Norcold 8CFT 12v refrigerator FAILURE 💩 and Replacement Advice

[BogeyPro]

After only 19 months, after purchasing a brand new AS Globetrotter, the factory installed Norcold 8 CFT DC refrigerator has completely FAILED and needs to be replaced. No, I did not purchase the extended 2 year warranty, because, silly me, at that point I had mistakenly assumed that AS only installed quality components. I am furious beyond words.

Some context: I took it to the nearest Camping World (authorized Norcold Dealer) for a very expensive "diagnostic" appointment. They pulled the damn thing out and found that it was leaking coolant, and said that it needs to be replaced. Then they sent me a quote for almost us$3000 to replace it, the same unit, adding up all the labor, shipping fees, taxes, environmental fees.

Why would I replace a poor quality POC 💩 with another POC 💩that would only fail again in 18 months? That sounds like insanity to me. When I asked Camping World the same question, they said "it is the only one that will fit", which is what you would expect them to say, being a Norcold dealer.

Anyway, has anyone else been in the same nightmare situation which I have described above? If so, how did you handle the replacement process? Surely there must be another make or brand of refrigerator that has higher quality than Norcold (or, "No Cold") that fits...

FYI, I also opened up a fresh ticket with AS Customer Support asking the same thing.

Thank you, fellow Airstreamers.

[BGClassic]

That really sucks, and I feel your pain. Hoping our 10 cu ft Norcold holds up. We have enough other issues, and a trip to JC next month.

Will a different brand fit? Isotherm?

Good luck.

[BogeyPro]

Originally Posted by BGClassic

That really sucks, and I feel your pain. Hoping our 10 cu ft Norcold holds up. We have enough other issues, and a trip to JC next month.

Will a different brand fit? Isotherm?

Good luck.

Nope, got an answer back from AS Support:

"I wanted to let you know that currently, we are still using the same refrigerator. The refer stand and cabinets we have are specifically designed to fit this refrigerator.

Unfortunately, we don't have a direct replacement for the refrigerator at the moment. However, I want to assure you that only a few of these refrigerators have had issues, and they were all due to manufacturing defects."

[BGClassic]

That’s odd, limits AS to only one vendor. One year warranty from Norcold, I bet. Hopefully they help you out.

[GRadventures]

I have the same unit but no issues after nearly 200 days of use. Knock on wood! However when I had Ronnie Dennis (Airstream Nuts & Bolts) install solar last year I helped him remove the refrigerator so he could install some equipment under it. Was easy for 2 of us to remove and slide back in. I would think that all the “install hardware” from the original unit would be the same, so basically a plug & play for you. And Camping World has a cost of $1358. Others show free delivery for not much more. Probably worth removing the unit 1st to see what you are getting into.

[n2916s]

Personally, I would not let anyone from Camping World touch my trailer under any circumstances. Pop up on any of the RV websites, like IRV2, and you will see hundreds of horror stories about them.

I strongly recommend that you get a second opinion before you proceed.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Pretty much all AS cabinetry is specific to fitting one model from one source into the space. The folks who make these appliances aren't big on standardization. This has been true pretty much forever on all RV's. If you want to put in a different make or model, you modify the cabinetry.

Compressor based small fridges have used "sealed / non-repairable" innards for a very long time. The same is true of small A/C units and a long list of similar devices. Over the decades, I've had a couple of these items fail. Like your fridge, a year or three is not unusual. Their "siblings" have chugged along for many years after one of the group failed.

What brand doesn't fail? Simple answer is there is no such brand. (Sorry about that). Not in an RV, not in your kitchen at home, not sitting out in the garage. They all have random failures.

One other note:

The "leaking coolant" part is a very generic explanation (=guess) of what went wrong. The leak (if there was one) comes out very slowly as a gas. There is no "puddle on the floor" to point to in this case. The only way to *know* if that's what happened is to cut into the compressor system and attach valves and gauges. Since that's a couple hundred bucks to do ... nobody does that.

