RV Refrigerator

Some comments on the absorption refrigerators in RV's. It seems that the newer types such as the Norcold 1200 are considerably more prone to failure than the older models. The older ones would run just about forever without problems, however the newer Norcold's are fraught with problems. Be it failure to cool down, only the freezer cold and the refrigerator compartment in the 60-70 degree range, coolant leaks and fires. There's presently legal action on the Norcolds due to the fires and NUMEROUS recalls. Some of these problems may be attributable to poor design and some may be due to poor installation. According to Norcold instructions the area behind and above the refrig needs to be built to very close tolerances when they are used as a built-in and in many cases they are not. In addition, when a problem in an RV refrigerator occurs, there are very few repair people competent enough to diagnose and repair it. You get a guy who went through a training course (you hope) a few years ago and is now the "expert" but doesn't understand what he's doing. He's usually following the cook book, and when he gets to the last step he's out of ideas. The way we use them doesn't help as whatever he does he probably won't see the customer again.

Because of the fires and legal action, companies are afraid to admit to problems in design and/or blame the installation. The coach builders and installers blame the design and the customer so no real problems are solved. Not only are no problem solutions forthcoming, but the companies seem to spend 90% of their effort denying a problem exists rather than fixing anything. I'd heard that some of this may have been due to government and EPA required changes that forced manufacturers into designing less than satisfactory units, but that allegation is extremely foggy to try and get any info about.

Just to give you some info on where we're coming from: I had a 2005 Diesel Bounder with a Norcold 1200 that worked fine. Ran it 75,000 miles. When we bought a 2008 Allegro Bus with essentially the same refrigerator in it, I started having too warm inside issues after 2 years. I replaced the cooling unit with an Amish unit myself and made sure the compartment was to specs. In less than 8 months that unit was beginning to give me similar issues. The "new" cooling unit was replace under warranty and reinstalled by professionals in Tucson, Az, who's only job was absorption refrigerator repair and replacement. This unit lasted about 14 months and again suffered similar maladies. In the course of ownership of these units, just about all other parts of the refrigerator cooling system were replaced such as control boards, heaters, baffles, thermistors, gas orifices, and any other thing I could think of, to no avail. We replaced the unit with a residential refrigerator and will never own another absorption unit.

Hope this helps. A search of this or other RV forums on Refrigerators, Refrigerator fires, and any related words will give you more reading than you probably want.