Norcold 1201 finally gave up the ghost.

[8Muddypaws]

We're heading out on a short trip Wednesday morning. I got the rig out of the storage lot last Friday and turned the refrigerator on Saturday evening. Everything seemed fine.

Until today when the DW went to take some stuff out to put in the refer and found it beeping and displaying the dreaded "LiOP' message.

At first I thought the 4 computer fans I added at the top of the flue were't working but I finally saw the telltale yellow residue. (Pics attached)

No flames, no smoke, no ammonia smell. My theory is that it all leaked out while in storage for 3 weeks.

So tomorrow I'm going to go buy an dorm sized refrigerator to use until I can decided on which direction to go.

New Norcold cooling unit?

Amish cooling unit?

12v compressor cooling unit?

Residential refrigerator? What will fit in a 1201 sized hole?

If anybody has experience with any of these I'm looking for advice.

 

[DonTom]

it beeping and displaying the dreaded "LiOP' message.

Yeah, that yellow stuff could be the end. But I wonder if it is always true. You can try the four-dollar fix . . .

 

[John From Detroit]

I would go with a new Amish Built cooling unit.. (read that I did on my Dometic) To my eyes it sure loked better than OEM. and I don't feel the need to add all the plastic (the box) to a land fill somewhere.

 

[Ernie Ekberg]

Residential counter depth

 

[8Muddypaws]

DonTom, I did the magnet trick. After 2 hours the flue was hot and the heat exchangers and recovery tank were stone cold.

I'm 99.97% sure the yellow residue means it's dead.

(
I'm surprised that Gary hasn't commented on this yet.)

 

[Fyrflie]

RV Cooling Unit Warehouse, LLC Products

Shop our inventory.

rvcoolingunit.trueims.com

I installed one of their units in my RV and it has worked flawlessly now for two years. I also added extra cooling fans inside the fridge and outside.
Also added an adjustable thermostat inside the fridge and eliminated the sliding thermistor.
And I modified the refer space to allow the hot air to flow up and out better than before.
The whole system works better than my refer at home.
Good luck with whatever route you choose.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I see 3 practical choices, depending on your wants & needs. [I chose #3 when I replaced my 1201.]

1. Replace the cooling unit with an aftermarket (aka Amish) model
2. Replace the absorption cooling unit with a 12v compressor driven unit from JC Refrigeration
3. Replace the entire fridge with a residential-style compressor unit, either 12v or 120v powered

#1 gives you exactly what you had before with a quality component at the least cost.

#2 moves you to enhanced cooling performance at moderate cost, but the fridge function is otherwise the same as the original. If you camp off-grid very much, you may want to upgrade your battery capacity or add solar charging.

#3 brings several functional & capacity advantages but requires some remodeling and maybe also the same battery & charging upgrades as #2. The functional advantages are:

• About 25% greater fridge & freezer capacity for the same physical cabinet size
• Vastly superior cooling with separate temperature controls in fridge & freezer
• Internal air circulation for consistent temperatures throughout
• Frost-free!!! No more defrosting the freezer.

A 12-16 cu ft apartment size fridge will physically fit in a 1200-size hole. Maybe larger, depending on the surroundings. I've seen fridges as large as 24 cu ft installed, but that's unlikely in a 34 foot coach like yours. I installed a 14.6 cu ft standard depth model in mine because I was limited on max height. If I had been willing to sacrifice the #2 furnace under the fridge cabinet to gain vertical space, I could have used a 18 cu ft model instead. The space available for the fridge doors to swing open is another key factor ion what fits. Double door units are a plus because the doors are more narrow, but there is a limited choice of double door models under 21 ft.

 

[Kirk]

I'm 99.97% sure the yellow residue means it's dead.

If you are wrong, it will be the first time that I know of with the symptom that you have. It shouldn't be too difficult to locate where the leak was if you have any doubts.

 

[8Muddypaws]

There is a 6" 'space' under the refrigerator. As far as I know there is nothing there but I think I can get a bore scope in there to find out before I commit to a residential. Right now I'm leaning towards an Amish cooling unit. This one lasted 18 years in spite of the all the bad press Norcold got/gets.

I'm not in a position where I can do the install by myself. So far I have one estimate of $3,300 to install an Amish cooling unit.

A counter depth top freezer refrigerator would be the lowest cost option as long as the windshield doesn't have to be removed to get it inside.

 

[xrated]

I have the larger Norcold 2118 fridge that came in my Momentum Toy Hauler and it was a headache from day one. I added extra fans to the upper vent area (fridge is in a slide), I fixed the famous door flap issue, I adjusted the thermistor several times, I even tried the Muddypaws thermistor fix.....all to no avail. I finally had enough of the maybe it will work, maybe it won't issues and started moving forward with a plan.

