2 year old Norcold refrig is dead w leaking cooling unit

[dehaile]

I have a 2014 GD 355TH. It has a norcold 1210 4 door refrigerator. This is the notorious refrigerator that has a class action lawsuit (possible now settled for 33 million) for leaking cooling units that can cause fires/explosions and even some deaths. The manufacture did not do anything to correct the issue , they just issued a recall to install a heat temparature sensor that would shut the unit down if it started to overheat. Again, the recall did not address the issue of what was causing the problem, they just tried to stop the units from blowing up. You can google norcold class action for more info.

Back to my problem. My unit has a serial number that is not part of the class action (too new) It's cooling unit has failed with a least three pinholes that are leaking. I called the dealer and also a couple of RV repair places and they all said "good luck" but even if norcold sent you a replacement cooling unit , it would also fail. These cooling units are $1200-$1800 plus at least 5 hours labor to install. New refrigerators are 4K! I can't believe this !! We have such a nice RV with no refrigerator! I don't know what to do. BTW , this is not a Grand Design problem but I hope they quit using Norcold if they have not already. This is a major issue because some of these units have exploded even with the recall device installed. If you don't think that is a problem, then think about that RV neighbor of yours that is right next to you in the RV park with one of these ticking timebombs. I am trying now to decide if I want to try one of the amish built cooling units (about $2200.00) installed or go to a residential refrigerator. I have pictures if interested.

thanks for listening.

[nayther]

dehaile wrote:
Thank for all the replies. The $2200.00 price was to have someone install it. I will probably wind up doing it myself once I get "over it".

You'll need help getting the fridge out and on the ground. Removing the old cooling unit is a *****, they foam it in place and cutting out the old foam doesn't free it up completely, I tweaked my back pretty good pulling on it. It eventually comes free, then it's all pretty straight forward. Nice thing about having a toy hauler is you have a big door to work with, on regular RV's you often have to remove the door frame to get the unit in/out. I just laid it down on the floor in the trailer on a packing blanket and worked on it there.

[Old-Biscuit]

offtohavasu wrote:
Interesting to see Amish has a helium replacement for the units as well.

That is due to Atwoods Research/Development of their helium RV fridge
Same absorption principle just uses helium vs hydrogen

[dehaile]

Thank for all the replies. The $2200.00 price was to have someone install it. I will probably wind up doing it myself once I get "over it".

[offtohavasu]

Interesting to see Amish has a helium replacement for the units as well.

[lj2654]

rvcoolingunit.com this is a website for the Amish cooling units for the Norcold refrigerators.

[nayther]

Big Katuna wrote:
Where are you getting the $2200 price? I bought my Amish built for my Norcold 1200 for $1200 delivered. It was easy enough to do myself. Excellent unit way better than OEM.

It sucks that it failed so soon but in the big picture of RV $tuff failing; replace it and move on.

I'm dropping $2500 next week to get all my dual pane windows defogged and repaired.

I did the same thing, replaced the cooling unit with the Amish rebuilt and its worked just fine. Mine is a Dometic brand.

[Big_Katuna]

Where are you getting the $2200 price? I bought my Amish built for my Norcold 1200 for $1200 delivered. It was easy enough to do myself. Excellent unit way better than OEM.

It sucks that it failed so soon but in the big picture of RV $tuff failing; replace it and move on.

I'm dropping $2500 next week to get all my dual pane windows defogged and repaired.

[Old-Biscuit]

How often did you run the fridge OFF LEVEL?

How well did RV MFG. follow/adhere to Norcolds Installation Instructions for proper cooling?

Yes a 'RECALL BOX' was added to some older models to shut fridge completely off in the event of a HIGH-HIGH temp excursion (700*F)
But 10,000S absorption fridges are running just fine. And have been for many many decades

Some issues have been caused by fridge mfgs.....cost cutting/material problems
Some issues have been caused by RV mfgs......lack of proper installation
Some issues have been caused by RV owners...running fridge off level

Have you been in contact directly with Norcold?

[Y-Guy]

Some of these units work forever others are prone to issues. Ours died days before a big trip, dealer found one 2 hours away but would take a few days to get it so we picked it up and they got on it and had us installed and out the door in a few hours. I'm not a big fan of extended warranties but it saved our bacon. That said if you can get a residential fridge and have room for additional batteries that is a very tempting way to go.

[dehaile]

I did not know this info till our unit went out 2 days ago and I started reading and reading.... I did not know what a cooling unit was or how these refrigerators work. Now I am informed.

[newman_fulltime]

So one question comes to mind if you know this much info why did you even bother buying the trailer with the noracold in it?