If Storm had allowed me to dwell on the rat’s nest of refrigerator wiring shown above, I would never have been able to sleep in our RV. In just three hours JC Refrigeration cleans up this potential disaster and we begin the test phase of this undertaking. Here are the cold, hard facts regarding this upgrade/repair.
Problems
- When our old coils are removed, we discover that the hydrogen/ammonia lines are beginning to leak.
- The fans that should run to alleviate the heat from the cooling process have NEVER worked for us. Part of the problem is a wiring anomaly. Additionally the temperature sensor is not turning them on when required.
- One of the two electric heater elements is inoperable.
- The propane nozzle for the burner works but produces a distorted, inefficient flame.
Remedies and Comments
- All broken parts are replaced. The fans are correctly hooked up. JCR removes our single, thin wall coil and install a thicker, double set of coils.
- All of these problems exist in spite of the fact that so called professionals have performed both of the recalls on our cooling unit.
- The total cost of this repair/upgrade with extra parts needed to fix problems listed above: $1500 with a 3 year warranty. The original Norcold OEM warranty was only for 1 year.
Our Results After 2 days
The unit cools down to -2 degrees in the freezer and 32 degrees in the fridge while we are parked and connected to shore power. On our five hour trip to Indianapolis (should have been 3 hours, but that ANOTHER story), the freezer gets as high as the mid teens but immediately fell to 8 degrees when we parked. It may have cycled into defrost mode when we glimpsed that higher temp.
Great performance so far considering outside temps are in the upper 80s and we are running on propane. We will continue to monitor, but so far things are looking much cooler. We are so confident in JCR’s work that we stock up on Amish scrapple, smoked gouda, roll butter and honey meat stick snacks before we leave Shipshewana – yum!!
We had our coils replaced and it worked good for a little while then went belly up again. This new one seems to do a lot better. I will write down JCR’s place and the town they are in, next time I will check him out first. Did they let you stay in the RV at night with it in the shop, or did they get it all done in one day. Glad you got one that will work now. Remember FREEZE the MUGS not the BEER. ;>)))) GOD BLESS
JD
Jim & Sandy
I am hoping for your sake that you will not need any fridge repairs anytime soon. But if you are up this way, you and Sandy would certainly enjoy this little town. It is a little crowded on the main road, but the rural highways are a scenic treat! They let us spend the night in their yard just so it would be easy for us to pull in the shop at 7am. It only took them 3 hours to get the whole job done. We left their yard by noon after letting the cooler get going so he could run a few test after the install.