Brand new '21 Raptor - Norcold Fridge sucks

[DesertCoyote]

Originally Posted by xrated

OK....warning...this is going to be a little long, but, valuable info.

I have a 2118 in my Momentum Toy Hauler and there have been many, many, many, things posted about that fridge, so here goes....
1. The left door flap hangs up on the bottom of the refrigerator when the door is closed. This is the flap that rotates 90 degrees when the door closes to seal the area in between the left door and the right door. The easiest way to see if yours is doing that is to open both doors and then close the left one first, very slowly and see if that flap rotates the full 90 degrees. Many of them from the factory will rotate part of the way, but not fully. The easiest way to fix this is to remove the upper hinge and lift the door off of the bottom hinge pin, then add a small washer and put the door back on and try it again. You may have to add a couple, but once the door gets enough clearance, the flap will rotate the full 90 degrees. Just a caution though, too many washers and the top of the flap will hit the guide piece and not close completely.
2. The fans in the back (the upper two) are almost totally useless for moving enough air across the upper heat exchanger. Many of us, myself included have added a couple more fans to the backside area to help with being able to move enough air across the heat exchanger. I bought a Titan Fan kit on Amazon and installed it onto the inside of the upper vent. It blows outward and helps increase the airflow across the exchanger. Another issue is that the thermodisc that turns those OEM fans on, is preset for 130 degrees before it turns the fans on. In my opinion, with the small amount of air that the OEM fans move...AND the fact that they don't even start until it gets 130 degrees on the heat exchanger fins (that's where the disc is located..on the fins of the heat exchanger) causes the fridge performance to be anemic at best. The Titan kit comes with two fans, a controller, and it's own temperature probe that turns those fans on at 68 degrees back there.
3. There should be a piece of some type of material....wood, paneling, ??? across that opening where the upper vent is at. If there is nothing there, they screwed up the install of the fridge. That piece of material should go all the way across the opening (side to side) and leave about 6 inches of opening at the top of the vent opening. What this does is make the back compartment area like a chimney and it forces the inlet air from the bottom vent, to flow up and across the heat exchanger. If that board/material is missing, all the air goes out the vent before it has a chance to go across the heat exchanger, and the heat exchanger simply cannot do the job it was designed to do. The result......fridge temperature in the 50 to 60 degree range.

I had all of those issue with mine, except the board across the opening...it was there. Before fixing the door flap thing, and adding the fans back there, I was set on #9 and the fridge would be at 42...43...maybe even 45 or more....not acceptable for sure. Now, depending on how hot it is outside, I can run the setting on either 3 or 4 and it keeps the fresh food compartment in the 33-34 degree range, and the freezer section at about 3...maybe 4 degrees.

Oh, and the other thing, the thermistor inside the fridge. It should be on the second fin from the right (while you are looking into the fridge) and be placed about 1/2" from the top of that fin, as per the instructions from Norcold.

I hope this helps you and good luck getting it resolved....I hated ours when we first got it, but the issues that have been taken care of make the fridge actually work like it should. The problem though, is that me, you, others should NOT HAVE TO DO all of that stuff on a brand new fridge....it should be good to go from the factory.

See, I told you it was going to be long winded!

oh wow - this is PERFECT! I'll get this info to my dealer so they can work on it. I don't have the trailer as they are fixing a bunch of other issues, but I do know that the door didn't shut right all the time (probably the flap issue) and that I definitely did NOT have any board across the top vent. I took it off during camping to see if the upper fans where working and I agree, they don't move hardly any air..

You have given me hope!!

[DesertCoyote]

xrated - is this the kit?
https://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Ve...01&sr=8-3&th=1

How did you wire the fans up so they had power?

[chuckster57]

Another option:

https://www.arprv.com/

[xrated]

Originally Posted by DesertCoyote

xrated - is this the kit?
https://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Ve...01&sr=8-3&th=1

How did you wire the fans up so they had power?

Yes, almost. That's the same I one I got except I bought the one with the 120mm fans instead of the 140mm fans. I wanted to attach the fan assembly directly to the inside of my upper vent, and the measurements for the 120 seemed like it would work better for my application than the 140mm fan assembly. Do some careful measuring and see what you've got and try to visualize how you are going to mount it.

I picked up the 12VDC power that comes into the back of the fridge compartment and tied into that. I also drilled a hole in the wall next to the fridge and mounted the controller on the wall next to the fridge, then fished the wiring from the controller to the back of the fridge....here is a pic of the controller inside the trailer.....

OK....Imgur is not working right now (where I host my pics) so, sorry, no pics right now.

