Cruisers Forum
Main Forum => General Discussion => Topic started by: Joseph on August 19, 2025, 12:01:12 am
-
On our 2011 - 2552 the fridge is stinking of Ammonia once again and although I can’t find the leak I’m sure it’s toast once again. Other than throwing a few grand to fix it are there any known alternatives that can slide into that same spot?
-
Hi Joseph:
My 2020 2552 came with a Norcold DE0061L.
It is a 12 volt compressor fridge that fit into the standard opening.
It needs about 6.5 amps max 12 volts to run. I assume there is a 12volt line at your refer to run its electronics that should handle it.
The DE0061L is now discontinued but this article describes a pop in substitute for it:
https://rvfridgeguys.com/norcold-technical-blog/norcold-has-discontinued-the-de0061-here-are-your-options/
(https://rvfridgeguys.com/norcold-technical-blog/norcold-has-discontinued-the-de0061-here-are-your-options/)
If my fridge ever dies, I plan to look into a Nova Cool RFU9200. It has separate compressors for the fridge and freezer.
The size "looks" to be compatible but have not confirmed it as a drop in.
It is more expensive than the Norcolds but I believe the dual compressors and Nova Cool quality would be worth it.
Good luck with whatever you decide!
-
I wonder if the RV fridge industry goes through EPA changes like regular refridgerators, implementing environmentally safer refridgerants that seem to reduce efficiencies. Our ever common 120v/propane Norcold is a 2007 model year, still going strong. I dread the thought of replacing it.
In the months and years that followed after we bought our PC in 2007, there was a rash of Norcold doors breaking at the hinge, an issue across the RV industry. Being proactive, I installed hinge reinforcement hardware..... so far, so good. That problem seems to have gone silent on RV forums for quite some time now.
-
Joseph,
My 2015 just went through the ammonia leak on my way home from Canada a week and a half ago. I have a mobile tech ordering me a new cooling unit and he's expected to get it installed 1st week of Sept.
Yup, $2k expected cost.
I considered a new unit but we still boondocks alot and I wasn't happy with the current draw needed. I didn't want to run the generator to provide enough power.
But if it goes again, I will see what the latest and greatest thing is then.
Don
-
I saw this thread about a kit to convert a absorption refrigerator to a 12v compressor type. Looks like a DIY project if inclined.
JC refrigeration also sells the “Amish” rebuild kit for absorption refrigerators.
https://www.irv2.com/forums/f54/norcold-conversion-to-12v-compressor-system-678614.html
https://jc-refrigeration.com/
Removing the unit from a PC requires taking apart the entry door frame. It may be easier to just rebuild the old one inside using a drop cloth? If you need tips or pictures for how to remove it look up Volkemon on the PC Facebook group
-
Ron, how many miles do you have on your rig? Reason I ask is I don’t think just owning a rig for a long time has anything to do with it. I’m at 90,000 miles of rough riding roads. My first unit went out was on recall, this one of course is not. The beating everything takes bouncing down the highways I’m guess is the main culprit. Well that and everything being made to crap out so you’ll spend on new.
Cal…Since my original post I have been doing some research on JC refrigeration and converting mine to 12 volt or 110. I’d like to go with straight 12 and avoid the inverter. The concern is the current wiring isn’t going to be heavy enough. With the fridge in the slide running a heavier wire isn’t easy with the slack when the slide is in.
Jim, I’ve noticed JC offers a single and dual compressor kit. We’re on the road so once I get home I’ll give them a call with a load of questions and go from there. Really wondering how much more power is required with a dual compressor kit? All the reviews ive been able to find the owners were happy with the single compressor. ??
Don, with this being the second time I’ve had the ammonia leak I think I’m done with that route. I can buy the ammonia Amish kit for around $900. Pretty much the same as changing to 12 or 110. The work I’ll do myself. I’m retired so time isn’t an issue.
