I have been working on my Norcold 1200 again and have noticed that the unit will power up and operate when only connecting the 12 volt (+) supply to the rear control board connector labeled "12V". The connector labeled GND can be disconnected totally. Obviously there refrigerator is somehow already grounded somewhere, but I am wondering if this is a problem or is normal??

It’s probably grounded through the 3rd pin of the AC power cord and I’m pretty sure it is normal.

wnjj wrote:It’s probably grounded through the 3rd pin of the AC power cord and I’m pretty sure it is normal.yes, but the only thing I noticed is that it will also operate when the 120 cord is unplugged making the refrigerator go to propane mode.

It is possible that one of the screws holding the circuit board has a ground connection.The 120 volt element could be going to ground

Is the refrigerator metal frame in any way touching the trailer metal frame? Trailer frame is ground, and the fridge internal 12 v ground may also be connected to the refrigerator frame.

Do you have copper propane piping? One of my refrigerators ran on the hot & the propane copper pipe until the broken ground was discovered.

Norcold 1200 operates without ground connected | Good Sam Community

16 Replies

Chris_Bryant
Explorer II
Feb 05, 2020
vermilye wrote:
Do you have copper propane piping? One of my refrigerators ran on the hot & the propane copper pipe until the broken ground was discovered.

^^^^^^^ This ^^^^^^^
vermilye
Explorer
Feb 05, 2020
Do you have copper propane piping? One of my refrigerators ran on the hot & the propane copper pipe until the broken ground was discovered.
BB_TX
Nomad
Feb 05, 2020
Is the refrigerator metal frame in any way touching the trailer metal frame? Trailer frame is ground, and the fridge internal 12 v ground may also be connected to the refrigerator frame.
enblethen
Nomad
Feb 05, 2020
It is possible that one of the screws holding the circuit board has a ground connection.
The 120 volt element could be going to ground
kmb1966
Explorer
Feb 05, 2020
wnjj wrote:
It’s probably grounded through the 3rd pin of the AC power cord and I’m pretty sure it is normal.

yes, but the only thing I noticed is that it will also operate when the 120 cord is unplugged making the refrigerator go to propane mode.
wnjj
Explorer II
Feb 05, 2020
It’s probably grounded through the 3rd pin of the AC power cord and I’m pretty sure it is normal.

Forum Discussion

Norcold 1200 operates without ground connected

16 Replies

About Technical Issues

Related Content

Generator operation

Norcold Model 611 Fridge problem

Norcold fridge backup operation

Norcold N611V-N811V operation question

propane fire pit operating cost and connection to TT