Do whatever you can to get a board across that upper vent opening to make a chimney effect. That right there could be a major reason yours is struggling.

[xrated]

OK...I finally got it working for the pic. That controller has a manual setting where you choose the fan speed, or you can put it in automatic and it will increase the speeds all the way to as fast as they will run....it the temperature gets high enough in the area behind the fridge. So you hook 12VDC up to the controller, then it sends power out to the fans based on what the thermostat probe is sensing. And of course the probe goes back behind the fridge. It can't touch anything back there, as it needs to just sense the ambient air temperature in that area.

[mcomeaux]

Confirm door seals make contact and install a Amish Unit. I fought mine for 3 months in the desert. After install my setting on (1) Freezer was -10 and Fridge Lower 35-37
Makes Ice cream hard and no head aches and wife is extremely happy. Much more efficient...This was also accomplished on the lowest setting on 1

[gearhead]

That left door flap was the key to my Dometic issues. I slipped external snap rings over the bottom pivot post to make the door enter the "track" that forces the flap closed. If the door doesn't seal the cooling system will be overworked trying to keep the fridge cool. When that happens the refrigerant can boil. When that happens you're "done".
I'm betting you will need to have a new cooling unit installed.
I would highly recommend you forget about your selling dealer and find a Norcold authorized independent service center. They live on their reputation to fix things and not like a dealer getting a new sucker every day.

[JRTJH]

If I recall, there was a thread a couple years ago about a "double door refrigerator" that wouldn't cool and the "fix" was to remove a paper label that was on the center post between the doors at the bottom of the refrigerator. Apparently, that paper label was just thick enough to cause the left door flap to hang up and not seal properly....

There's some truth to the "test the door seal with a dollar bill" If it doesn't grip the dollar, it's too loose and cold air will leak out. So, a paper label that's as thick as a dollar bill.........

[DesertCoyote]

Originally Posted by xrated

OK...I finally got it working for the pic. That controller has a manual setting where you choose the fan speed, or you can put it in automatic and it will increase the speeds all the way to as fast as they will run....it the temperature gets high enough in the area behind the fridge. So you hook 12VDC up to the controller, then it sends power out to the fans based on what the thermostat probe is sensing. And of course the probe goes back behind the fridge. It can't touch anything back there, as it needs to just sense the ambient air temperature in that area.

Do you have a pic of that upper board in your unit? I'm trying to visualize what to do.

[AGTORG]

Desert coyote. Excact same issue as you, I have a 2020 raptor 415 that has the fridge in the slide out. Extra fans didn't work, on 9 it wouldn't cool past 58 degrees.

They finally replaced the cooling unit in January. Was out in Florence a couple weekends in 90 plus degree heat this year and now I have to keep the setting on 4!! To keep it at 36 degrees in the fridge.

I would keep trying to make them replace that cooling unit.

[roberthensley491]

On the titan fan kit what size fans did u order i saw several sizes like 90 mm 120mm etc?

[Mikelff]

Originally Posted by DesertCoyote

I just got my brand new Raptor in June. It has the Norcold 2118SS fridge - 4 door gas/elec. Thing was a total nightmare. Problems I had:

1. Fridge would not go below 50 degrees (even at 9 cold setting, highest)
2. Fridge condensation was off chart and leaked water all over inside - had to put towel in to keep water from running everywhere
3. Freezer had almost 2" of ice build-up on back (this was just in a 10 day camp trip)
4. Left door on fridge would not seem to latch all the time.

So needless to say, garbage. We lost about half our food due to the high temp in fridge. I ran the thing on AC and Gas and no diff, it just wouldn't get cold. Checked everything, all fans working correctly..just appears Norcold is garbage.

I checked on some reviews (found a bunch on Camping world's site) for this fridge - everyone rated it 1 star and reported the exact same problems that I have.

So next question - is everyone having problems and this is like a 50/50 crap shoot on these things?

What could it be replaced with? I've checked and it doesn't seem that anyone else makes a fridge that size to fit in the trailer. Dometic only has a 12 cu ft so it's considerably smaller in size to fit in my spot. Furrion makes a 14 cu ft one, but it's AC only (no gas..ugh).

Any help??

