Norcold 121X Frig

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Lynne C

New member
Joined
Mar 23, 2019
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4
My 8 month old frig is not working (sometimes). I took it to the dealership and it worked just fine in their shop. There were never any error codes. The propane fired normally, and the electrical hookup looked normal. We paid $178 for the diagnostic, and drove away for a 4 day trip. The frig cooled normally. When we got home, we were tired and waited until the next morning to empty the frig. Everything had defrosted overnight (frig running on propane, propane firing normally, no error messages). So we took it in again this week and the same result. It worked fine for them.

The frig is a Norcold 121X, a gas absorption frig I think. In my research today, I found a reference to the fact that it won't cool properly if it is 6 degrees out of level, although it doesn't say anything about that in the owner's manual. The mechanic at the dealership did not mention this. The new parking place for the RV is on a slight slope. I am running a test right now, 2 hours after bringing it home to see what happens. If it doesn't make ice in a few hours, I will extend the stabilizer jacks and see if that fixes it. Has anyone else had this issue, and why didn't the RV mechanic suggest that that was the problem?

Feeling a bit frustrated right now.

 
There is a blend of different chemicals in the boiler. This blend is safe when the flame is centered on the boiler and the boiler is level. As the boiler goes off level, the flame still burns straight up and begins to heat the mixture unfavorably. This will damage the unit at some point. It is always good to level the coach for this reason. 3 degrees off level is considered a reasonable limit but the cooling unit likes level.
 
That type of fridge must be more or less level for best operation, and if you run it much when not level, it causes damage to the cooling system over time. There's enough movement and vibration when going down the road that leveling isn't really needed for that, but when stopped it should be level.
 
My owner's manual says the fridge should be within 3? side-to-side and 6? front-to-back. Since fridges are normally mounted on an outside wall, that means your rv must be level front-to-back within 3?.
 
If you expect it to make ice in a couple of hours you will be disappointed.  Evaporative refrigerators can take 24-48 hour to cool down and stabilize. 
 
Thank you all. The frig appears to be cooling since the stabilizer jacks were extended (quite a lot), but no ice yet. Oddly, when it was at the dealership, they had ice formed in the freezer in only a few hours.

Anyway, I think the mystery is solved, I'm just a little ticked off with the dealership for either not knowing about the leveling, or not telling me. I think they just thought they had a really stupid customer who didn't know how to turn the frig on.
 
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