Norcold Refridgerator - Is this operating correctly?

[CLARKR4]

We are in a 2019 Solitude 310 GK. Norcold said that their specs for the fridge are at or slightly under 40 for the fridge and at or under 20 for the freezer, with the temperature gauge set at 3 and that is working fine for us. We initially set the temp gauge at 5 or 6 and the salad was freezing. Initially we had the problem of door sag which the dealer fixed by putting a nylon washer on the lower pin on the fridge door. The other thing that Norcold suggested to check the seal tightness is the paper test when the door is closed. With the door open put a piece of 20lb paper in opening and close the door. There should be a slight drag when you tug on the paper. Do that all around. If there is not drag then the seal is not strong enough, and needs to be addressed. The other thing that I found odd, compared to the Dometic fridge, which we had on previous 5th wheels, is that there is no outside drain hose sticking out of the vent cover. The drip tray drains into a small reservoir attached to the back of the fridge. When I first looked for this hose, the reservoir was at the point of overflowing. I attached an extra length of clear hose and ran it through the vent cover so that the water could drain outside. The only thing I have to do now is to remember to remove that extra hose when packing up. Probably not necessary but I will anyway.

Rich

[NFurno]

Let's see if I can do this. Attached should be pictures of the insulation around the refrigerator as delivered. One is the right side; the other the left. As you can see the insulation does not come completely to the back of the refrigerator.

[NFurno]

These pictures were taken after the cooling unit and control board were replaced. The tech tried to make it better but.... the first pict is the right side, second the left. The third picture was taken of a new 351 on the lot. This shows what the insulation should look like if it's correctly installed. I wrote GD after the latest visit to the dealer. That was a week ago. I have not heard back.

[LovingIt]

We are in a 2019 Solitude 310 GK. Norcold said that their specs for the fridge are at or slightly under 40 for the fridge and at or under 20 for the freezer, with the temperature gauge set at 3 and that is working fine for us. We initially set the temp gauge at 5 or 6 and the salad was freezing. Initially we had the problem of door sag which the dealer fixed by putting a nylon washer on the lower pin on the fridge door. The other thing that Norcold suggested to check the seal tightness is the paper test when the door is closed. With the door open put a piece of 20lb paper in opening and close the door. There should be a slight drag when you tug on the paper. Do that all around. If there is not drag then the seal is not strong enough, and needs to be addressed. The other thing that I found odd, compared to the Dometic fridge, which we had on previous 5th wheels, is that there is no outside drain hose sticking out of the vent cover. The drip tray drains into a small reservoir attached to the back of the fridge. When I first looked for this hose, the reservoir was at the point of overflowing. I attached an extra length of clear hose and ran it through the vent cover so that the water could drain outside. The only thing I have to do now is to remember to remove that extra hose when packing up. Probably not necessary but I will anyway.

Rich

Hi Rich, r u at peace arch by chance?

[CLARKR4]

I take it you mean Peace Arch RV park? No, we are in Donna, Texas, which is on the Rio Grande Valley, almost to Brownsville.

I watched a utube a couple of days ago on maintenance of the Norcold fridge by a young full time couple and an RV tech which was very helpful. In addition to the tug test I mentioned above, they also were advising to regularly clean the gaskets around the doors and to used a hair dryer on the gaskets to cause them to expand back to original form. Those were a couple of things that I thought were helpful.

Rich

[LovingIt]

I take it you mean Peace Arch RV park? No, we are in Donna, Texas, which is on the Rio Grande Valley, almost to Brownsville.

I watched a utube a couple of days ago on maintenance of the Norcold fridge by a young full time couple and an RV tech which was very helpful. In addition to the tug test I mentioned above, they also were advising to regularly clean the gaskets around the doors and to used a hair dryer on the gaskets to cause them to expand back to original form. Those were a couple of things that I thought were helpful.

Rich

Yeah that park. Texas! Nice, dang for us. Lol. Interesting about the washer under the door pin, we were told to sand the bottom of the fridge door flap to stop the flap from sticking and rubbing, so i did, it worked, then we go 300 km and back, and door is sticking again... (sigh). And interesting your fridge is running on temp 3! And interesting that you have extended the drain hose, because i imagine you know that the water is ‘supposed to’ evaporate out of the little reservoir tray at back of fridge. And I wonder if there is a correlation between how low of a set temp your fridge unit can operate to whether this hose has water in it waiting to evaporate? And a blow dryer for the seals, interesting.
Well thank you, I used your info this morning to the tech on my continuation battle of my fridge just not quite functioning properly, it’s on a threshold of sort of operating correctly, but we have to have it set at temp 7, freezer barely holding -9c and fluctuates on its own without being opened, or super quick once a day max. fridge food of course keeps freezing. I think we’re getting closer to getting it fixed. They keep testing stuff, they changed thermistor, took thermistor 10 hours before fridge freezer stopped dropping temp from -10 to -3c, then 24 hrs to creep back up to -9/ 10 without being opened. And its 4-5c outside would hate to see what happens if it were 80F outside right now, lol. Cheers.

[CLARKR4]

For the utube video on the Norcold fridge maintenance, look up Changing Lanes ( the title for this young couple) fridge maintenance.

Rich