I don’t have a Norcold but air flow is everything for an absorption refrigerator. There should be a baffle, piece of thin wood like paneling, that sits just below your heat exchanger fins at the top of your fridge vent, from side to side horizontally, to direct air flow through and over your heat exchanger. Adding fans may help, but air flow and proper alignment of that baffle is critical. All the other suggestions/checks directly related to your unit should also be checked. Making sure your doors seal correctly is the next step, and making sure your thermistor is in the proper position would be important as well. If all those things are in their proper place, then you have cooling unit issues. I do not boondock so I’m always hooked up to some sort of power, either 12v from my truck, or plugged in at a RV park. I had all kinds of issues with my Dometic and finally decided I had enough. Also wasn’t real keen on traveling with the propane on, so I just replaced my cooling unit with a 12v compressor system from JC Refrigeration out of Indiana(Amish). I now have a fridge that maintains -10 in freezer, 35-37 degrees in fridge, on 3 out of 5 settings (5 coldest) in 100+ degree heat. Ice cream is brick hard and beer is COLD! Fridge runs off the truck when traveling, and converter when plugged in at the RV park. If I decided to do some boondocking I would need a generator or solar system, but a cold fridge is the least of my problems now. If you are interested, check them out at jcrefrigeration.com

[toolittletime]

I had a bad (nevercold) unit from day one. I replaced it with a residential unit. Norcold did replace my unit under warranty, buy I had the repair folks sell it and it covered the cost of my residential one. Only down side is I heed shore power or generator wherever I go, but we always stay where there is power, so no problem for me.

[MarvnMabel]

I too am very disgusted with My N'ercold Frig. It was NOT the frig we were supposed to get and now battling the dealer.

[Rdynbama]

We have the same fridge in our Raptor and it worked fine for the dealership when we took it back for warranty work, It only gave trouble when it was here at home or on the road
Xrated told you everything I was going to so I won’t repeat it, make sure it’s sealing first and the thermistor is in the correct location, then the rest is a matter of air flow and making sure it is going across the coils behind the fridge but don’t give up I checked ours yesterday and it was 36 in the fridge and 10 in the freezer perfect for adult beverages and ice cream
I haven’t added any extra fans yet and right now don’t see the need

[xrated]

I'm going to post this "update" on mine, that has been working pretty well for the last two years....since the flap fix and the addition of a pair of Titan fans inside the upper vent blowing out. We left Sunday morning to go camping in Chattanooga and returned Wed. afternoon. I couldn't keep the fridge temperature in the mid 30's like I had been able to do for the last two years. Nothing different about the fridge, no changes in anything....but it just wouldn't perform as it had been.

I started looking and doing google searches for Norcold fridge problems and found an interesting one on a different forum. I'm not sure about linking it here, so I'll just give you somewhat of the summary.

It is called the "muddypaws mod", and that is the screen name of the guy that came up with it on his. The thermistor is basically the controlling input to the control board and tells the fridge how long to run to get to the setpoint (#1-#9 on the display). When the thermistor is at 32 degrees, it will have about 30-32 ohms of resistance. By the time it is up to around 80 degrees, the resistance is down to about 8-9 ohms. So this guy decided to try and trick the thermistor into it thinking it was warmer than it really was. To do this, he removed the thermistor from where it is clipped onto the cooling fin in the fridge, and put a piece of coffee cup Styrofoam between the thermistor and where it contacts the cooling fin. This keeps the thermistor sensing area from actually making contact with the metal, and makes it depend on ambient air temperature in the fridge box. Remember, the warmer the thermistor is, the more it should cause the fridge to run/try to cool the fridge.

So this morning, after we finished cleaning out the fridge from our camping, I pulled the thermistor off of the fin, cut a piece of styrofoam about a 1/2 wide and about an inch long and taped it to the thermistor and put it back in the clip....and reinstalled it on the fin that it came off of. At 10AM the fridge temperature was 68 degrees (remember, I had it turned off for a while) and the freezer (I had not opened that area) was like 22 degrees. I monitored the temperatures today and at 6:30 this evening, it was at 38 degrees in the fridge and 12 degrees in the freezer.....and this is with a totally empty refrigerator....no food, no drinks, no nothing in it. And here is the surprise in all of that. The setting I had it on was "3". It got up to 91 degrees outside here today, and for about 5 hours, the fridge side of the trailer was in direct sunlight. Muddypaws said that with his Norcold, any setting above 5 will actually start causing it to get warmer rather than colder.

So I'm going to let it run overnight and see what it shows in the morning. The entire time today, I was running it on 120VAC and NOT propane...and of course, no opening or closing of the doors on the fridge. If this continues to work this well, I plan on leaving my expensive styrofoam mode in there. Total cost....$0.00 and so far, a huge improvement. I'll try and remember to update tomorrow morning after I see what the temps are after an overnight running.

[xrated]

Originally Posted by DesertCoyote

Do you have a pic of that upper board in your unit? I'm trying to visualize what to do.