-
Joseph,
I can't contribute any insight on a compressor style refrigerator, and it's an integrating topic that I hope you let know what evolves. But I can offer some advice on insulation tips that you should do while you have the old refrigerator out and before you put in the new one. I have a lengthy write-up from my refrigerator work here
https://forum.phoenixusarv.com/index.php?topic=4820.msg43312#msg43312 (https://forum.phoenixusarv.com/index.php?topic=4820.msg43312#msg43312)
In summary, the l top of the refrigerator cabinet really needs to be insulated with large blocks of foamboard. This blocks the heat of the sun beating on the roof, blocks the fridge heat accumulating there and keeps any insects from building nests up there.
The outside wall shouldn't need insulation, but might require different baffles for the new compressor coils. It's much easier to get to that wall while the fridge is out.
The most important places to Insulate are the floor of the back section (between the fridge and outside wall) and the left and right side wall of the back section. They REALLY need to be insulated. Those boards are very thin.... possibly 1/4 inch thick if they are like mine. Your interior cabin is not very far from the outside air and also not far from the heat generated by the refrigerator. So insulating that left, right, and lower floor in the rear keeps all the refrigerator heat out of the interior of your coach and likewise in the winter it blocks the cold winter air that's back there from entering your coach. My shower shares a wall with the fridge. It used to get very hot (like a car hood in August!) before I insulated that wall. I also got rid of the cold draft that came out from under the fridge each winter.
One other thing to consider is insulating the back side of the new fridge before it gets installed... I added a half inch to the back side of my norcold. This weekend is was 102F and my freezer stayed at 4 or 5F and the fridge was 34 or 35F... and I had it set only on #4 electric.
Larry
-
Ron, how many miles do you have on your rig? Reason I ask is I don’t think just owning a rig for a long time has anything to do with it. I’m at 90,000 miles of rough riding roads. My first unit went out was on recall, this one of course is not. The beating everything takes bouncing down the highways I’m guess is the main culprit. Well that and everything being made to crap out so you’ll spend on new.
We are getting close to 50,000 miles.
You are absolutely correct. Motorhomes in-general take a serious beating as the miles pile up. The thrashing from being driven is much harder on the house than age, assuming the rig is well preserved during non-use.
It is for this reason why it is very important to do all you can to reduce thrashing where possible. As I understand, a very quick-fix is changing to those very expensive Koni-FSD shocks. It also goes without saying that proper tire pressure, not over-inflating your tires, is of great influence.
-
60 watts is really efficient if a single 12v compressor kit really only uses 5A.
After seeing pictures of 2350 with the refrigerator removed I would agree that the insulation has room for improvement, especially on the top.
-
Ron, I tried the koni shocks. They lasted 40,000 miles. The only difference in ride was my wallet was much lighter. I wasn’t impressed and noticed absolutely no improvement in ride… sadly.
-
Larry. My fridge is in the slide. The added insulation is a great idea, Thank you. I will say up to my ammonia leak over the last few years once my fridge got cold I could set it at 2-3 and any higher would start to freeze items in the fridge. It always took 6-7 days to get to that point however. My reason for considering the 12 volt compressor kits is supposedly it’s a much faster cool down and hopefully the last time I need to do this.
-
In regards to the power draw another question comes to mind. Being running the generator doesn’t bring your batteries to 100% could a person connect a charger to the batteries while the generator is running to top them off? I’m thinking of a small 15 amp for deep cycle batteries just for this purpose?
-
Ron, I tried the Koni shocks. They lasted 40,000 miles. The only difference in ride was my wallet was much lighter. I wasn’t impressed and noticed absolutely no improvement in ride… sadly.
Oh my, that is a very poor review on the Koni FSD shocks.
I wanted to buy the Koni-FSDs back in 2018 but couldn't justify the expense and NO lifetime warranty either. I decided to go with heavy duty Bilstein RV shocks for the price and lifetime warranty. Admittedly I am a bit surprised how happy I am with them. I was concerned that the HD Bilsteins would jar our rig more, but apparently there is enough mass and weight that there was no noticable worsening.
