Refrigerator problems

**Dave&Ginny** · 08-23-2014, 02:10 AM

I was just in getting things from the fridg when I noticed an alarm going off. It's flashing L1 and the interior light wont come on. This is causing my beer to warm and ice cubes melt.

I pulled the outside cover and there's a red LED light glowing but I'm not sure what that means. I did check the panel and all is good there.

Anybody have any ideas?

brenkco · 08-23-2014, 02:30 AM

Dave,
I was camping with a friend of mine when it happened to his refer. This is an undocumented fix but it worked. I think he turned the refer off. You need a fairly strong magnet (no kidding...I remember this as I got my wife's that she uses to pickup sewing needles when she drops them). You hold the magnet next to the red light. It resets a switch and the refer works again.

Let us know if it works.

Ken

BTW, if you google it, the L1 code is a high temp switch, not user serviceable (or not!)

brenkco · 08-23-2014, 02:35 AM

Dave,
Also, did you just wash the rig. It can be tripped by water getting into the unit. I have done some more checking, not sure if you need to turn the refer off. Post I just read, didn't mention turning it off.

Ken

**Dave&Ginny** · 08-24-2014, 02:56 AM

Well......that didn't work. I shut the fridge down last night and defrosted the unit. Today I took that little box off the unit and then took the lid off of it. I put a pretty strong magnet next to it but it didn't reset.

0nTheRoad · 08-24-2014, 04:27 AM

L1 is an over temp alarm, I had it happen to me last winter when I washed the coach. The magnet thing worked for me, you have to place the magnet over the cover on the black box, I held it there for ~5 seconds then I heard a slight click and the red light went off.

Now I'm dealing with the refer not cooling when on LP, works fine on electric, can't figure out whats going on???

arcticman1957 · 08-24-2014, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 0nTheRoad

L1 is an over temp alarm, I had it happen to me last winter when I washed the coach. The magnet thing worked for me, you have to place the magnet over the cover on the black box, I held it there for ~5 seconds then I heard a slight click and the red light went off.

Now I'm dealing with the refer not cooling when on LP, works fine on electric, can't figure out whats going on???

Have you recently changed LP bottles? This happen to me once had to cycle the mode selector a few times and the LP started working.

rob_fla · 08-24-2014, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 0nTheRoad

L1 is an over temp alarm, I had it happen to me last winter when I washed the coach. The magnet thing worked for me, you have to place the magnet over the cover on the black box, I held it there for ~5 seconds then I heard a slight click and the red light went off.

Now I'm dealing with the refer not cooling when on LP, works fine on electric, can't figure out whats going on???

We had the same problem with our Norcold Refrigerator on our previous 5th Wheel, it got wet during a hurricane with rain being blown sideways and set the fault.
Got it dried out, reset with a magnet, all good.

JohnEileen · 08-25-2014, 12:53 AM

We have always had problems with the refrigerator being warmer on LP gas. I posted about that earlier. We also had problems with water everywhere after towing, but we finally had that problem solved at the rally...it was the drain on the outside.

0nTheRoad · 09-06-2014, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 0nTheRoad

Now I'm dealing with the refer not cooling when on LP, works fine on electric, can't figure out whats going on???

UPDATE...
I believe the problem is solved, after too many calls to Crossroads Service Center where they insisted that I take the rig to a dealer I finally convinced them to let me call Norcold who also instructed me to take it to a dealer until I explained that I had called the three dealers, all close to 100 miles away, and that none of them would even consider seeing me before mid to late October. They finally gave me the name of a Mobile Tech who happened to be less than 5 miles from where we're camped, I called him on Tuesday and he was here in less than an hour.

He tested the system, diagnosed the problem as the circuit board on the back of the refer, called Norcold who shipped him a new board. He came back yesterday [Friday] with the new board and replaced it...All is good, I've been on propane now for over 12 hours and the internal temp is holding fine!!!

FYI...Norcold [or most any other vendor] paid everything except the cost of the service call. From what the tech told me the vendors will not pay the service call charge if the rig can be moved SAFELY. So my cost to repair was less than if I had towed the rig to a dealer, I'll take that!!

spindrift · 09-06-2014, 04:22 PM

Great to hear.

Oriana · 09-06-2014, 04:42 PM

Great news Chuck

atom ant · 09-06-2014, 07:34 PM

Great news! I wonder if you get the run-around to go to a Dealer if you have the Norcold extended warranty?

johnboytoo · 09-07-2014, 02:52 PM

Great it's fixed, but DANG, a dentist visit is less painful than that

**Dave&Ginny** · 09-15-2014, 05:05 AM

I received a phone call from a dealer last Friday. Apparently the part came in to fix my refrigerator and he said that Norcold is covering everything through a recall. It finally gets fixed on Tuesday.

In the past I had said that I didn't think a residential frig would work well for us in a RV. However after this little problem, I'll get a residential in the next RV. They seem more reliable at this point.

spindrift · 09-15-2014, 01:35 PM

All you residential fridge owners and wannabees...don't laugh. When you're traveling, what keeps the fridge cold?

rob_fla · 09-15-2014, 01:44 PM

I know of a few people with residential refrigerator's in their 5th Wheels that have had some problems with the refrigerator's, but not many, most work fine.

The biggest issue I have seen in 5th Wheels is the factory installed inverters are not large enough if the refrigerator is in high load / startup mode of operation.

johnboytoo · 09-15-2014, 01:52 PM

Have you ever had a power failure at home ? How long does the fridge stay cold if you don't open it ?!?

That's part of it, in that it doesn't have to run 'hard' once cooled (why they say to keep a fridge full),
and then the tow vehicles umbilical is always charging the batteries that supply the inverter with 12v to convert to 110 which runs the fridge...

Have had res fridges in motorhomes for years ....
won't have an rv fridge again - threw away too much food from the Not_so_colds

spindrift · 09-15-2014, 01:54 PM

Ahhh...the power of the inverter, I forgot.

**Dave&Ginny** · 09-15-2014, 05:12 PM

We used a cooler which worked out okay but it felt like we were camping again. Ginny said I've gotten soft is my old age.

I didn't like waiting for the determination and fix. I figured if I had a residential fridge, I could replace it or at least get it serviced buy a whole host of people out of the phone book.

atom ant · 09-15-2014, 05:13 PM

I agree Dave, that is the worst.

You may also like: