Forum Discussion

joelyn's avatar
joelyn
Explorer
Oct 08, 2016

Norcold refer question or suggestions.

have a 2007 single door Norcold refer in our trailer. never a problem when in use.
Leaving Monday for a couple weeks in vegas and turned the refer on Tues. with a setting of 6. after about 10 hours refer cooled down to where the box was about 36 or 37 degrees and freezer was 0 deg. had a couple items in the freezer and they froze great. had nothing in the refer part.
have a thermometer (wireless) in the refer part and temp stayed about 36 or 37 until last nite. about 7pm I glanced at the temp gauge and it was reading 41.8 degrees. went out and bumped the setting up to 7 and left it. this morning temp was down to around 36 again and stayed around there all day.
now again i am watching the temp (6:30PM) and it is slowly creeping up again and presently is at 42.1 degrees. went out and checked a second thermometer that i have in there and reading is the same. (thought maybe my thermometer was bad so put another one in).
so again i will watch it and see what it reads in the morning again. no one has even opened the door of the refer all day since we were not even in the unit.
so any idea why the temp starts to rise at night for 2 days in a row?
like i said there is nothing in the refer part since we haven't packed the food yet and the items in the freezer are still frozen.
Is this a normal process or because there is no items in the box/
any suggestions to check? hate to get to vegas and refer doesn't work properly.
THANKS FOR ANY HELP OR SUGGESTION IN THIS MATTER.
  • Old-Biscuit's avatar
    Old-Biscuit
    Explorer III
    Oct 08, 2016
    What model number is this Norcold?

    Is RV level?

    Put some cold items in food compartment and see if temps rise again.
  • Joe417's avatar
    Joe417
    Explorer
    Oct 08, 2016
    I've found that when I watch the temp with little in the fridge it seems to vary up and down.
    When we fill it with food and it has a day or so to stabilize it tends to stay more consistent.

    We started putting a couple of freezer packs in the cooling section and the freezer when we first turn it on. That helps to stabilize the temps quicker. After a day or so, we take them out and all runs quite consistent.

    The mental aspect, when I put the wireless thermometer in, I tend to watch it and worry when it varies. But, the wife's a food temp fanatic, so I keep it in there.
  • edatlanta's avatar
    edatlanta
    Explorer
    Oct 08, 2016
    Per Norcold, all of their units go through a cooling unit defrost cycle every 46 hours (or was it 47?). This is NOT a freezer frost defrost, but a defrost cycle for the cooling unit. It is perfectly normal operation and you can not change it. This is exactly what you seem to be describing. If you just leave your thermostat where you had it at 6, which is what I use on mine, it will work fine, just with the temp increase/decrease every 46 hours.
  • dougrainer's avatar
    dougrainer
    Nomad
    Oct 08, 2016
    edatlanta wrote:
    Per Norcold, all of their units go through a cooling unit defrost cycle every 46 hours (or was it 47?). This is NOT a freezer frost defrost, but a defrost cycle for the cooling unit. It is perfectly normal operation and you can not change it. This is exactly what you seem to be describing. If you just leave your thermostat where you had it at 6, which is what I use on mine, it will work fine, just with the temp increase/decrease every 46 hours.


    This is correct. But a few errors. The defrost is NOT a cooling unit defrost. It is just a simple shut down of the refer to allow any frost/ice build up on the Evaporator fins to melt and then drain off. IF you change any parameters of the refer, it starts that 48 to 54 hour defrost timer over. So, in the OP, when he changes the temp tstat, he starts the timer over again. The time of this shut down is about 2 hours. The interior temp will not really rise that much unless you happen to open the door a few times during that shut down. Now to the OP perceived problem. He has a thermometer and he is watching the temp. MY take is, the refer has reached temp and shuts off. the interior rises due to the refer shutting off and once the Tstat sees the slight rise starts cooling again. The Op's problem is, he SEES that and assumes there is a problem. What he needs to do is take the temp of a glass of water in the refer and use THAT temp as his temp seeker. NOT the air in the refer. When you have a refer with items IN the refer that are cold, that makes a refer work better. Doug

    PS, you CAN stop the Defrost cycle. Just turn the refer on and off every day for 10 seconds. That starts the 48 to 54 hour timer over again.
  • joelyn's avatar
    joelyn
    Explorer
    Oct 08, 2016
    wow, some great answers and things I never knew. So seems that I am ok to go and it is working as designed.
    Thank u all for the responses and important info..

    AGAIN, ALWAYS COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE FOR ANSWERS. THANKS AGAIN TO ALL

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