Norcold Model 1210 Refrigerator Update

[Harry1]

It's been about 2 weeks since I posted about problems with my Norcold double door refrigerator cooling issues. The unit stopped cooling for about 5 days and then magically started cooling again. (refer to previous post in appliance section). Used a mobile service to troubleshoot issue with the conclusion being a bad cooling unit. The unit then started working and we had to move on down in Florida while waiting for a response from Norcold. 4 weeks later low and behold the unit failed again! Not only had the refrigerator stopped working but we also lost the Dometic AC unit stopped cooling as well. This is on a Bighorn that is 12 months and 2 weeks old. Both AC and refrigerator failures.
We have contacted Norcold several times and they finally agreed to replace the cooling unit. We were out of warranty by 2 weeks when we reported the issue and had to speak to a supervisor at Norcold to get approval for coverage under warranty. Dometic responded immediately, and after having a mobile service confirm failure, both units are being replaced. The AC has a 2 year warranty so that was a no brainer but the fridge has a 1 year. Seems like a lot of problems occurring with Norcold refridgerators. We have also kept Heartland in the loop on both of our issues and they have it documented as well. The good news is that we only have to pay the mobile service call charge and the labor and materials will be covered by the manufacture. The bad news is the several days waiting for new units to arrive while cancelling plans and waiting in Florida in the mid 80's degree temps. with no air or fridge. Been using dry ice in fridge to try and limp by. Lost food twice!
For the money we spend on these hi end appliances when ordering a new RV, the longevity/quality seems to be very poor. Not a Heartland construction issue but rather a supplier issue. Too many refrigerator problems out there for people with new RV's that should be addressed between Heartland and suppliers of these units. This is a terrible inconvience for full timers or anyone for that matter.

 

[cookie]

Sure is aggravating having to deal with that but I guess that things happen.
A while back there were a lot of posts regarding problems with the Dometic refrigerator, so Heartland listened to the people and switched to Norcold.
Now we see the same postings but with the Norcold name. Go figure.
Could be this is the reason for the swing toward the residential models.
Oh, and if we had your problems I would be living in the hot box and my wife would be living in a cool motel.

Peace
Dave

 

[Harry1]

This is another update to our previous posts on Norcold 1210 double door refrigerator and Dometic AC unit. We did get the AC replaced within 3 days using a mobile service while in Crystal River Florida. We only had to pay the mobile service charge of $95.00 and this covered both the AC unit and the refrig. We had to wait 12 days for the refrig cooling unit because it had to be shipped directly from Norcold in Ohio. Overall we were without a refrigerator for over a month. The good news is that both units were covered under warranty and we were happy for that. The removal of the fridge and install of the new cooling unit took 2.5 hours start to finish. Mobile service "Citrus RV" did a great job. The problem we had though was after the install the unit would not cool!!! We waited 24 hours and nothing. Service came back out and took readings and contacted Norcold again. Nothing cold be done until we disconnected the thermistor and ran the unit for another 48 hours to determine if we had a bad cooling unit....After another 24 hours no change; temps inside the freezer 88 degrees! Yuk. We had to continue with our travels back to Michigan and elected to have further repairs done in Michigan but we still had another 24 hours to go on the test. (So now we are at 48 hours with no cooling and 24 hours left before Norcold would respond) We left Crystal River and drove 6.5 hours and pulled into Destin Florida. I tried not to avoid hitting any bumps along the way. Low and behold the freezer temp finally dropped to 18 degrees! Whew! The unit finally burped and cleared. (the mobile service did try and burp the unit before install, so go figure) 6 hours later freezer down to 2 degrees and fridge 33. Hooked up the thermistor and after 2 more days unit running great. I thought I'd pass this along to anyone else who may experience the same issues with an ammonia refrigerator. Hopefully we will get several years with the new unit like we expected with the first. Now we have cool air in the coach and cold beer!

 

[AAdams]

Glad to hear that Norcold took care of the problem even though you were out of warranty ( by only 2 weeks ). It shows that they do have some flexibility to satisfy a customer. The time delay would really be a pain with the loss of food and buying ice etc.

Safe travels,
Alan