John has started referring to our Norcold refrigerator-freezer as the Norwarm. After running great for over a year it all of a sudden started not cooling well. When it worked, it worked extremely well; lately we would have been almost as well off with a large ice chest. Of course we
had to wait about ten days to make an appointment with one of the ONLY two Norcold service centers in Alaska, both ironically located only a few miles apart in Anchorage. Actually only waiting ten days was fast as these things go so we were grateful for this. We decided (obviously) to go on up to Denali and not just hang around Anchorage waiting on our appointment. Jane was very concerned that our food was going to spoil since the frig temperatures were in the low 50s so we were on an eating binge in Denali which we certainly did not need! Anyway we survived all of that to have our day at A&M RV Center. This is a first-class operation and we were very impressed with the tidiness of the facility and promptness of service. Greg our technician was very knowledgeable and seemed to zero right in on the problem. Jerry Haller was our service adviser and he was also quite good; Jerry took care to see that we were kept informed about the repair status.
Greg had discovered that on the production line, when the refrigerator was pushed into its mounting, the top rear of the unit caught a metal flap that wound up being pushed down to where it covered the critical cooling unit venting exhaust area. Since the refrigeration is by ammonia absorption, a good air flow over the tubing is essential for proper operation. After Greg pulled the refrigerator out and squared away the venting problem, it was cooling much better but still did not meet specifications after running for the required six hours. Now he suspected a bad cooling unit and had to fax a sheet of detailed test results to Norcold and wait for them to approve the diagnosis and send a new cooling unit. (Note: as of 7/28 they are still waiting for approval!) If Norcold decides to ship out a new cooling unit it must be sent by surface transportation and cannot be sent by air due to the pressurized ammonia – who knows how long this will take 🙁
The interesting situation is that now (7/28) the unit seems to be cooling really, really well after running for 24 hours with its new and improved air flow situation. John is a little nervous though about calling the problem permanently repaired. Refrigeration is something we all take for granted until it doesn’t work properly. Stay tuned for news!