Norcold fridge stopped working - code = Li oP - fixed

[DougAndJudy]

We recently had our Norcold 12101M refigerator stop working. We were having the outside of our trailer washed, and when the water crept inside the lower vent, the refrigerator started beeping and flashing a code of Li oP. It would not work on either propane or electricity. At the suggestion of one of the Gillette Rally attendees, we contacted member Southern Nights, who had a similar problem recently. He informed me that the High Temperature Cutout Switch was replaced on his to fix the problem. After some encouragement from other attendees, we went to look at the back of my refigerator. We removed the lower vent and saw a 2 1/2" square box with a bright red LED shining in it. This is the switch that was the problem. As a work-around (perform at your own risk!), we pulled the red and the blue wires, 12v in and 12v out, respectively. The red LED went out. Then we connected a jumper between the red and blue wires and the refrigerator started working again. Looking at the switch, it is easy to see that the circuit board is totally exposed to the open air (and water...). And it is mounted directly behind the lower refigerator vent on the slide, easily in reach of a driving rain or a wash hose.

I got a replacement switch at a Norcold servicing RV dealership and installed it. All is working well again. The LED is not brightly lit on the working switch. If this happens to you, be prepared to bring your trailer to an RV dealer for Norcold diagnostics, and then a wait for the part to be ordered and received, as the dealer was reluctant to sell a switch directly.

 

[SouthernNights]

Doug,
One thing you might want to check on is the Norcold service center mounted my new High Temp. Limit switch on the coils instead of on the back wall of the fridge which was the original location.

On an edit: This is a good thread to discuss the purpose of the High Temp Limit switch.

It is supposed to shut down the 12 volt power to the fridge and shut the fridge OFF in case the temp. of the cooling unit gets too high.

When mine went out I started with the Norcold recall site here:
http://www.norcoldrecall.com/

Even though my serial number did not fall in the range as specified by the recall, the service center still said the failure code made it become part of the recall for the sensor. I was shocked by it's opening statement:
It is important to implement this safety enhancement to prevent an unsafe elevation in the temperature of the cooling unit should the unit fail in operation. This enhancement seeks to minimize the risk of injury or death due to fire.


Ok, you got my attention. I am not one to panic at every sign of "Danger" but in this case something just struck a nerve. It appeared that so far the failure of this part or the switch meant one of two things: 1) The part failed for some reason 2) the switch did it's job an created "open" in the 12 volt side of the fridge thus shutting it down when it detected a high temp. in the cooling unit.

Thankfully in Doug's and mine case the first was the reason for the failure.

I then found quite a few sites about RV fires and more specifaclly cooling units. here is one of the better ones;

http://cjbfire.com/ManSample.pdf

Granted it is from 2007 but most of the information is still very much current including the cooling unit discussion.

About the same time, there was a thread on this forum about a Big Horn catching on fire and two more on RV.NET. NONE of them said that the refrigerator started the fire but there was a lot of speculation.

I called Marv (SmokeyBare) who not only was a fire fighter but has had a few dealing with RV refrigerators. The conclusion was, short of changing out the cooling to an inert gas cooling unit here: http://www.rvfridgestore.com/norcold-1200-se1200.html , install fire protection such as this: http://rvcoolingunit.com/Fire-Extinguishers-C243521.aspx?sid=298

So this is what I ended up with.:


I really do hope this helps. At one of our SC rallies we had the educational director from the Horry County Fire dept. (Myrtle Beach) give us a talk on fire prevention in an RV. One of the things I remember her telling us the fire extinguishers that come with the trailer are very inadequate but most people rely on only that one. The other thing was the fire extinguisher should be used to buy you time to get OUT. Once the trailer is on fire-it is too late!!!

 

[DougAndJudy]

Larry -

Good points!

Unfortunately we aren't going to be in any area long enough for a dealer to troubleshoot and then order the switch. So I mounted mine back in the original location, thinking that having a vulnerable switch was better than no switch at all. I have contemplated trying to put a better seal over the opening that contains the connectors for the wiring, but haven't done that yet. Something along that lines of tight fitting electrical tape to help keep moisture out of the circuit board. As you suggest, a higher mounting point would probably help too.

 

[JMildfelt]

I have a Bighorn with the Norcold 12101M and had the same problem. Contacted my selling dealer and they called Norcold and had a solution for the red LED being on and the code Li - oP flashing on the fridge inside. The technician removed the 12v power to the high temperature sensor control unit, then used a magnet on a stick. He placed the magnet next to the LED and there was a clicking sound that came from the control unit. He reinstalled the 12v power supply to the control unit and the red LED went out and the failure code on the fridge inside stopped. The fridge is now working. Norcold told me that my unit had the latest control unit and did not fall in the recall. There was a blue stick next to the control unit. That means that is has the newest control unit installed. Hope this help others.

 

[danemayer]

Hi JMildFelt,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum. Looks like you've already discovered there's a lot of useful information here and a great bunch of people willing to share their knowledge and experience. Good to have you on board.

