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DinTulsa's avatar
DinTulsa
Explorer
Aug 10, 2017

Fridge normal?

Getting ready to head out on our 2nd trip this year, first since feb due to a newborn. I've had the rv hooked to shore power the last couple of days with the Norcold fridge set to the middle temp, it has 3. The refrigerator was 40° inside on that second setting and the freezer was cold. I bought hamburger and chicken and sausage are not placed it inside the freezer all of the meet was not frozen at the time.

I set the temperature to the third setting which is the coldest setting and came back and hour later And look inside the fridge and the temperature was 50° inside the refrigerator but the freezer was cold. So I took most of the meat out with the exception of a couple packs of chicken breast that were partially frozen and some sausage, when I checked it this afternoon three hours later the freezer is cold chicken was freezing everything is getting harder in the freezer but the refrigerator was still approximately 42°. Isit normal for an empty refrigerator to lose that much temperature and take that long to recover when the items in the freezer when the items in the freezer aren't frozen?

Sorry if it's a little lengthy I'm speak texting.
  • Run it on propane.. I find mine cools much better, especially when it's hot out, on propane. Once I figured that out, I never run it on electric now.. Just what works for me..

    Good luck!

    Mitch
  • They were chilled, but not frozen. I figured the freezer would eventually freeze them since I'm not leaving until tomorrow. What I didn't count on was the effect it would have on the fridge section.
  • Never, never put unrefrigerated items in an ammonia fridge, always pre-cool or pre-freeze. They don't have the recovery to freeze or chill room temperature food. If you want to go that route, I suggest a portable cool box like a Dometic or an Engel with a built in compressor.
  • The refer will respond a little better with something in it, even if it is just bottled water.
    Model of Norcold refer?
    verify position of thermister if equipped.
  • I wold leave it on the original, middle setting and let it stabilize.
  • Yeah I figure the non-frozen food placed in the freezer sucked the temperature out of it.
  • Just load it up and check it in two days. Best to initially load with cold food.
  • 90-95 degrees, sun beating down on it right now. The fan is working good, I can feel the air blowing out of the top vent. I figure being empty isn't helping the refrigerator either.

    I think I'm a load some nonperishable cold items into the refrigerator portion to help in maintaining temperature.
  • What is the outside temp? 42 in the refer is pretty normal. Lack of air flow, facing the sun all contribute. Place a glass of water in the freezer. It should freeze in about 8 hours. Refer level? You might consider buying a computer muffin fan and mount it behind the refer near the top to aid in air flow across the coils.