Norcold Repair

Monday - Friday, September 10-21, 2018

 The RV lifestyle is a great lifestyle, but it has its own challenges.  This may sound depressing, but it actually was a blessing.  We were planning on being in one location for an extended stay to be able to visit with family.  That was a blessing.  We were visiting and spending time with our newest grandson, returned to the RV to hear the Norcold refrigerator beeping and giving an error code.  The error was LiOp or line open, a condition indicating overheating.  We shut it off as it was still cold, and went to bed planning on checking it out in the morning.  I suspected an airflow problem, so I climbed on the roof and removed the cover over the top of the fridge, and the smell of ammonia nearly knocked me over.
The Norcold had died.  The prior owner had already replaced the Norcold in the past.  This one lasted 8 years and 2 months.

So we got into action, packed all our frozen items in a cooler and got them to our family's freezer.  Blessing, they had a freezer and it had space.

We considered buying a residential fridge and started shopping online, carefully checking dimensions.  Everything we found, was either too narrow, too short, or we would have to do some major remodeling.  Not a good long term solution.

More Internet searching and we found reference to an Amish cooling unit that would be a direct replacement.  But the unit had to be removed to make the replacement repair.

Any way we went, it looked like we were going to have to go out a narrow entry door, so the first thing was to remove the doors, which would make the unit smaller and lighter.

 Next, I shut off the propane and disconnected the propane gas line, unplugged the power cords, removed some trim and slid the unit out about six inches.  It stayed there until I could get help to lift it out.

 This is the rear of the fridge, face down on our RV living room floor. The black piping you see, is the ammonia water cooling unit, and it has to come off.  Several websites had YouTube videos which illustrated this whole process.

 These two photos show the cooling unit removed, and the rectangular "shiny" areas are the fridge and freezer compartment transfer areas.

 Then there was the wait, FedEx freight finally made the delivery.

 This shows the new unit, shipping container opened.  No apparent damage in shipping.

And new "Dutch Aire" cooling unit installed.  I made jumper wires and ran the "tests" that were suggested and all was good.
Now the unit is installed and performs far better than the original.  I also ordered and installed a "Fridge Defend" ARP unit (Version 4.1) which monitors the temperature, and will shut down the unit if temperatures exceed parameters.  Major safety factor.
This was a rather costly experience and major inconvenience, but far less costly and inconvenient than a new Norcold.