Norcold shutting off - Fixed!
The Norcold N621L in our camper has worked relatively well since new for the past 12 years. After returning from a trip in July we left the fridge on while plugged in inside the shop. We left some condiments and drinks in there but nothing important. Things were fine until about a week ago when we wanted some ice cream that we had put in the freezer some time before. It was soft and melting and the fridge was warm. The LED indicated it was still on 'auto' but I noticed the interior light was not on and wouldn't come on after closing/opening door again.
So I powered it off and back on and the light started working and the fridge started back up. I tried LP mode and it lit up immediately and then I switched back to auto which chose AC. Using the diagnostic mode showed everything normal except it had saved something like 4-5 completely different error codes. I cleared those and left it running. Later that night it was cooling nicely and the next night I checked again and the Otter Pops were refrozen.
Skip forward about a week to today when I load the camper on the truck for this coming week's camping. It's totally warm again, shows an 'r' on the LED (center and lower left segments) which is not any legitimate code that I can tell. So I power cycled it again and read the diagnostic codes: "AC relay stuck closed" which is quite likely bogus as it would only cause 100% duty cycle cooling anyway. Now about 3 hours later the freezer is down to 5 degrees and all is well again. The 5-night camp trip is gonna take babysitting this thing plus coolers as a backup.
At this point I'm thinking loose connection, failing control board or maybe something else on 12V power making noise on the line. The camper's been plugged in as usual with a PD9245 onboard. It's tough to debug when it works fine after power cycling. Anyone else have this kind of random flakiness with their Norcold?
Update - Added a post where I replaced the relay and all seems well...for now at least. :)
So I powered it off and back on and the light started working and the fridge started back up. I tried LP mode and it lit up immediately and then I switched back to auto which chose AC. Using the diagnostic mode showed everything normal except it had saved something like 4-5 completely different error codes. I cleared those and left it running. Later that night it was cooling nicely and the next night I checked again and the Otter Pops were refrozen.
Skip forward about a week to today when I load the camper on the truck for this coming week's camping. It's totally warm again, shows an 'r' on the LED (center and lower left segments) which is not any legitimate code that I can tell. So I power cycled it again and read the diagnostic codes: "AC relay stuck closed" which is quite likely bogus as it would only cause 100% duty cycle cooling anyway. Now about 3 hours later the freezer is down to 5 degrees and all is well again. The 5-night camp trip is gonna take babysitting this thing plus coolers as a backup.
At this point I'm thinking loose connection, failing control board or maybe something else on 12V power making noise on the line. The camper's been plugged in as usual with a PD9245 onboard. It's tough to debug when it works fine after power cycling. Anyone else have this kind of random flakiness with their Norcold?
Update - Added a post where I replaced the relay and all seems well...for now at least. :)
