Norcold 121x IT REVIVED. Replace with residential?

[ggordon715]

Sold the house, going fulltime in our 2012 Bighorn 3610RE. Much to my chagrin I find the refrigerator won't cool now that we have "unstored" the RV. I have been reading the posts here and I'm afraid I fried the cooling unit last night because I ran the refrig on gas with the trailer parked on an incline. Today I leveled the RV and hooked up shore power, and the refrig swapped to AC automatically. It ran continuously on AC but it's warm inside still after about 10 hours. The coils in the back are room temp but the very bottom of the unit is quite hot. There are no error codes or unusual sounds. I have turned the unit off to let it rest overnight so if it's a blockage, maybe that will pass. Has anyone out there found a residential type refrigerator that retrofits (installs easily) and performs satisfactorily? It seems these Norcold adsorption units are a crapshoot, and the new models are coming equipped with residential refrigerators. Comments and advice are welcomed.
Henry

 

[Jim.Allison]

Re: Norcold 121x bit the dust. Replace with residential?

Check Youtube for both a solution to the problem with your current LP fridge and for people that have done mods.

If you are leaning toward a mod, you might do something with a unit like this, see the link.

http://www.engel-usa.com/products/fridge-freezers/engel-sb70-built-in-refrigerator

You would have to buy two. Since the are both Fridge/Freezers you would have a refrigerator and a freezer or two freezers or two refrigerators, depending on how you were running them. The engel operates on a "swing compressor" which has a minimum amp draw. It can run on AC or DC. You can easily run both of them with a good deep cycle battery system and perhaps some solar. But notwithstanding that your 7 pin can provide enough charge to your batts to run these TWO units.

You should be able to easily modify your current cabinets to accommodate the installation of these units. They are much cheaper than a single AC/LP unit.

If you are traveling and you are close to this place, I'm sure he can get your LP unit working well. Follow this link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llDX_VM3k5g

Watch this one all the way through

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIJYx5j2nPQ

Sold the house, going fulltime in our 2012 Bighorn 3610RE. Much to my chagrin I find the refrigerator won't cool now that we have "unstored" the RV. I have been reading the posts here and I'm afraid I fried the cooling unit last night because I ran the refrig on gas with the trailer parked on an incline. Today I leveled the RV and hooked up shore power, and the refrig swapped to AC automatically. It ran continuously on AC but it's warm inside still after about 10 hours. The coils in the back are room temp but the very bottom of the unit is quite hot. There are no error codes or unusual sounds. I have turned the unit off to let it rest overnight so if it's a blockage, maybe that will pass. Has anyone out there found a residential type refrigerator that retrofits (installs easily) and performs satisfactorily? It seems these Norcold adsorption units are a crapshoot, and the new models are coming equipped with residential refrigerators. Comments and advice are welcomed.
Henry

 

[danemayer]

Re: Norcold 121x bit the dust. Replace with residential?

Here's a link to a thread where another owner replaced a Dometic 4 door RM1350 with a Samsung Residential RF197. He posted a description of the mod along with some pictures. The installation required adding an inverter and in his case, a manual transfer switch. There was a little cabinet work required.

 

[ggordon715]

Re: Norcold 121x bit the dust. Replace with residential?

Thanks for the replies and advice. I rested the unit overnight and it revived. I learned a valuable lesson. "If you can't level your RV, turn the refrigerator off."