Norcold 1200 is being extended

I had a 1200 Norcold that the cooling unit failed on in Feburary of 09. Lower box got up to 65 degrees while the ice maker continued to make ice. Camping World replaced the cooling unit with a new one at that time on my extended warranty. Almost exactly 6 months later same thing happened. Camping World offered to change unit again on their dime as was still under their one year warranty. After talking to Norcold warranty department I decided that it just wasn't worth the effort to go through the work and change again. We live in our coach full time and just getting to a Camping World is at least an hour each way. We both have jobs so can't leave the coach as we need a place to sleep at night. We opted to replace the Norcold unit with a Kenmore residentual refridgerator. This unit neetly fit right in the hole that the Norcold came out of with only minor adjustment. Needed to cut the 2 inch header out and 1/8 inch from one side of the opening. Kenmore unit slid right in. It does protrud out about 6 inches further than the Norcold did. But now I have ice and water through the door and nearly double the amount of cubic feet of storage space. The Norcold was 12.6 cu.ft. while the Kenmore is 21.8 cu.ft. I can put 3 one gallon of milk jugs front to back inside and not fill all the shelf space. We are nearly always plugged into shore power and when we travel we just run the generator every couple hours or on short trips all the time. It only uses about a pint of diesel per hour. I highly recommend anyone who is a full timer like us to convert to a real refridgerator. Cost of a replacement Norcold was $4400 cost of a new Kenmore while on sale was $1300. It will take me a long time to burn up the difference in what extra diesel I will have to use while traveling to run my generator. The headaches of the RV fridge are gone now. I don't have to worry about running my battery down or the propane tank dry. I can stock enough food to last all week or longer instead of 3 or 4 days. Why anyone thinks they need an RV fridge is beyond me. You pay a lot for nothing. ANd by the way when we removed the Norcold there was a black charred area where the exhaust stack ends inside the opening. Our unit was in a slide room so no cooling vent hole to the roof.
Jim

For those that haven't followed the recall process, I'll add some information that I've gotten from other recalls.

There is a significant amount of time between the initial determination of the need for a recall and the availability of the hardware, etc. needed for the owners to have the recall work done. In the current Dometic recall, it took about 6 months from the notification to NHTSA until the first kits were available.

The letter in the above post was dated for March 28, so it has only been a little over a month since the initiation of the recall process. Hopefully for owners of these reefers, the process will be faster than the Dometic recall since there is an existing recall for the same, but slightly older, models.

The letter states they plan to begin recalls in May - this month.

If you have one of the newer units, I suggest you check this thread periodically to see what others have learned.

And if you have new information, please post it in this thread.

Mel

Thank you. I have found that Norcold is in the process of extending the recall.

From their letter dated March 28, 2008 to NHTSA: "Norcold has determined that this recall should be extended to embrace coolirlg units made by Norcold serving as components in Norcold models 1200LR, 1200LRIM and 1201 \-RIM manufactured from March 1, 1999 to February 28, 2001. Each cooling unit under this extension has a serial number between 1008701 and 1273700, non consecutively."

Link to the letter: Norcold March 28 Letter.

Link to NHTSA reply: NHTSA April 16 Reply to Norcold.

Link to Norcold Recall site: Norcold Recalls.

There is an online registration form and also a phone number for owners to contact.

I doubt that RV manufacturers and Norcold dealers and service centers have received formal notification yet, but the Norcold recall staff may have the information.

If anyone contacts Norcold and gets additional info, please post it in this thread.

Mel

Not that I am aware of- be aware that the serial numbers Norcold is giving is the cooling unit serial number (on the tank of the cooling unit), and not the refrigerator serial number.
You can call the Norcold recall line at (800) 767-9101 to get the info.