Bob

[Trekers]

We had ours fail after 6 months, so still under warranty from Norcold, but even then, Norcold's customer service was atrocious. The only way we finally got somewhere was by working through Airstream who arranged to have a new unit drop-shipped to us and then covered the installation by a mobile RV tech. I've been happy with how the unit operates overall but if something goes wrong, it can be a bear to deal with Norcold so I relied on Airstream since they were the ones who decided to use Norcold as a manufacturing partner. As yours has been in use for a lot longer than ours was, they may not be able to help you. But as someone else mentioned, the removal and reinstallation wasn't terribly difficult, just time-consuming.

Originally Posted by BogeyPro

Nope, got an answer back from AS Support:

"I wanted to let you know that currently, we are still using the same refrigerator. The refer stand and cabinets we have are specifically designed to fit this refrigerator.

Unfortunately, we don't have a direct replacement for the refrigerator at the moment. However, I want to assure you that only a few of these refrigerators have had issues, and they were all due to manufacturing defects."

[BogeyPro]

Originally Posted by GRadventures

I have the same unit but no issues after nearly 200 days of use. Knock on wood! However when I had Ronnie Dennis (Airstream Nuts & Bolts) install solar last year I helped him remove the refrigerator so he could install some equipment under it. Was easy for 2 of us to remove and slide back in. I would think that all the “install hardware” from the original unit would be the same, so basically a plug & play for you. And Camping World has a cost of $1358. Others show free delivery for not much more. Probably worth removing the unit 1st to see what you are getting into.

Thank you. Yes, in fact, I did remove the unit myself, to test the DC connection with a voltmeter. It was getting 13.4 volts from the DC system. And yes, I have bookmarked pages, where I could purchase the unit and just do the replacement myself. Yes, it is straightforward "plug and play" replacement. I'll just have to accept reality and take on the risk of the new unit failing in another 18 months. And this time...by all means, get the extended warranty.

[crispyboy]

Is your refrigerator so new that the after market companies haven't made a replacement cooling unit?
I went this route on our first trailer. It wasn't a tough job.



There are many websites like this one:
https://rvcoolingunits.com/

[BogeyPro]

Originally Posted by n2916s

Personally, I would not let anyone from Camping World touch my trailer under any circumstances. Pop up on any of the RV websites, like IRV2, and you will see hundreds of horror stories about them.

I strongly recommend that you get a second opinion before you proceed.

Thank you. Yes, I am learning another very hard lesson. Camping World in Burlington, Wa was the closest "authorized Norcold Service Center" that had the earliest appointment.

They quoted me us$190 for one hour of labor to perform the diagnostic test. What they did not include in that quote, was the handling fee (us$30 to move the trailer around), "shop supplies" for us$49.40, an "environmental fee" for us$9.27, then another us$57 for "assisting in removal of unit", plus sales tax for a total of us$364.47...just rubbing salt into the wound.

They said that they took pictures of the "coolant leak" they promised to send to me...but so far, nothing from them. Repeated e-mails asking for it, go unanswered. Horrible experience. And I have not even picked it up yet.

[BogeyPro]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

Pretty much all AS cabinetry is specific to fitting one model from one source into the space. The folks who make these appliances aren't big on standardization. This has been true pretty much forever on all RV's. If you want to put in a different make or model, you modify the cabinetry.

Compressor based small fridges have used "sealed / non-repairable" innards for a very long time. The same is true of small A/C units and a long list of similar devices. Over the decades, I've had a couple of these items fail. Like your fridge, a year or three is not unusual. Their "siblings" have chugged along for many years after one of the group failed.

What brand doesn't fail? Simple answer is there is no such brand. (Sorry about that). Not in an RV, not in your kitchen at home, not sitting out in the garage. They all have random failures.

One other note:

The "leaking coolant" part is a very generic explanation (=guess) of what went wrong. The leak (if there was one) comes out very slowly as a gas. There is no "puddle on the floor" to point to in this case. The only way to *know* if that's what happened is to cut into the compressor system and attach valves and gauges. Since that's a couple hundred bucks to do ... nobody does that.

Bob

Thanks, Uncle Bob. Yes, this is good advice indeed. As I mentioned above, I'm still waiting for Camping World to send me pictures of the "leaking coolant"...but nothing so far. Coincidentally, I had an under the counter refrigerator (in my rental unit) fail almost at the same time as this one in the AS. I had a service technician come out for us$140, told me the exact same thing..this is a sealed system and it cannot be repaired. But at least that unit ran for almost 11 years and he told me I was lucky.

