sepisllib
Cresco, Iowa
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Joined: 12/05/2004
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WTD44 wrote:NOR-Cold wouldn't even spend the money to design a product that works much less insure that it won't set you rig on fire. Why would anyone think they would spring for a fan to help it cool bettrer.
NO WAY.
Solution, as soon as it gives up (hopefully doesn't set your rig on fire) remove a side window and toss that sucker out and put in a residential refer at about 1/2 the cost of a new evaporative POS. Than you will have hard ice cream and more than a dozen ice cubes a day.
Unless you dry camp a lot, a good residential refer will keep stuff cold for up to 8 hours when traveling. I dry camp about 6 days a year and just run the gen.set for two hours morning and evening and every thing stays nice and cold.
WTD
In the process.
But the cost estimate - I was quoted nearly $4,000 for a new Norcold installed at my local dealer.
My new Frigidaire 18 CF (much larger than the Norcold 12 CF) cost me $854 and that was with a 10 year extended nationwide company warranty - they come to you and repair it.
I do not have it installed yet - but will sometime this next week.
Now - if Norcold would develop an advanced compressor system for their 1200 series fridge - one that would work on 12 volts DC or switch over to 120 volts AC when available, they would have something.
Not to be, however, so I switched.
God Bless
Bill
Bill W. Trammell
Wife - Judy
2001 Monaco Dynasty Chancellor
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toughnut
usa
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Joined: 09/08/2011
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WTD44 wrote:NOR-Cold wouldn't even spend the money to design a product that works much less insure that it won't set you rig on fire. Why would anyone think they would spring for a fan to help it cool bettrer.
NO WAY.
Solution, as soon as it gives up (hopefully doesn't set your rig on fire) remove a side window and toss that sucker out and put in a residential refer at about 1/2 the cost of a new evaporative POS. Than you will have hard ice cream and more than a dozen ice cubes a day.
Unless you dry camp a lot, a good residential refer will keep stuff cold for up to 8 hours when traveling. I dry camp about 6 days a year and just run the gen.set for two hours morning and evening and every thing stays nice and cold.
WTD
I understand your frustration with Norcold for sure."BUT" your wrong about the rear fan not helping as it does and very very well to boot plus They have dual factory fans on the condenser with a temp switch
Iam on my third Diesel pusher and all with 1200/10 series and they all work very well.Iam in 95 degree weather and have no trouble making ice cubes etc
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1Sammiedog
Southern California
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Joined: 07/01/2011
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n4hwl wrote:If I put a 12 volt fan behind refrigerator and blow it up past the coils and out the roof vent will this help the unit to cool better. It would be easy to do and I already have the fan . Has anyone else done this? I am putting a fan on the inside fins to help them cool better but am also thinking about this fan in the back. When temps are up around 100 like this past summer and the refrigerator has much opening and closing at all it seems to be having problems staying cool.
Ken
Ken, If you don't already have fans on the back of your refrigerator, installing at least one if not two will greatly increase the efficiency of of the cooling unit. There are many threads on this forum where people have installed fans and have greatly improved the refrigerators cooling ability. The fans can be acctivated by a manual switch or by using a thermal fan switch (snap disc) which will activate the fans at a set temperature.
I recently installed a new cooling unit on my Norcold 1200 and added a third fan during the installation. You can see the fans and bracket I made on this short picture slideshow. Refrigerator Fans
1Sammiedog
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Peg Leg
Anderson, IN
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Joined: 06/20/2004
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I used a smaller (about 5" dia) co2 fan, 3 volt. Got it for $6. Added a 3 volt regulator and a couple of resistors from Radio Shack. Hooked into the 12v batt at the back of the fridge. I used it in the TC for about 5 weeks solid on our Alaska trip and it worked great.
2012 Chevy 3500HD Dually 4X4
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chastho
arkansas
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Joined: 07/27/2005
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Getting the heat out the top vent would improve the cooling, the heat collects at the top of the cabinet. I haven't looked yet but there has to be a way to move more air out the top vent.
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sepisllib
Cresco, Iowa
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chastho wrote:Getting the heat out the top vent would improve the cooling, the heat collects at the top of the cabinet. I haven't looked yet but there has to be a way to move more air out the top vent.
Yes - there is a way, but you have to be willing to put a little work into doing it.
My 1200 refused to get below the 45 - 50 degree level on my last trip to Richmond. This was "after" their so-called "recall".
I bought three 5 inch pancake 12 volt fans and crawled up onto the top of my coach on a hot summer day while parked in Wytheville, VA and installed them in the very top of the vent - just below the screen that is up there.
The result was - the rest of my trip the fridge would cool down to 39 to 40 during the night but still struggled to stay below 45 in day time as kids would be in and out of it.
I gave up on the Norcold - with these issues and the threat of fires combined I made the decision to switch to a residential fridge. I removed the Norcold and had to remove my driver window to get it out - but it is out now and new fridge is here and I will slide it into the coach this morning.
Looking forward to having a fridge that actually "works" good for a change.
But - Yes, the more air the better on the Norcold.
God Bless
Bill
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Rickyrocket
Coventry,RI
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Joined: 04/09/2007
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Im a fan of the refridgerator,as long as it doesnt catch fire & keeps the stuff cold
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farmer_boots
Weirsdale, Fl
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Joined: 11/20/2003
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I don't want to jinx our selves, but we have a Norcold 1200 series in our camper that I have a hard time not freezing in the refrigerator section.
My old camper had the refrigerator in the kitchen slide out. That means it can't vent through the roof and thus must vent out the side. I think that's a big disadvantage to the unit; there are many factors that can affect the flow of air across the back of the unit when side venting. When it vents up through the roof you get a natural draft like a chimney. The air flow has less restrictions in a chimney and does not have to turn to exit. Our current configuration, the unit is not in a slide so the chimney effect is at work.In our previous camper the refrigerator worked very well until one day it developed a blockage in the cooling unit. I replaced the cooling unit with an aftermarket unit. The replacement unit did not work very well. During the day 50 degrees is about the best it could do. I noticed the fan never came on? My investigation determined the thermal switch from the original cooling unit that controls the fan was set way above the operating temperature of the replacement unit. I ended up installing an attic fan thermostat up high in the back of the refrigerator compartment and wiring that to the fan. The problem was solved, we now had a hard time not freezing food.
I am not sure about the physics of what goes on but I think units that operate at a higher pressure density operate at higher temperatures (original unit) but at a cost of less efficiency; the advantage is they work better in hotter ambient temperatures. The aftermarket people lower the pressure density to increase the efficiency; but at the cost of not working well in hot ambient temperatures (requires a fan). If you put one in a slide out it just compounds the problem. As I remember the condenser coil of the aftermarket unit had to be below 97 degrees for it to work. When the ambient temp is in the 90's and it's in a hot box you don't have a chance without a fan. The Original manufactured unit I think had a thermal switch set around 130 degrees. Much more margin from ambient.
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randallb
On the road
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Joined: 11/19/2007
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Install one of the solar powered fans and forget about switches, etc. I installed one in early 2009 and have had no issues with it. It allowed me to turn the fridge down from 5 to 3 and since you only need to improve the efficiency of the reefer when it is hot and you are opening the door (during the day), why go to all the trouble of having to have to think about a switched fan. When the sun goes down so does the temperature and usually no one is opening the fridge door at night. As for being parked under trees, they provide shade that allows the fridge to work efficient enough and a solar fan is one less draw on the battery bank.
Randy
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PatrickA51
Lost
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Joined: 04/05/2012
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Interesting
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