Norcold 2118 problems?

[Always At Home]

This isn't a GD warranty dealer, it's a Norcold one. I have called GD anyway, and they're "looking into it".

[orbiker]

This isn't a GD warranty dealer, it's a Norcold one. I have called GD anyway, and they're "looking into it".

GD went to bat for me when Norcold and the dealer were dragging their feet. I don't remember what the freezer temps were, but the frig. temp in liquid was only 38* set on 9 and 35* outside. GD sent a complete new unit and the dealer installed free of charge.

[Always At Home]

GD went to bat for me when Norcold and the dealer were dragging their feet. I don't remember what the freezer temps were, but the frig. temp in liquid was only 38* set on 9 and 35* outside. GD sent a complete new unit and the dealer installed free of charge.

I'm very glad to hear that, it gives me hope. I will continue to pursue the issue with Grand Design.

[HOWITTRO]

The Norcold 2118 model has one small fan at the top of the lower exterior vent and two more side by each fans about 3/4 of the way up the refer chimney vent. Look in to ensure they are running. I also purchased a unit from https://www.arprv.com/products.php#4-arp-3.1-2-fan which included 2 more fans so I put one at the bottom exterior vent to draw air in and one at the top to exhaust the hot air. This brought our fridge down to 36 degrees on hot days. We should not have to do this and if enough customers complained to GD then maybe they would do a recall to either replace the fridge with a residential unit or modify the exhaust fans.

[fioen57]

Norcold 2118sst Grand Design model 385gk 2019 Purchased October 2019 brand new first use of the Norcold 2118 May 4 2020. Refrigerator not cold enough, mid 50's freezer freezes water. I had a Norcold factory authorized repair service on it right away. Mid July still not working. Norcold customer service was no help at all when I begged for some urgency on my issues. Grand Design has been called and emailed several times case number 64687. I cannot get anything for help from Grand Design period.If you cannot have your camper manufacturer go to bat for you what do you do? Please if you purchase a Grand Design make sure the refrigerator works before you leave the lot. Please do not purchase a Norcold 2118 refrigerator. There is a lot of problems on the internet in regards to the 2118 model. I AM AT MY WITS END.

[Always At Home]

Dismayed to hear about the GD indifference, they have historically been very responsive and helpful. My Norcold still isn't as reliable as it should be, but food doesn't spoil. (Milk goes bad too quickly and anything on the left side of the top fridge shelf freezes, though!!) Here's what it took to get to that point:
Added two exhaust fans to upper vent.
Moved sensor around on the fins to get the best temp control I could.
Discovered that built-in fans weren't working at all, third repair attempt finally successful after finding a mobile repair service in Port Isabel, TX that actually knew how to do repairs. This might be your issue, too. My fridge was about 50 before, improved to top end of fridge range after. (You can look down from top vent and see the fans to check if they ever run. I don't remember what part was bad, sorry)

It is awful that we are the ones who have to do all the work to get our slapped-together campers working as advertised, but it seems to be more and more true. I hope your lack of response from GD is COVID-19 related rather than a new trend.

[Steven@147]

We do not have the same unit in our Solitude S-class, its a Dometic 12 cuft. i have been really surprised with its performance in this years July Texas heat. Its been over 100 degrees for several days and with heat index it was 112 the other day. The highest it has gotten is 40 degrees with direct sun on the port side, most of the time is runs around 37-39 degrees. In fulltime so far so good. It does have 4 exhaust fans as installed, all i did was seal up the top exhaust out.

[fioen57]

2118ss update! After I emailed vice president jmcarty@ GD. He emailed me back and told me my new refrigerator was on the way. I'm elated. Thanks!! GD

[TS_Breezes]

Hi -
Just watched this YouTube from the LizAmazing channel: https://youtu.be/59miAsBun_M

We *had* a fridge with the flap on the door with the Reflection 150 series, and had a similar problem with the Dometic 4 door refrigerator, and it was really frustrating. We didn't have the water pooling, but our fridge wouldn't get cold - only the freezer worked fine due to the flap not sealing.

Paul takes the time to show you how to make a 55 cent fix to the door, that totally cured their problem with the Norcold 2118.

Hope it helps some on this forum!

Cindy

[oldenkam]

Our freezer did better than yours, but our fridge about the same.

The trailer went back to the dealer, where the technician said he adjusted the door so it would seal properly.

Within 24 hours of setting up camp it was clear that the fridge still didn't work. I used impolite words.

After two weeks and discarding about $40 worth of food it went back to the dealer again. The door flap on the left door is not folding out properly. Dealer said they're seeing a lot of problems with this. On ours the floor of the fridge at the bottom of the door is bowed up and the flap binds against it instead of closing. If the flap doesn't close flat and parallel to the front of the fridge then the right door can't seal against it. Dealer is talking about grinding down the end of the door flap so it won't rub on the bowed-up floor of the fridge. Real precision-made appliance here.

Then we'll see whether the fridge some people call "Nevercold" will finally achieve at least minimum safe performance for storing food.

I was able to loose the top three screws on the left door and adjust slightly to the left. This gave enough clearance on the bottom of the flap and now closes completely every time. My next step was to grind a bit off the bottom, but fortunately didn’t have to.


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