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RobG's avatar
RobG
Explorer
Sep 03, 2019

Fridge in new camper not working...

I picked up my new 2019 Arctic Fox 992 truck camper on Saturday morning. The fridge was working great on 110 while I was there.

Once underway and on propane, every time I stopped, the fridge was blinking the red light saying it wasn't working. It's a Norcold 2-way 7cf unit. I kept re-starting it and it would run for a while then go back to blinking red.

While it was operating, the freezer seemed good, but the fridge itself barely got anything cold. It did manage to run all last night while I was parked in a Walmart parking lot. This morning, the water bottles in the freezer were frozen solid just as I expected. The stuff in the fridge however, was barely cold. My little infra-red temp gauge said 45 deg on the back wall, and my cans of soda were at 50 deg.

I got home midday, and by then the fridge was out again. I plugged into power (30A) and now the fridge won't work at all. It won't see 110, and in Auto mode it tries to switch to propane and can't light that either. I know propane is working because I've used the stove and water heater without issue, and the tank is still plenty full.

I haven't bothered to look behind the fridge vent on the outside yet; thought I'd post here and email the dealer (which is in Colorado; I'm in Arizona) to see if they have any suggestions.

FWIW I've had a Norcold in my 5th wheel for the 13 years I've owned it and it's always been great. It's never gone out while on the road and will darn near freeze your water in it during the winter if you turn it all the way up.

Any ideas?

Rob
  • Bobbo's avatar
    Bobbo
    Explorer II
    Sep 05, 2019
    RobG wrote:
    Got home, checked the code. It's a Code 10, which is "not user serviceable." Something about "fridge has lost communication with controls" or somesuch.

    I have an appt for Sept 12th. The way this is going to go is that they will come out and go, "we need to order parts. All parts are back-ordered for two months," at which point I will politely demand that Northwood take back this thing (or find another way to fix it ASAP), because this problem should have been caught at the factory, OR, should have been caught by Norcold before the unit was shipped. I'm not going to sit here for weeks or months while a brand new camper is unusable.

    Sometimes stuff happens. We bought a new Airstream in 2017. During PDI the Dometic air conditioner worked fine. Took it home and was loading it up for our very first trip when we realized the Dometic was blowing hot air. The dealer had to replace it, Dometic had a bad run and we got one. They could not have caught it because it was working when they tested it.

    Good luck on them taking your RV back because it needs a new control board.
  • RobG's avatar
    RobG
    Explorer
    Sep 05, 2019
    Got home, checked the code. It's a Code 10, which is "not user serviceable." Something about "fridge has lost communication with controls" or somesuch.

    I have an appt for Sept 12th. The way this is going to go is that they will come out and go, "we need to order parts. All parts are back-ordered for two months," at which point I will politely demand that Northwood take back this thing (or find another way to fix it ASAP), because this problem should have been caught at the factory, OR, should have been caught by Norcold before the unit was shipped. I'm not going to sit here for weeks or months while a brand new camper is unusable.
  • RobG's avatar
    RobG
    Explorer
    Sep 04, 2019
    Here's what I've figured out so far...

    The board in it probably needs a reset. OR, as others here have suggested, it might be bad.

    It also turns out the flashing red light on the fridge is displaying a trouble code. I didn't realize that until today while doing more research. So when I get home tonight, I'll see what it's trying to tell me and go from there.

    Rob
  • Bird_Freak's avatar
    Bird_Freak
    Explorer II
    Sep 04, 2019
    Mine used to do that while traveling. I had to put a shield in to stop the wind from blowing the flame out.
  • doxiemom11's avatar
    doxiemom11
    Explorer II
    Sep 04, 2019
    Sounds like maybe a loose connection somewhere, or a bad circuit board.
  • opnspaces's avatar
    opnspaces
    Navigator II
    Sep 03, 2019
    Go open the outside panel and look for yellow powder. If it's there the coolant leaked out.

    With the camper plugged in check to make sure the 120 volt outlet behind the refrigerator has power.

    Unplug from shore power and disconnect the battery. Take a picture of the control board and then unplug everything on it. Plug everything back in and make sure all screws are tight.

    Hook up battery and set to gas and see if it will light the burner.
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    Sep 03, 2019
    There are too many possible issues but the main ones
    Propane on? Tank FUll?

    When on propane. the t-stat calls for cool (Heat actually but I'm not going there) the control board sends about 1000 volts AC to the sparker and opens the gas valve. a short time later it shuts of the 1000 volts and looks for power returning from the thermocouple. about 0.48 volts or rather the current generated by 0.48 volts into the load the sensor chip presents... (Got in an argument on that once.. voltage into a resistive load = current so you can use either term).

    Now imagine the switch from SPARK to SENSE gets flubbed. the poor sensor chip, expecting as it is about 1/2 volt. gets socked with 1414 volts peak...... Not good. Not good at all.

    That means a failed control board.. Happened to my Furnace (Same ignition sequence) I put in a Dinosaur board.. the DINO board is protected from that flub.
  • Artum_Snowbird's avatar
    Artum_Snowbird
    Explorer
    Sep 03, 2019
    Definitely sounds like an electrical issue. If you can get to circuit boards check all the plug in connections, tighten any screws holding wires. When it runs at night, nothing is jiggling around... you might find something amiss.

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