Norcold 1200

[noleakman]

I have a National 06 sea Breeze and my safety switch put on from the recall on the fridge shut the fridge off! the light is on when I took the cover off the out side of the fridge! I can't remember which you swipe the magnet to reset the switch or how to put the wires back on like original to check and see if it still works! Any advice would be great!

[dougrainer]

prstlk wrote:
Could be wrong but as I understand it the overheat caused the material around the fridge to catch fire not the cooling unit itself catching fire. It is however just pipe.

We have been without a fridge since Nov 1st, now as norcold is finally willing to back the warranty on a cooling unit installed last Feb 2015....maybe. We have so far had to take 1 500 mile trip, and next week we get to take another.
We are ft and do a fair amount of boondocking otherwise the rf would have already been in the coach.
So far norcold/thetford customer service has not been the best. It was only after a registered letter to one of the officers of the co. Did we finally get some attention.
Thank goodness for neighbors with chest freezers and little fridges to loan.

The overheat rarely caused a fire. What "MAY" cause a fire is when the Ammonia(yellow stuff) mixture starts to leak out, IF there is a flame present(On LP) it "MAY" ignite the ammonia. Despite what some on theses forums state, that is rare. Now, the 1200 recall is a HI Heat kit. The normal operating temp of the burner/flue is about 350 degrees. The temp sensor is installed on this flue. When you have a ventilation blockage and or loss of ammonia, the unit cannot "percolate". That means the flue will heat up past 700 degrees. Once this happens the recall lock outs the operational controls and shuts the refer down and displays that red LED light. It makes no difference if on LP or 120 volts. Your 1200 that was replaced has a 1 year warranty from Norcold. Doug

[prstlk]

Could be wrong but as I understand it the overheat caused the material around the fridge to catch fire not the cooling unit itself catching fire. It is however just pipe.

We have been without a fridge since Nov 1st, now as norcold is finally willing to back the warranty on a cooling unit installed last Feb 2015....maybe. We have so far had to take 1 500 mile trip, and next week we get to take another.
We are ft and do a fair amount of boondocking otherwise the rf would have already been in the coach.
So far norcold/thetford customer service has not been the best. It was only after a registered letter to one of the officers of the co. Did we finally get some attention.
Thank goodness for neighbors with chest freezers and little fridges to loan.

[donfrump]

noleakman wrote:
Well I got the unit wired back to normal and the burner comes on on propane but unit seems to not get cool! I had cover off and could some yellow stuff ! I think I was told that is the gas leaking out of the cooling tubes does that sound right! Camping world wants about 1300 dollars for the unit plus installation of about 700 dollars does this sound like a good price ? He said it is a later model unit with no recall! What is this Amish unit I have heard of? I live in the Inland Empire in Southern Calif Any ideas or recommendations would be great to hear

If your fridge wont cool and has yellow residue its most likely had the ammonia leak from it
I have thought long and hard about that situation and researched what
I feel would be the right cooling unit
http://www.rvcool.com/norcold_1200_replacement_cooling_unit.htm
This company impresses me the most and has reasonable prices
takes about 6 shop hours to replace
I most likely would have a Samsung or similar 18CF fridge installed instead for the same or less money though

[noleakman]

Well I got the unit wired back to normal and the burner comes on on propane but unit seems to not get cool! I had cover off and could some yellow stuff ! I think I was told that is the gas leaking out of the cooling tubes does that sound right! Camping world wants about 1300 dollars for the unit plus installation of about 700 dollars does this sound like a good price ? He said it is a later model unit with no recall! What is this Amish unit I have heard of? I live in the Inland Empire in Southern Calif Any ideas or recommendations would be great to hear

[donfrump]

Totally Understood I know all about the cooling units failing for one reason or another usually because people for one reason or another operate them out of the factory level specs causing failures
If I wanted to I could show you a picture of thousands upon thousands of RF with leaked out cooling units or blown compressors

[Old-Biscuit]

donfrump wrote:

JR45 wrote:
It kind of sounds like playing Russian roulette with ones family. It didn't take me long to ditch the Not-So-Cold and install a RR frig. I'm with Old-Biscuit, know what you are doing before you do it.
JR

one has to do what they believe is best form themselves. I just don't see the danger that others see. the actual % of fridge fires from my research is miniscule compared to number of units produced. I will go RF when the time comes just because we want a bigger fridge and the cost is about the same as a new cooling unit

It's not just fires from RV fridges (Norcold and/or Dometic) it also is failing units.
Thousands of replacement cooling units have been sold/installed. Not all because of fires but because they have FAILED.

Not uncommon to find 20 yr RV fridges STILL in operation BUT it also is not uncommon to find numerous cooling unit failures on 10 yr or less RV fridges.

MFg. cutting production/material costs....thinner walled tubing/poorer welding (overheating/penetration) results in cracks.
Cracks let out the coolant solution. Hydrogen/ammonia are flammable and even if they don't catch fire....it still means failure.

[donfrump]

JR45 wrote:
It kind of sounds like playing Russian roulette with ones family. It didn't take me long to ditch the Not-So-Cold and install a RR frig. I'm with Old-Biscuit, know what you are doing before you do it.
JR

one has to do what they believe is best form themselves. I just don't see the danger that others see. the actual % of fridge fires from my research is miniscule compared to number of units produced. I will go RF when the time comes just because we want a bigger fridge and the cost is about the same as a new cooling unit

[JR45]

It kind of sounds like playing Russian roulette with ones family. It didn't take me long to ditch the Not-So-Cold and install a RR frig. I'm with Old-Biscuit, know what you are doing before you do it.
JR

[donfrump]

has anyone ever actually did a total count on fridge fires directly attributable to loss of ammonia via cracked cooling tubes causing to overheating thus causing fire?

I know there have been several due to rotting out of tubing or poor electrical connections etc
just curious as there has been hundreds of thousand of 1200 series fridges produced over the years.Iam on my 3rd 1200 series unit thru 3 pushers in the last 11 years and all mine have performed flawlessly except one thermistor replace

[Old-Biscuit]

Norcold Reset procedures are all over the Internet (NoCo Hard reset, Recall Box Reset etc.)

Reset

The Recall Box trips ALL DC power so fridge shuts down and can not be operated. A High-High Temp Sensor on stack was added. Trip point is roughly 700*F.

So before resetting using a magnet one needs to ask WHY DID IT TRIP????

Was it due to an actual High-High Temp event
OR
Was some other reason the cause.......water, faulty box etc.

So IF you do the reset and turn fridge back ON
WATCH IT cause would hate to read next post that RV burned down.

[noleakman]

noleakman@aol.com Thanks so much

[JerryofWV]

PM me your email and I will send you a PDF file of the reset procedure and an owner's manual for the 1200.