Hey there, I didn't have any pics of the board or fans, so I just saw your post and went out and took some. The first pic is of the board and it runs all the way across the opening (30" opening on mine) and is about 7 1/2" inches from the top....


This next pic is of the Titan twin fan (120mm kit) and how it is attached to the inside of the vent cover....


The last pic is a measurement of the height of the board in the opening...you can see that there is approx. 7 1/2" of opening...and to be honest, it probably would be a little more effective if it were only say....6". That large of an opening, I believe, would be more than enough to flow the amount of air that the two fans blow through it.....

[HardieHouse Solar]

Hey Folks we have a 2018 Raptor and have had issues with our Never-Cold 2118SS since new. We have a deep freeze in garage of toy hauler so we lived with it, but this year the issue got worse and we couldn't keep food in the reefer for very long.
We reviewed all forums posts and even stores that sold this unit new for $5500.
The solution for us was installed yesterday and took 5 hours plus another 5 hours of cool down and cleaning up the coach.
See JC refrigeration in Indiana for a drop in ready to install complete 2 compressor in either 12vdc or 120vac kit options.
It is the morning after and my freezer is 15deg and my fridge too cold at 20deg so I had to dial the control panel down to setting 1 from setting 4 their recommended START setting.
I previously ran 1100 to 1250 watts on my rig on solar with reefer ON and now I'm only drawing 550 watts. So we SAVING 550 watts minimum.
They state the dual compressor unit only draws 140 watts and I can attest to that as we normally draw a 400 watt base load with reefer OFF.
We went this way as we did not want to modify our rig in any way.
We're very happy now and I expect keeping food will no longer be a problem so I'm going grocery shopping now and will have cream in my coffee again TODAY!

[xrated]

Originally Posted by HardieHouse Solar

Hey Folks we have a 2018 Raptor and have had issues with our Never-Cold 2118SS since new. We have a deep freeze in garage of toy hauler so we lived with it, but this year the issue got worse and we couldn't keep food in the reefer for very long.
We reviewed all forums posts and even stores that sold this unit new for $5500.
The solution for us was installed yesterday and took 5 hours plus another 5 hours of cool down and cleaning up the coach.
See JC refrigeration in Indiana for a drop in ready to install complete 2 compressor in either 12vdc or 120vac kit options.
It is the morning after and my freezer is 15deg and my fridge too cold at 20deg so I had to dial the control panel down to setting 1 from setting 4 their recommended START setting.
I previously ran 1100 to 1250 watts on my rig on solar with reefer ON and now I'm only drawing 550 watts. So we SAVING 550 watts minimum.
They state the dual compressor unit only draws 140 watts and I can attest to that as we normally draw a 400 watt base load with reefer OFF.
We went this way as we did not want to modify our rig in any way.
We're very happy now and I expect keeping food will no longer be a problem so I'm going grocery shopping now and will have cream in my coffee again TODAY!

I'm going to post up a couple of different topics here, so bear with me. After extensive mods and supposed workarounds on the Norcold 2118, I've finally accepted failure for ever getting it to work correctly. The straw that broke the proverbial Camel's back, was our one month trip out west last September and the "pins and needles" feeling of always wondering when the fridge would just give it up and get to the point that we would throw food out from being too warm in the fridge for too long. It never did happen, but the temperature fluctuations that we experienced over that 30 day trip finally drove me over the edge.....mid to upper 40s in the fresh food compartment during the day, and maybe ......maybe dropping down into the mid 30's overnight, but not every time. Freezer spending most of the time in the high teens to mid 20's was not acceptable either. So over the winter months, my plan was to upgrade the battery to a DIY LiFePO, which I did, and take the trailer to JC Refrigeration for the 12VDC Twin Compressor install. The install took them right at 2 hours, and within 4 hours of the unit being up and running, the fresh food compartment was at 31° and the freezer at -5°. Here is a picture or two of the work done....



Twin compressors....one compressor, the larger one of the two keeps the freezer cold. The smaller compressor does the fresh food area. Pictured to the left of the larger compressor is the newly installed Digital Temperature Controller for the freezer section. So now, you can adjust the freezer and the fresh food compartment separately for whatever temperatures that you need or want....

[Mikelff]

I converted my Dometic frige 1350, their largest, about two years ago to a JC Refrigeration single compressor 12V . Still running strong. I get -15 to -20 in the freezer, and 35 to 37 in the fridge on my middle temp setting. I was heading to Michigan on a trip so I had the factory do the install. I have not heard of any problems with their units once installed correctly. Best upgrade I have ever done.