[BogeyPro]

Originally Posted by crispyboy

Is your refrigerator so new that the after market companies haven't made a replacement cooling unit?
I went this route on our first trailer. It wasn't a tough job.

There are many websites like this one:
https://rvcoolingunits.com/

Thank you for sending this to me🙏...I did a search for my model Norcold, which is a N8DCX, but found nothing. The closest one was for the N8, and, after reading the installation guide, that one has an LP gas and water connection.. Mine is DC only, just two wires to connect...and as Uncle Bob said earlier, a "sealed system".

[BogeyPro]

Originally Posted by Trekers

We had ours fail after 6 months, so still under warranty from Norcold, but even then, Norcold's customer service was atrocious. The only way we finally got somewhere was by working through Airstream who arranged to have a new unit drop-shipped to us and then covered the installation by a mobile RV tech. I've been happy with how the unit operates overall but if something goes wrong, it can be a bear to deal with Norcold so I relied on Airstream since they were the ones who decided to use Norcold as a manufacturing partner. As yours has been in use for a lot longer than ours was, they may not be able to help you. But as someone else mentioned, the removal and reinstallation wasn't terribly difficult, just time-consuming.

Hello Trekers!! Wow, so I am not the only one! After only 6 months? By any chance, did you remember the cause of the failure, or perform and diagnostics? In my case, the unit would simply not power on...at all. Was it the same for you?

I'm please to hear that Airstream helped you out. I am not surprised by Norcold customer service. My experience with them has been just impossible to speak to a human being, you only get e-mail auto reply templates, and the default response is: take it to your nearest authorized Norcold dealer for service.

[richard5933]

Wow - sounds like some serious customer service issues.

Contrast all this with the service I got from Vitrifrigo - an Italian company which sells similar units to the 12vdc Norcold fridges.

When I bought mine from a marine shop to install myself in my vintage coach, it developed a problem a few months later in the Danfoss control box. Apparently there was a bad batch of control boxes. A single phone call to the main importer's office in Florida resulted in a new control box being sent without question to my house so I could do the rather simple repair myself. They initially wanted me to go to a service center, but after determining that the nearest one was a few hours away they opted to just send me the part.

I'd vote for checking out Vitrifrigo to see if they have a unit to fit the opening.

[BogeyPro]

Originally Posted by richard5933

Wow - sounds like some serious customer service issues.

I'd vote for checking out Vitrifrigo to see if they have a unit to fit the opening.

Thanks, Richard. Very impressive website. At first glance, I did not see any DC only units. Is yours a DC only unit? In any case, I will contact them and ask, and also, supply the dimensions.

[Atwebs]

I agree with not letting anyone from Camping World near my trailer, did you contact Norcold?

Their products do have some coverage, 1 year on gas absorption, 2 years on AC-DC. We found them more than helpful several years ago through a local RV repair shop when we had issues.

Components not made by Airstream are subject to the policies of the company that created them. So, be it Norcold, Dometic, Contoure, GE or FlybyNite industries, that is where you have to seek help when they break.

[BogeyPro]

Camping World finally got back to me, with pictures of the leaking coolant. I'm sending these to Airstream anyway...they should know about these failures. Next step is replacing the unit....the unwanted adventure continues.

[Larry1492]

12 Volt Refrigerators have been the norm in boats for years. Have had good luck with local refrigeration shop sealing leaks and recharging 12 volt refrigerators. Also the wholesale on that unit is about one thousand dollars so camping world has two grand of profit built into that quote. I should fix Airstreams Instead of boats.

[cloudlesssky]

As disappointed as you are with the Norcold build quality I'd recommend finding a competent refrigerator repair technician, not a dealer that sells new units, and having the leak fixed. Based on the images it should be a straight-forward repair, particularly if the fridge is still accessible.

Looks like a solder joint failed, if so it appears accessible and a relatively easy repair for a fridge technician. I'd guess a couple hours of labor (mostly to vacuum the lines), a can of R134a refrigerant, and assorted minor supplies. About 1/10th the price of a replacement fridge.

Just my 2 cents.