Another change I made two years later in 2020, was replacing the front coil springs to a pair of the next rating lesser because our PC front suspension had too much weight capability that created unnecessary thrashing up front. Our PC still has margin, but not so extreme. The ride up front is more comfortable, and the house likes it too.
I also adjusted front tire pressure to 55 PSI which could be afforded due to our lighter front end. Between all the changes I made since 2018, the house thrashes a lot less. I wished I made the changes when the rig was new, but I was shy in making such changes back then.
-
In regards to the power draw another question comes to mind. Being running the generator doesn’t bring your batteries to 100% could a person connect a charger to the batteries while the generator is running to top them off? I’m thinking of a small 15 amp for deep cycle batteries just for this purpose?
You think like me.
17 years ago, I resorted to an external charger to shorten generator run times. Because, on trips, the house is in full operation during such charging, the current draw prevents the charger from stating "FULL." It took me some time to understand that. There is a huge difference in charging when the house is in full operation, than when the house is shut down.
I took this picture back in 2009. I practice it to this day during trips. I also maintain the batteries at home every 3 to 4 months, using the same charger, but at the low 4 amp setting.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/2674/3966282501_688f2315b3_c.jpg)
-
Ron, the Bilsteins is what I changed out to. On my jeep as well. I couldn’t tell any differing ride from the Koni. Just my 2 cents.
So when you charge with gen running, what amp charge are you using? I’m looking at 15 amp assuming anything less won’t accomplish much during gen runs.
-
My Black & Decker charger pictured, has these 5 modes.... 4, 10, 20, 40 amp, and Start.
During trips, to shorten generator run times, I set my B&D charger to 20 amps. I worry that 40 amps is too hard on the pair of batteries. I am comfortable with 10 amps per battery. The 40 amp setting is handy for emergency use.
Decades ago now, my original Ford chassis battery was showing signs of weakness when we headed out for a wedding about 350 miles from home. On the way back home, the battery completely died in a rest area. To get the V10 chassis engine started, it took the Onan generator running, jumper cables from the house batteries, and my battery charger at the 40 amp setting, to start the V10 engine. So there was just that one time where 40 amps was extremely handy.
I could not get the charger's Start Mode to work. Maybe I wasn't working it right. Maybe the unrecoverable battery prevented it from contributing.
Sorry for drifting off topic. At least you started this thread and the drifting from it. :)
-
lol. That I did Ron. I figured it’s all related to swapping to a 12 volt fridge so keep it in the family with one thread. Thank you for the info.
Looks like I will need to run a 10awg wire from the battery to supply a conversion. They say a 12 gauge (that’s what’s there now) may suffice but I won’t know till installed. I’d rather see what it’ll take to string a new lead first before spending the money only to learn I can’t get it done because of wiring route.
I’m waiting to hear from my doc on how to go forward on new cancer diagnosis. Seems once you have cancer (4 years now) you’re constantly chasing it. Anyway as soon as this all starts I will post how the conversion / repair goes and turns out. Good or bad.
-
Joseph,
A thought occurred to me on your heavy duty wire to provide 12 volts and ground to the replacement... I would search for a "high strand count" cable with silicone (or rubber+silicone) coating. This combination gives the most flexible motion and longest wear life since this needs to move every time the slide goes in and out. I've done some robotics work in the past decade and this is what they use,,, but much thinner, of course, specifically to endure the motion, vibrations, etc.
The down side is that silicone is slightly more prone to damage so you should consider adding some heat shrink around any spot that might rub something else.
Larry
-
I’m waiting to hear from my doc on how to go forward on new cancer diagnosis. Seems once you have cancer (4 years now) you’re constantly chasing it.
Sorry to hear of your health history.
I am in a similar situation. As of October of last year, after chemo was completed, I am supposedly in remission from stage 4 DLBCL (diffuse large B cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma). I go in next month for another round of quarterly bloodwork and biannual CAT scan to make sure it has not returned. In the mean time, I continue to recover from the chemo treatments. I can't yet go hiking like I used to, still limited to casual walks on flat surfaces. But the hardest challenge for me is avoiding sugar and starch to starve potential returning cancer.
