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Bill1374's avatar
Bill1374
Explorer
Feb 02, 2014

dead fridge - added

Well, for second time in all my years of rving, my fridge has died. First hint something is up is the interior light died. Wait a bit and check the stack outside, not warm. Hmmm. Switch to gas, not even a try to light. Back to electric, power to board no power out to heater.

Call serviceman who was nice enough to come over at 6 last night. He confirms board bad. We bypass things so the box is cold and I don't lose the food and he heads off to get a board from Norcold.

The aggravating thing about it is that the fridge only lasted 8 days before it quit. That's right, a 2014 trailer that got turned on for the first time 8 days ago.
  • an added for you. It's been a couple of days back and forth with Norcold now, They wanted the tech to try several thinks which of course didn't work. So yep, the board is bad which was surmised from the very begining. Now the good part. Norcold says we'll send the board, probably 4 to 5 days to get it. Asked for overnight and was told if you pay for it. Some customer service!
    I called them and asked what about my freezer full of food. Answer - sorry about that. If you can't guess, I'm highly peeved at Thetford/Norcold right now and waiting for a return call from management.

    Bill
  • Yep, the first one I replaced with the Dinosaur board which worked very well till I sold the trailer about 5 years later. I agree that if electronics are going to fail, they will fail fairly quickly. This one sets a new record for me. Talked to the service tech a bit ago, he's been on the phone to Norcold already so a new board should be on the way.

    Bill
  • Most modern electronic items, such as the fridge control board will fail very early in their lifetime if they are going to fail before their expected lifetime.

    This is why I almost never buy extended warranties for electronics. If they haven't failed by the end of the basic warranty they are very unlikely to fail during the extended warranty period or before you are ready to upgrade it.


    A bad board is unlikely to mean that everything else in the fridge is going to fail early, likely made in different plants by different subcontractors.
  • Glad it is under warrantee. Otherwise if it was a older one I would have recommend a Dinosaur Board for a replacement board.
  • If this persist while on warranty I would insist on replacement. This may be a lemon...:M
  • Back in 2005 when we bought our fiver the refer was replaced before we even got to PDI. It was dead on the lot. I dont worry much about it. Thats what a warranty is for.
  • It's under warranty isn’t it??
    Some things just don’t last forever.

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