Norcold fridge quits

[Thorne]

I'll guess that your "RV battery" is toast, and not providing enough power to keep the fridge running overnight. Lead-acid batteries need to be kept fully charged all the time, so when you say "We charge the battery fully for a trip..." that makes me think you haven't been storing it properly. And doesn't your Sportsmobile charge both your chassis/starter battery and house battery / "RV battery" when driving?

Simple fix is to replace the battery and keep it charged up to 100%, roughly 13v, all the time. Never let it go below 12v or it can get damaged and never recover full functionality / storage capacity.

[Mrion1]

Really weird that I am having the same problem. Refrig works great on shore power and with inverter and while driving down the road. When I stop, not hooked up, refrig will run for 3 to 4 hours then quit cooling. Green light still on and “running” just stops cooling. Have 1st available appointment with Norcold recommend rv dealer to do a “diagnostic”. 22 July !

Voltage at refrig 12.7 when stop for the night, 12.4 when refrig stops cooling.

[Scalf77]

You really need to check the voltage at the controller input. This will take pulling the unit out, preferably measure it when the compressor starts. check the connection back to fuse and the connection back to ground. The manual posted earlier goes through the standard debug procedures, including hooking up a LED for controller debug information.

-greg

[bidgoodr]

Originally Posted by Rapidz

Hi all:
Our three year old Norcold fridge keeps quitting when on the Van RV battery.
We charge the battery fully for a trip and then when pulling into a campsite without plug-ins, let it operate off the solar and RV battery. Overnight it just quits. We've lost a lot of food on camping trips.
Technicians say the fridge is fine but Norcold model doesn't run off RV battery. They say the RV battery is good.
Any ideas?
Pete

I had a Norcold 3 way with my 2000 VW Eurovan. It was terrible, so I removed it, and replaced it with a 2 way, AC/DC, ARB, which works beaufifully. I sold the Eurovan in 2016, bought a new. 2017, Ford Transit, which Sportsmobile North outfitted. I put an ARB in the Transit and love it! I could run the ARB for 4 days in 80+F in Moab, never ran the engine and the fridge functioned perfectly. I can’t praise ARB’s enough.

[Sloya]

Change the house battery and your problem will go away. Preferably get a Lithium battery and you will not have to babysit your battery. The Lithium has a much larger usable range Vs lead acid. I switched over a year ago and all my issues went away.

[moorefc]

Rapidz, to troubleshoot the problem, you really need to do as suggested by greg in post 13 and others earlier. At this point, it is all about the voltage at the device. If you don't understand how to... just ask. Otherwise you are trying to guess your way out....You may also find some surprises that need cleaning up back there