There we go, changing the subject again, ha, ha.
-
I’ve installed the 12 volt conversion. Took all of 3 1/2 hours. 100 degree day the fridge cooled down to 10 degrees in freezer and 40 in fridge in a bit over 3 hours. It’ll need to run a bit longer to get the fridge colder. I’m still figuring out the settings to dial it all in.
They had told me I may need to run a 10 gauge wire if the wiring wasn’t heavy enough. I didn’t want to get stuck with having to figure it out after the install so I did that first to be sure I could. That took an additional hour but wasn’t that difficult and in the end wasn’t needed. I left it in place even though it’s not hooked up.
On our last trip prior to the conversion my batteries failed and the only option was a couple 12 volt marine maintenance free batteries from Walmart. They are supposedly 100 amp hour , so 200 all in. On a 100 degree day I get roughly 18 hours of my fridge before 50%. I think it’ll go longer after due to the fridge requires more power in the beginning to bring it down to temp. Once it reaches the desired temp it runs roughly 65% of the time, or so they say.
-
Next up I want to go to two 6 volt. If I go flooded I can get more amp hrs than agm but I’ve read agm can be taken down farther and last longer so I’ll go that route. Unless one of you convince me otherwise??
With My battery tray I installed new 250 lb sliders 5 years ago. Even though that should be overkill after 5 years they are showing that they are getting tired with all the vibration and bouncing on our roads. So I installed a set of 500 lb slide rails and lowered the tray enough to allow the height needed for the taller 6 volt.
The tray doesn’t allow enough length or width depending on how you set them for the larger 6 volt AGM. I remove the riveted drawer catches , bent the front ledge down. Welded a couple of cracks in the side walls of the tray and cut the excess length so the door will close. This now gives me more than enough room for the 6 volt. The slots where the catches used to take hold work perfect for an adjustable heavy tarp strap that will keep the batteries in place and the tray from sliding against the door.
-
50% sounds about right. 5A x 18 hrs = 1080 wH, or 90aH of battery capacity.
Have you considered LiFePO4 instead? A pair of LiTime group 31 12v 140aH or 165aH batteries packs a lot of punch at 1/3 the weight for about the same price and can be safely discharged below 20% capacity. If your converter can be configured for 14.2v charging, the only additional hardware needed is a dc-dc charger to protect the alternator. If you might be adding solar at some point, check out the dual input dc-dc chargers from Renogy that support charging from both the alternator or solar panels. The difficult part is figuring out the wiring since PC doesn’t provide diagrams. If you need help with that send me a pm. I made the switch last winter
-
Calcruiser. I have looked at lifepo4. From what I’ve read I need to do something to protect the Alt and I have no idea if my converter on a 2011 can charge them. Next is cost, I have no idea of what the cost is to bring my rig up to speed for the lifepo4.
Pm sent
-
Calcruiser. I’ve sent two pm’s and although they say message sent when I check sent messages nothing current is showing. Let me know if not received
-
Got it 2o2
-
Update on fridge conversion to 12 volt. We recently took a short 4 day trip. At 5 pm the day before departure I turned the fridge on. The following morning when loading the fridge was at 34 degrees and the freezer was at 4. Over the course of the 4 days the fridge maintained between 33.5 and 34.9 degrees. I never had to make any adjustments. It’s as sim Poole as just turning on your fridge. Nothing to adjust. The one con is while connected to shore power. In the 2552 the charging unit is directly below the bed. The 12 volt systems causes the charger to kick on frequently. It’s an additional fan noise along side the inverters fans. This may or may not bother you. Personally I wish I could throw a switch to turn the charger off at night.
Overall I wish I’d known of this sooner. I like it soooooo much better than the three way system.
One change I’ll make is If I find a way to shut the charger off at night it will be on my to do list.