Well... Our old Norcold N621L had an issue.
'n' on the display. Power down and back up, ran for a while then... 'n' and wouldn't do anything.
Found the service bulletin to reset the circuit board, and went to figure out what it was. Using the diagnostics built into it, I found the thermistor on the fridge coils would read fine down to ~45 degrees, then suddenly revert to 73*.
And we have to leave in a day for the next fest.
Tried all over our area, nobody with parts that old. Found it on Amazon for $8, but 2 day delivery.
Found that 50* on the coil triggered the 'watchdog' routine that eventually ends up with the dreaded 'n' on the display. If the coil doesn't get over 50*, it never worries.
ok!
Took resistance readings from the broken thermistor, and got a couple numbers off youtube vids. Did some back of the napkin math, and figured out that about 22K of resistance from the sender should be ~45* reading. Cannibalized two 11K resistors from an old PC board, put them in series instead of the thermistor, and checked using the onboard diagnostics.
46* reading.
Left the temp setting on 5, put digital thermomter sensors in both the fridge and freezer, and went to the fest.
Worked GREAT! Kept 34* in the fridge, -1 in the freezer. Whole week.
But Mrs V was leery. A new fridge was in the works. Found that the NORCOLD N7XFL was a direct replacement for the size,and was bigger! Joy!
(
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZQMJ25J )
And I had an 'off grid' friend that needed an ammonia fridge. Win win.
Local camping world wanted $2450 delivered.
Amazon was about a THOUSAND less.
So... in it came. Used the tractor to bring it in from the road, first time seeing an Amazon trailer truck delivering to a house.
Unboxed, Installed.
WHAT A PIECE OF JUNK!!
In the camper for two days, no food. Testing. Running, -4 freezer, 34 fridge. YES. We leave in 3 days, Mrs V can start packing it.
BUT.....
Water dripping off the freezer ceiling?!?!?! 1/4" plus frost on the back?!? (See picture 'Adobe Express' below)
Did I perhaps leave the door slightly ajar? The gasket misaligned?
Nope. The absolute WORST build quality I have seen.
NO MORE smooth plastic seal seating area. Now its Steel. Probably powder coated, wait for rust in a year MAX. And the 45* butt joint... its an overlap. (Picture KIMG1581 below)
The bottom center piece was so misaligned, the left was a hairline crack. The right side was about 3/16. A wide open groove. (Picture KIMG1579 below)
Fridge was even worse on the groove. (Pic -1583)
The left hand side tight. So before foaming, this took a hit, and misaligned. Then was never fixed, or QC'd.
Now... the old 6.3 cubic foot N621 (see pic in the next post, I put too many here) Look at that 20 year old SMOOTH PLASTIC RUST FREE SURFACE!
The new one is .7 CF bigger. ooOOOOooooh. Same shelves, same glass, same door shelf inserts. I dont know WHERE the extra room is.
But WOW is it doomed to fail. And the most sorrowful thing... MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA.
I can only assume it was a DEI hire, and their PRIDE wasn't in their work, but their gender.
(Thanks to CC for that gem.
)
I am going to give it a try for a week, and when we get home process it for a return. And fix the old one, do some restoration on the aged pieces, and reinstall. Probably for another 20 years.
I just have to find/make door panel inserts to get rid of the '70s wood look.
More detail on the install to come later on my 2350 thread. But for now...
DONT BUY THE POS NORCOLD INC N7XFL Polar N7X Series. What crap.
(and now I have to go resize pictures for the ANTIQUE attachment rules here... 240kb?!? My old phone takes 1.5mB pics..
and it appears that preview doesnt show the pics. Sigh. Hope they show up)