With the fridge being 18.x cu. ft, I started looking at the JC Refrigeration TWIN compressor mod. I knew I would need to do an upgrade on my batteries though, so I went down that rabbit hole first. I'll spare you all the details, but I built a 302AH LiFePO battery from EVE cells and installed it in the camper. Then in May of 2022, we traveled from home (Knoxville, TN area) up to Shipshewana, IN to the JC Refrigeration facility for our appt to get it swapped out. In slightly less than two hours, the fridge was out of the cubicle, stripped of all the unnecessary OEM stuff that wasn't needed, and the Amish cooling unit was in place and already running and cooling down, while they tidied up the wiring and cleaned up their mess.

The twin compressor setup utilizes one of the compressors for just the freezer, and the other compressor for just the fresh food area. And the nice thing is that each have their own temperature control, totally independent of the other. The ambient air temperatures that day were in the upper 70s and within about three hours of it running, the freezer was at 2° and the fresh food area was at 34/35 degrees. I let it stabilize for a couple more hours and the freezer was down to -3° and the fresh food was right at 32°. I adjusted the fresh food thermostat so that it would be warmer, and it settled in at 37/38 degrees. I eventually adjusted the freezer digital temperature controller up just a bit so the freezer stayed at 0 to maybe 2 degrees above zero. That was 2022 and I'm still as happy with it today as I was then.

Misc. Electrical Info: When both compressors are running (like on startup or they just happen to be needed at the same time), the current draw will be right at 12.6 amps on the 12VDC supply to the fridge. I had added a separate (new) circuit for the fridge before we went to have it modded by JC. Over a 24 hour period of time of running, I will normally use around 145AH of my battery. If I'm plugged into shore power, the converter/charger keeps the battery topped off. Obviously that number can change or vary depending on a lot of factors....ambient temperatures inside and outside of the trailer, how often the doors are open and for how long, ect. For me, it was worth it to finally have a refrigerator that actually works every time we use the RV and I'm not worried all the time about it going into one of those "not working this time" sessions, like it did when it was an absorption fridge. Mine went from being a "Nevercold" brand to "AlwaysCold" brand.....and the nice thing also, is that the unit fit right back into the same cubby without any type of modifications to the trim/opening. From the front, it looks just like it did on the day I bought the trailer. From the rear, not so much....LOL

 

[8Muddypaws]

Wow, thanks for that XRated.

Perhaps you can tell me about the 6 1/2 inches of space needed 'behind the refrigerator box'. Where is that measured from.

From the pictures on their website it looks like the condenser coils stick out of the back a few inches. Is that correct?

Did you add any fans to draw air up and out of the condensers?

 

[xrated]

Wow, thanks for that XRated.

Perhaps you can tell me about the 6 1/2 inches of space needed 'behind the refrigerator box'. Where is that measured from.

From the pictures on their website it looks like the condenser coils stick out of the back a few inches. Is that correct?

Did you add any fans to draw air up and out of the condensers?

You're welcome sir. If I remember correctly, that is measured from the back of the fridge (the metal box itself, not other components back there) to the bottom vent louvers.....the large black (usually) plastic grill.

Yes, the condenser coils stick out a bit, but probably not quite as much as the compressors do. And if you look closely at my pic, you will see that not only do they use heavy duty tubing everywhere, the compressors have rubber feet mounting to help with vibration/shock from the road travel.

The units come with new fan assemblies on them, but I had already added a pair of fans to the inside of the upper vent/grill a few years back....when it was still the absorption fridge. They told me that I really didn't need them anymore, but I left them mounted and wired up for a Just in case, like being out camping and one of the fans on the fridge dies, I could always turn mine on. I normally run the fridge with the fans that I added...turned off and have had no issues so far. Here is another pic or two....

I also upgraded and ran a completely new 12VDC circuit from my battery, through a manually resetable breaker and back to and up into the slide where the fridge is...before going there to have the install done. I landed the wires on a heavy duty terminal strip, and that made it easier for them to hook everything up. You can see that to the far left of the second picture in this post.

 

[8Muddypaws]

My access port is a little smaller but I think it's going to work. I'm thinking of doing the install myself if I can find someone to help remove and reinstall the box. The rest of it seems pretty simple. I've got 4 fans sucking air out at the top now. Think I'll leave them there like you did.

The control panel on the fins won't be popular with the wife but I don't want her messing with it anyway! (But aren't all residential refer controls on the inside?) Is the light adequate? If not I'll bet the LED panel I have now could be wired into the socket. I've done that kind of thing before and haven't released any magic smoke.

What finally convinced me to look at this system seriously was the reasonable replacement cost of the compressors. Any auto parts store has Freon.

What is the do-hickey in the section of your picture? Is it part of the refer?

