Norcold frig has quit working!

Tsunami1 · 10-09-2012, 04:19 PM

Here it is after hours and we can't reach anyone at Norcold or Camping World. We have a 2011 Montana 3400 and our frig quit working a couple of hours ago. The codes that are blinking are "LI" and "oP". The manual says this means "The high temperature limit switch is open" which, unfortunately, we have no clue what that means. Would love to hear from someone about this and if there anything we can do this late in the evening? Any way to get the beeping to stop?

mr.windows1 · 10-09-2012, 04:51 PM

I have a 2012 3750 Montana , my fridge did the same thing in June, unfortunately for you it is a Norcold recall and your fridge will not work until you get a new high temp limit control put back in. You might as well get the stuff out of there and turn the fridge off as this part prevents fire in case of high temp in the unit occurs, what sucks is this part takes about 2 minutes to put in but they told me a certified service man has to put it in. If you want to know if your board is shot find your access to your fridge on the outside of your camper and pull it off if you see a realitivly small black box with a couple of wires coming into it and if there is a red light on your control is shot. I have heard in a case of emergency you can jump the 2 power wires together with a simple auto fuse to get your fridge running again to limp into a dealer so you don't lose all your food but again that is not recommend because it is a potential fire hazard. Mine happened to go out the week it was in the 90,s here in Mn. Since the recall part has been replaced I have had no issues

Tsunami1 · 10-09-2012, 05:20 PM

Thank you so much for providing such clear information. What a bummer.....

Festus2 · 10-09-2012, 06:07 PM

Tsunami1 -

Further to mr.windows1's post, you can Google "Norcold Fridge Recall" and find out more information. The recall affects models 1200,1201, 1210 and 1211. The serial numbers in the recall are: 315525-13088811.
The cooling units affected are serial numbers 700000 - 13085759.
If your fridge is under recall, you should unplug the 110v found in the exterior fridge access door and call 1-800-767-9101.

Hope this helps.

Tsunami1 · 10-12-2012, 02:46 PM

I did contact Norcold and it is a recall item. Someone from an RV fix-it business has ordered the replacement part from Norcold so, hopefully, it'll be here early next week.

I am curious about something, though. This person said he is a certified service provider for Norcold. He also said Norcold only allows half an hour to do the part replacement but that it would take him longer than that to do the labor and, therefore, it's up to the RV owner to pay him themselves for the time he works past the half hour.

Is it just me or does that seem a bit odd? We can't move our RV right now so taking it to an RV dealer isn't possible and we have to depend on someone coming to our RV to do the work. There is a service fee involved for that person to come to the RV but that's not the issue, the issue is that we're going to be charged for a longer period of labor than Norcold allows.

And, this person told us we have to pay him up front and then submit our paperwork to Norcold for reimbursement because Norcold is slow to pay and he needs to be paid sooner than the time Norcold would take to pay him.

Is this how life goes for RVers? We're still fairly new to the ups and downs and this just seems a bit much to me.

Festus2 · 10-12-2012, 03:53 PM

Tsunami1 -
According to the Norcold website, the information regarding the recall states:

"The installation of the high temperature sensor will be at no cost to you."

What you have explained doesn't sound right and I would contact Norcold to clear this up.
Their own website says that you don't have to pay.

SAD · 10-12-2012, 04:01 PM

Call a different RV repair center. Just my 02¢

**JRTJH** · 10-12-2012, 05:41 PM

Not to defend the service repairman, but he may have intended to say that Norcold will pay for 1/2 hour and it will take him longer than that because he has to travel to your trailer to repair it. It may well be that if the refer were in his shop, there'd be no cost to you, but since he is spending time to travel to you, he expects payment for his time above what Norcold is paying him for the "in shop repair"... I'd ask him before I went too much further. He may be legitimately charging for something other than refer repair time.

However, is the repairman says that it's anything other than payment for his travel time, I'd run like hell to get away from him.

mr.windows1 · 10-13-2012, 04:47 AM

That is a bunch of crap it took the mobile service guy that did mine maybe 15 minutes at most and that was probably because my lips were flapping while he was doing his job it's a simple box unplug the wires plug new one in and then they rewrapped the flue insulation with a new piece where the sensor wire hooks in if he can't do it in a half an hour tell him you will find someone else cause he's lying this should not cost you a dime other than if you have to have a mobile service come out like I did!

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