStar refer (21 cuft uses less energy than a 100W bulb). It will run for 36 hours before getting to 50 percent and by then the 800AH of AGM house batteries need charging anyway... actually at 18 hours so you could get by with just two batteries for the refer. All I can say is I should have done this years ago before putting good money into a sorry situation. If done with enough additional batteries there is not any reason to not go residential, even if you boondock often... we do in the summer. Granted most cannot do it for the $1200 it cost me... the same as a Amish cooling unit but at some point you need to stop trying to make a 1200 not spoil your food.
My DIY install through the driver's window. Removing the window is easy... remove screws on the inside. Sealing the window is easy with a tape make for this.
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28591852/gotomsg/28592041.cfm#28592041
I forgot to turn my 1200 off when parked on a incline overnight leading to it's even poorer operation. Went the Shipshewana/Amish route five years ago with fair results as we boondock often and could not find a home refer that did not require 6 more inches of height taking out the drawer below that the DW wanted. Several years ago it started warming up when traveling on gas and electric so I threw some more money at it...replace drain line, new control board, ARP control, more fans, better insulation....... no change. Between finding a unit that only required 1/2" more height and just tired of fooling with it almost every day I finally went residential last year. By putting in a separate AGM battery bank(500 AH) with it's own PSW inverter/100A charger/transfer switch powering a EnergyStar refer (21 cuft uses less energy than a 100W bulb). It will run for 36 hours before getting to 50 percent and by then the 800AH of AGM house batteries need charging anyway... actually at 18 hours so you could get by with just two batteries for the refer. All I can say is I should have done this years ago before putting good money into a sorry situation. If done with enough additional batteries there is not any reason to not go residential, even if you boondock often... we do in the summer. Granted most cannot do it for the $1200 it cost me... the same as a Amish cooling unit but at some point you need to stop trying to make a 1200 not spoil your food.
My DIY install through the driver's window. Removing the window is easy... remove screws on the inside. Sealing the window is easy with a tape make for this.
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28591852/gotomsg/28592041.cfm#28592041