 

[xrated]

My access port is a little smaller but I think it's going to work. I'm thinking of doing the install myself if I can find someone to help remove and reinstall the box. The rest of it seems pretty simple. I've got 4 fans sucking air out at the top now. Think I'll leave them there like you did.

The control panel on the fins won't be popular with the wife but I don't want her messing with it anyway! (But aren't all residential refer controls on the inside?) Is the light adequate? If not I'll bet the LED panel I have now could be wired into the socket. I've done that kind of thing before and haven't released any magic smoke.

What finally convinced me to look at this system seriously was the reasonable replacement cost of the compressors. Any auto parts store has Freon.

What is the do-hickey in the section of your picture? Is it part of the refer?

Keep in mind, I had mine done in May of 2022. At that time, the control setup for the twin compressor mod was to use the original Norcold "eyebrow" temperature control on the front door of the fridge for the fresh food compartment temperature control. So back then, they added a digital temperature controller for the freezer compressor and that is what you are seeing in the pic that you posted. It is obviously located behind the fridge right next to the compressor. It's not a terrible setup because think about how often.....maybe I should say how Seldom, you change the freezer temperature setting on a fridge. But if I do want to change the setting, I have to go outside, pop off the lower Black Plastic cover to access the controller, then go through the sequence of raising or lowering the temperature setpoint. I've done it once since I've had the mod done.

So fast forward to now, and their new temperature control device. Everything is inside and the eyebrow is no longer used as far as I can tell. Both fresh food and freezer thermostats are accessible from inside the trailer and in the fridge area. Both methods obviously accomplish the same thing, but the newer version is just more convenient for the owner.........and that.........is the rest of the story.

 

[8Muddypaws]

Another question. How 'thick' is the temperature control panel? How much shelf space did you lose?

 

[xrated]

Another question. How 'thick' is the temperature control panel? How much shelf space did you lose?

I'm not sure I follow/understand that question. If you are asking about the "new" setup that they use, I don't know. Mine has the original setup where the "eyebrow" was used and the separate digital temperature controller was mounted in the rear of the fridge. Let me know exactly what you are referring to about the shelf space question.

 

[8Muddypaws]

I was asking about the new controller & fin fans. I misunderstood and thought you had upgraded to the new controller. My mistake. I've been a little more stressed than usual lately. Lots of things other than a broken refer going on.

 

[xrated]

I was asking about the new controller & fin fans. I misunderstood and thought you had upgraded to the new controller. My mistake. I've been a little more stressed than usual lately. Lots of things other than a broken refer going on.

OK....I understand. I did a search on JC Refrigeration's website and clicked on the installation instructions for the 12VDC, twin compressor unit for your model of Norcold refrigerator. I'll post the link below and it will take you to that Installation Manual, if PDF format. You can then either just look at it online, or download it to your computer. If you scroll down through the document, you will see on page 28, a picture of the NEW controller .....kind of a side view, and then scroll down to page 53 and it is mounted to the cooling fins in the fresh food area of the fridge box. Those two pics may give you some perception of the thickness of the twin fan/control unit. To me, it looks like it may be 2 1/2 to maybe 3 inches in depth. Here's the link to the Install manual...

https://jc-refrigeration.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1200-1210-12V-Dual-Universal-Installation-Manual.pdf

 

[8Muddypaws]

I was asking about the new controller & fin fans.

I ordered a 12V dual compressor today. I'm having it installed by a local shop. Not cheap though. They've done excellent work for me in the past.

I found clarification on the space needed in JC forum, I have lots of room. I'm ditching the ice maker. We hardly ever use it and want more room for ice cream and ribs.

Thanks for your help!

 

[xrated]

I was asking about the new controller & fin fans.

I ordered a 12V dual compressor today. I'm having it installed by a local shop. Not cheap though. They've done excellent work for me in the past.

I found clarification on the space needed in JC forum, I have lots of room. I'm ditching the ice maker. We hardly ever use it and want more room for ice cream and ribs.

Thanks for your help!

Congrats, and be prepared to be amazed at how well it works. I too have the ability and knowledge to have installed it myself, but not really anyone around to help me remove the unit from the cubicle it was in, wrestle it out and over to the middle of the LR/Kit area and lay it down on it's face for the install, then wrestle it back in place....by myself. I finally faced the reality of being 68 years old at the time and and knowing that the physical part of the install would be biting off more than I could chew....so we took a trip to Shipshewana, IN (about 6 hrs away from where we live) and I let them install it. It is right in the heart of Amish country for that area of Indiana, so we spent some time walking around shopping, and just made the day of it. We also stopped on the way back home and spent the night at a campground close to some friends of ours that live in Georgetown, KY and had dinner with them and spent some time catching up and visiting. And the best news, besides having a fridge that is awesome, I had no aches/pains and wasn't sore for three or four days after the install.