Norcold 2118 Refrigerator Issue????

[usmcknight69]

I have a 2018 Montana 3950 with the Norcold 2118 double fridge/freezer. Here's my question: Camper was hooked up at my house for a week with the fridge on hooked up to shore power (50 amp). I had the temp set at 7. We left to go camping (30 minutes away) for the weekend and switched over to gas during the drive. I heard the burner kick on so I know it was working. Hooked up at the campground and and switched to auto mode. Several hours later, the fridge seemed warm. It was only "cooling" the items inside. It was noticeably warmer inside the fridge. Freezer was still cold enough to not melt a bag of ice we put inside. It stayed like this all weekend.

This was our first trip in the camper.

I got home, emptied the fridge and turned it off. I left it off for less than 10 minutes before deciding to turn it back on. This time, I set the fridge to 9 and placed a thermometer in the fridge and one in the freezer. It has now sat for 8 hrs cooling. The temp in the freezer is 18* and the temp in the fridge is 44*. Is this normal or should it be cooler inside both?

Any help is appreciated.

[Montana Man]

They should be colder. Mine requires more than 8 hours to reach tems of 35 and 10. Let it run overnight. I found running on gas gives better performance.

[AZ Traveler]

Welcome to the forum!

Your fridge should not warm up much just being off ten minutes. Your temps seem a little warmer than normal assuming you have accurate thermometers. They do cool better on gas than electric.

For best results, only load your freezer with frozen items and your refrigerator with cooled items.

[usmcknight69]

Thanks for the info. Im planning on letting it run overnight and get a reading in the morning. I just feel like it should be cooler in both than it is. Guess we'll see

[AZ Traveler]

The RV fridges are definitely not quite as cold as residential ones but still work very well. About the only negative I notice is ice cream does not get quite as hard.

[usmcknight69]

Yes. We found that out as well.

[K0LCB]

Check the center flap on the door. It tends to stick

[Rondo]

Trevor and Zack-- the answer to softer ice cream is two fold-- 1. the fat content of the ice cream will make it softer with higher fat content. The lower the fat content of the ice cream will make it harder.. 2. If you have the double freezer with the two doors and a wall in the middle of the compartments, put your ice cream in the left hand side and bottom of that freezer compartment. I don't know the exact reason but the ice cream will stay harder there than any other place in either side of the freezer sections.
Also if you do the dollar bill test on the freezer and frig door gaskets to see if they are sealing correctly, it will tell you if they are doing their job.

[Butch & Kathy]

Some tips that I have learned over the last few years, not in order of importance:
1. Do not open the doors unless you need to. Takes a long time to recover. Plan your trip into the fridge
2. Make sure center door flap is not hanging up on the bottom of the fridge
3. To check temp, use a wireless thermometer to keep from opening door just to check temp
4. Put a small water bottle with a thermometer stuck thru the lid, more accurate than read air temp
5. Install intake exhaust fans on the exterior access covers.

These should help. Mine now hovers around 10 in the top and 36 in the bottom. With the water bottle and wireless air thermometer you can easily see the impact of keeping the door open too long as the air temp rises but the water is still 36.

[Kyle and Lisa]

As stated make sure the door flap is closed and not hanging up, but also check your temp control sensor on the cooling fins inside the fridge compartment, it should be slid to the upper portion of the cooling fins. We run ours at #7 setpoint, freezer is 18 degrees and fridge is 35.

[kevinmcc08]

We have the exact same rig, and had a great summer.

As stated a few times here, there's a secondary action on the left door. When you close it, it the middle panel should move all the way to be parallel with the other door.

Ours "sticks", and doesn't complete the action. It's on my list to have repaired next service.

[laprezgpoc]

Unfortunately, ours also did the same - put on 9 and the fridge temp would not go below 40. The next thing that happened was it would not work on electric. Long story short, dealer ordered a new fridge. New one seems to be better.

[laprezgpoc]

However, because of other owners having problems - I always check the center seal - like folks are mentioning.

[biankym89]

I had the same issue and it was the center tab not moving freely. This type of refrigerator tends to have deform the plastic bottom section of the refrig. When it deforms up, it will lock the the center tab causing the hot air goes into the refrig chamber. Is not a thing you can repair so easy, probably need replace the unit . Is happening to several others.

[Golfmedik]

Originally Posted by laprezgpoc

Unfortunately, ours also did the same - put on 9 and the fridge temp would not go below 40. The next thing that happened was it would not work on electric. Long story short, dealer ordered a new fridge. New one seems to be better.

We noticed ours doing the same thing last two times we were out. Last weekend the temps kept creeping up while on electric, but once I switched to gas, the temps got right where they are supposed to be.

[margerush]

Our refrigerator would not stay on with propane on & the slides in. Propane worked fine with slides out. Had to transfer all the food every morning & every night to a cooler, until we got to the next campground (royal pain in the ___). Dealer said the propane lines were getting crimped when slides were in. Dealer had to install fittings to fix the problem.


2016 3160RL

[vacationer]

Having same issue with our fridge wont run on electric anymore. Even in auto mode if I shut of propane it will not switch over.. doors do not line up together either

[Flywthme]

The doors on my 2018 norcold sagged after a month of use. We were getting temps of 55 in the fridge. We had to raise them up to get a good seal.

[Briarglenn]

Bought my '18 3790 last Nov. Didn't have your prob until Jun. Had to go through Norcold procedures before they agreed that it was the cooling unit. It was replaced 2 days before we headed south. Partially repairman's delay, but Norcold didn't help. Anyway it appears to be working right. We had the vent covers off with a fan going 24/7 all summer. I'm betting it's a bad cooling unit.

[margerush]

I read on this forum a suggestion to not drive down the road with items on the fridge doors. The items on the doors make them sag with all the bumps & movement.