 

[robertsfd]

We bought a new Landmark Grand Canyon 2013 in August, 2012. We are new full-timers and about 2 weeks later we had the Li oP alarm on Norcold fridge and it stopped working. When the technician came out to check it I started the fridge back up and the alarm was reset and the fridge started up again. He checked the recall part and it already was installed. He checked everything but couldn't find anything wrong. It's been working just fine since the middle of August. I don't have any idea what happened but at least I learned a lot about the Norcold fridge so I guess it may have been worth it after all

 

[simsfmly]

Had a lot of blowing rain tonight and the LI op started beeping at 1:40a on our 12101M fridge. Fridge was dead for both propane and AC. Read this post and another. Our serial number was outside of the recall range.
Went outside with flashlight, opened the lower vent and saw water dripping from the black box with the LED on it. Pulled on it a bit and it popped against the back wall and the LED light stopped flashing, beeping stopped inside, and fridge resumed operation.
Definitely think it was moisture getting into that vent and that unit. Hoping it doesn't happen again, at least tonight.

 

[simsfmly]

Update: Here we are 2 weeks later. Had it happen to us three times, knocked on the sensor -- stopped it. Yesterday, went off. Fixed it. Went off about an hour later, Fixed. Went off 30 minutes later, she's dead. Going to have to take it in <sigh> to have "diagnostics" done, i.e., they're going to tell us the switch is bad.
Not happy.

 

[mobilcastle]

Doug,
One thing you might want to check on is the Norcold service center mounted my new High Temp. Limit switch on the coils instead of on the back wall of the fridge which was the original location.

On an edit: This is a good thread to discuss the purpose of the High Temp Limit switch.

It is supposed to shut down the 12 volt power to the fridge and shut the fridge OFF in case the temp. of the cooling unit gets too high.

When mine went out I started with the Norcold recall site here:
http://www.norcoldrecall.com/

Even though my serial number did not fall in the range as specified by the recall, the service center still said the failure code made it become part of the recall for the sensor. I was shocked by it's opening statement:
It is important to implement this safety enhancement to prevent an unsafe elevation in the temperature of the cooling unit should the unit fail in operation. This enhancement seeks to minimize the risk of injury or death due to fire.


Ok, you got my attention. I am not one to panic at every sign of "Danger" but in this case something just struck a nerve. It appeared that so far the failure of this part or the switch meant one of two things: 1) The part failed for some reason 2) the switch did it's job an created "open" in the 12 volt side of the fridge thus shutting it down when it detected a high temp. in the cooling unit.

Thankfully in Doug's and mine case the first was the reason for the failure.

I then found quite a few sites about RV fires and more specifaclly cooling units. here is one of the better ones;

http://cjbfire.com/ManSample.pdf

Granted it is from 2007 but most of the information is still very much current including the cooling unit discussion.

About the same time, there was a thread on this forum about a Big Horn catching on fire and two more on RV.NET. NONE of them said that the refrigerator started the fire but there was a lot of speculation.

I called Marv (SmokeyBare) who not only was a fire fighter but has had a few dealing with RV refrigerators. The conclusion was, short of changing out the cooling to an inert gas cooling unit here: http://www.rvfridgestore.com/norcold-1200-se1200.html , install fire protection such as this: http://rvcoolingunit.com/Fire-Extinguishers-C243521.aspx?sid=298

So this is what I ended up with.: View attachment 19818


I really do hope this helps. At one of our SC rallies we had the educational director from the Horry County Fire dept. (Myrtle Beach) give us a talk on fire prevention in an RV. One of the things I remember her telling us the fire extinguishers that come with the trailer are very inadequate but most people rely on only that one. The other thing was the fire extinguisher should be used to buy you time to get OUT. Once the trailer is on fire-it is too late!!!

This is a great post- did you mount this behind your frig? thank you
Steve

 

[SouthernNights]

This is a great post- did you mount this behind your frig? thank you
Steve

Yes, it is mounted behind the fridge . There is very little room behind the fridge so it actually had to lay down with the fuse pointed towards the cooling unit.

 

[simsfmly]

Tore down yesterday and took the rig 20 miles to our nearest Heartland/Norcold authorized dealer.
Told the tech the problem, he said "you've got a recall on your recall?" Thought he'd get it fixed in about 15 minutes.
He went back and forth with Norcold for 90 minutes as they were sure it was a grounding problem and wouldn't approve the warranty claim until X, Y and Z were done. Finally, the relented and said it must be the switch. (No kidding.)
Tech said we were good to go, fridge was running fine on propane. Got home, plugged in, got "AC no" error.
Called the dealership back, they said "Bring it back over." Wrong answer. Finally got them to put the technician on the phone who we dealt with.
"Oh, I'll bet I forgot to plug the AC back into the board." Yep, did some reaching around while he was on the phone, plugged in a black cord to the bottom left side of the main board and we've been good to go.
Hoping this is the end of this chapter.