Norcold fridge not cooling

[Tom_M1]

I have a Norcold N641R fridge that has stopped cooling. After a while it will throw a "no co" error. Power cycled it and the same thing but locked the control board. Did a board reset with the same results. This happens on propane and 120 volt. There are no apparent leaks and no ammonia smell. Any thoughts?

[Tom_M1]

I managed to get the old fridge out through my door. The cooling unit is definitely bad. Could smell the ammonia after all the jockeying around. Hopefully the new fridge will fit through my door. I canceled my Amazon order after I found that the fridge was $300 cheaper at West Marine.

[Tom_M1]

Doug, excellent idea about connecting 120 directly to the heating element. Since the heat chamber heated up on both 120 and LP I assumed (probably a bad idea) that the heating portion was okay. All other indications seem to point toward a bad cooling unit. I'm not keen on the idea of spending a bunch of money to replace the cooling unit on an old fridge, so I ordered a new Norcold DE0061R compressor style fridge. Even though the old one did an adequate job I decided to go with a compressor type fridge. I have 400 watts of solar and a 170ah Renogy lithium battery so I should be okay.

[craig7h]

Tom I am by far not a NorCold pro. When my Norcold started going bad I found one of the problems was the heat safty shut off switch. Not all frigs have them, if you look at the outside maybe you will see a small box roughly 2x2 attached to the cooling coil. If you see the red light remove the cover and with a magnet reset the switch. I had this problem with my 07 norcold. After doing that a few times the frig stopped all together. A couple repair folks told me about the same story and it boiled down to its just old and tired.

I ended up changing out the cooling system with a JC Refrigeration totally 120v unit and could not be happier
https://jc-refrigeration.com/
Good Luck

[wa8yxm]

Ok open the outside panel. On the lower right (Under the round tube) look for a brown or yellow dust/rust/powder. If you see it very good chace the cooling unit (The guts of the thing) are toast. NOTE THE WORD CHANCE,

16 years it's not unexpected.

IF that is the case you have two choices.
1: total replacement (I do not suggest)
2: An Amish Built replacement cooling unit (I forget the company I ordered from)

TO do that you remove the unit remove the "back" replace the back and reinstall

When I did it with the aid of a professional it was a two person job She (the RV-GIRL professional) really knew her stuff.. We got it done (last customer of the day) Went to dinner and when she dropped me back at "home" it was already cold.

[Boon_Docker]

trailrider wrote:

Tom_M wrote:
Thanks Doug,
The coach has no slides and I had not checked the roof vent. Just went out and checked and the vent seems clear.

The fridge is 16 years old and has worked well until now. Nothing has changed with the ventilation as far as I can tell. The fridge will not run for 24 hours before it throws the NO CO error. This happens both on LP and 120 volt. There is no sign of cooling at all. There is quite a loud gurgling sound now that I haven't noticed before.

Gurgling noise is a sign of a bad cooling unit.

X2

When my cooling unit went belly up there was no sign of a leak, just a loud gurgling sound that was not there previous.

[trailrider]

Tom_M wrote:
Thanks Doug,
The coach has no slides and I had not checked the roof vent. Just went out and checked and the vent seems clear.

The fridge is 16 years old and has worked well until now. Nothing has changed with the ventilation as far as I can tell. The fridge will not run for 24 hours before it throws the NO CO error. This happens both on LP and 120 volt. There is no sign of cooling at all. There is quite a loud gurgling sound now that I haven't noticed before.

Gurgling noise is a sign of a bad cooling unit.

[dougrainer]

Tom_M wrote:
Thanks Doug,
The coach has no slides and I had not checked the roof vent. Just went out and checked and the vent seems clear.

The fridge is 16 years old and has worked well until now. Nothing has changed with the ventilation as far as I can tell. The fridge will not run for 24 hours before it throws the NO CO error. This happens both on LP and 120 volt. There is no sign of cooling at all. There is quite a loud gurgling sound now that I haven't noticed before.[/qu]ote

That is why you wire the 120 element DIRECT to 120 and bypass all controls for 24 hours. This is what a professional RV Tech(like me) would do. Doug

[Tom_M1]

Thanks Doug,
The coach has no slides and I had not checked the roof vent. Just went out and checked and the vent seems clear.

The fridge is 16 years old and has worked well until now. Nothing has changed with the ventilation as far as I can tell. The fridge will not run for 24 hours before it throws the NO CO error. This happens both on LP and 120 volt. There is no sign of cooling at all. There is quite a loud gurgling sound now that I haven't noticed before.

[dougrainer]

AS you found out, when you get a NOCO, if you fail to find and correct the reason, it locks you out. Now, at this point we need more info.
1. Is the refer in a slide room?
2. Have you verified that the upper roof vent is clear and open if not in a slide room?
3. 3 things usually cause NO CO
1. Blocked/inadequate ventilation
2. BAD cooling unit
3. Running off level
4. At this point as long as ventilation checks out OK, you connect the refer 120 element direct to 120 volts and run 24 hours. If the refer does not get the freezer below 10 degrees, the Cooling Unit is bad. Doug