Norcold 982 Fridge Issues

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Donebee

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May 27, 2019
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Had issues two years ago with Norcold 982 fridge, replaced circuit board w/Dinosaur Electronics board and restored to working order. This fall, after running fine the prior year and all spring/summer, fridge failed on AC power sitting in driveway plugged in at home, automatically switched to LP and kept running. Showed C6 error. Assumed AC Heater failure, ordered new and replaced.

Fridge seemed to run with replacement AC Heater, but after 6 hours, fridge had again failed on AC and automatically switched to LP.

Tested AC Heater, tests to specs. Good 120 volt at plug for fridge.

Friend suggests replacing Power Converter, says his fan failed on his and kept shutting off when unit heated up, then would restart when unit cooled back down. Says it was intermittent issue and hard to track down.

Thinks I may be losing 120v AC to AC Heater if Power Converter fan is failing like his was.

This makes sense, what do you think? 

 
The only conversion of power when plugged into shore power (or your house in this case) is to convert the 120 volt AC shore power to 12 volts DC. The fridge needs 12 volts DC to run in both AC mode and propane mode. So if it is a converter fan issue, it would be expected to cause a problem in both AC and propane mode.

Also....even if the converter discontinues the conversion from 120 volts AC to 12 volts DC, the batteries in the coach should continue to provide the 12 volts needed to operate the fridge. This assumes you have batteries and that the batteries are in fact healthy and charged.

Keep in mind that even though the 120 volt ac heating element tested good, it is still possible that during the heating process that the element fails but since you have a new one installed with the same results, probably not the element

It is also possible that you have a board problem. Check to see what the warranty is for the new board you bought.

Lastly, make sure that your connection to your house has the proper wire sizes and distances. It is possible to plug into a unhealthy supply of 120volt house current that could cause a problem with the board and heating element
 
First, and I failed to mention, the circuit board was sent in and replaced under warranty, after I replaced the AC Heater and was still having issues, so my assumption is that it is good.

Second, three brand new 12v chassis/coach batteries in May of 2019. All tested good. 

The element seems to work for several hours and then fails, or loses 120v power.

The fridge then switches to LP while in auto mode and runs fine.

I can only assume I'm losing 120v AC power at some point, which is what causes it to switch to LP, correct?
 
That's what it sounds like. Check your house connection to the RV and make sure it is good with no way to interrupt (ex: switched outlet, bad cord, bad plug etc)
 
My son is an electrician and checked the shore/house connection and all is good. Brand new cord from motorhome to shore/house.

Puzzled.
 
Also, in auto mode I believe it prioritizes AC and will switch to gas if the AC becomes missing. It should also switch back to AC when it becomes available again. It sounds like it is not doing that? Check your manual for auto setting specifics.

Try taking it out of the auto mode and set it to AC only and see what that does. Usually the fridge will start back up in the AC mode if power was temporarily interrupted. Just be aware that you could lose all your cooling from when it shuts down to when you get there and notice.

If you have the manual, check the code displayed meaning. If you don't have the manual, Google it you should be able to find it.
 
Did you get the C6 code with the second failure?  Or did it just switch to LP with no code?

C6 is clearly a heater element fault, but switching without a fault says loss of 120v power at the circuit board monitoring point.  Test the 120v input wires at the back of the fridge to verify power is actually reaching it. Make sure the breaker for the fridge 120vac circuit is on and there is power at the outlet behind the fridge.
If you don't have the 982 service manual, download a copy at http://rvrefrigeratorrepair.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Norcold-Service-900-9100.pdf
 
I got a C6 code the first time, checked the manual and ordered a new element.

After I replaced the element, the fridge started up and ran. I checked it at about the four hour mark and it was running fine. The next day it had again failed, switched over to LP, and was showing the C6 error once again. Shut everything down for 24 hours, checked the element and it checked out per specs.

When running, internal control information shows 120v AC, 13.4 volts DC, but only shows 1.5 amps ac heater current draw (specs show 2.7-2.9)
 
Simple test.  Plug an electric clock into the same plug as the refrigerator.  (Several things in our RV run on the inverter/charger circuit and if it shuts off for any reason they go dead.) I?ve worked on others that have been the same way. So I think that?s kind of standard for motorhome)

Check and clean every connector on the control board, even the fuse(s).

Make sure the wired going to the element are not corroded or able to short out.

A bad thermistor might cause this.  It happened to me when I was trying different prototypes of snip-the-tip thermistors.  When the refer went into defrost mode the thermistor did not show a rise in temp within x amount of time and the box just shut down.  No error code, just off.
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
The clock test is a good way to determine if power gets lost on the fridge circuit at any time. Try it.
Click to expand...

Gary,

Other than a loss of AC/Shore power, say from a bad outlet/power cord, etc., how would the fridge be losing 120V power?
 
Loose wire anywhere in the fridge circuit anywhere from the load center breaker to the outlet, faulty power cord from outlet to the fridge circuit board,  or anywhere between the shore cord plug and the RV's load center (all 120v power in RV lost in that case).
 
I fixed an issue with NorCold 962 installed in my new to me ?98 HR Endeavor Gas.  The PO?s son mixed up some chum for shark fishing and left it in the freezer, power cycled and the refrigerator shut off.  Mom was pissed and I got a good deal on a low mileage rather smelly coach.
After several attempts to defunk the unit I ended up pulling it out and installing a new Haier 9.8 cubic foot refrigerator freezer I got on sale at Lowe?s for $450. It is slightly smaller and fit in the original location with minimal modification. Power was supplied by plugging it into the ice maker receptacle.
 
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