We have been having problems with our Norcold refrigerator for about a year. It would work fine when we were plugged into shore power. It was only when we were boondocking and the unit was running on propane would it falter.
Last year, when traveling to Alabama, the refrigerator stopped working and threw a “noco” code and wouldn’t work at all. We could get it reset. Once in Alabama, we had it serviced. The repair shop replaced the board on the unit and seemingly, we were good to go. Of course, we were plugged into shore power for three months, so we thought everything was as good as new.
Last Labor Day, we made our way up the east coast. We decided to do some boondocking on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. After a couple of days, the refrigerator stopped working and again threw the “noco” code. There wasn’t much we could do but move all the contents to the little basement cooler and make do.
We finally had a chance for someone to look at it in Vermont. They basically reset the code somehow on the board.We were plugged into shore power and stayed the night at the repair shop. Again, everything was seemingly alright.
We continued on our journey and before we made it to our family’s place in Missouri, we again had a failing refrigerator! After thinking about when it would fail us, we were convinced that there was something wrong with the components connected to the propane. We knew that things were perfectly fine when plugged into shore power. We took it into a dealership in Springfield, MO. After explaining everything, they reset the code and told us to be on our way. Before we started out of their drive, again with the code! They were convinced that a new board needed to be installed into the unit. When they called Norcold to do whatever they needed for the warranty, they were told that the “noco” code did not mean the board was bad and they needed to do other diagnosing. The service manager seemed frustrated, didn’t really want to do anything more than replace the board and I was loosing my patience with him. I didn’t think he was truly listening to us about our belief that something wrong with the propane. We simply had to take our broken refrigerator and leave.
Robert and my dad did a lot of research and diagnostic work. Robert had to research how to reset the code at the board himself because the dealership wasn’t doing it. We knew that we could use it on shore power, but not at all when “noco” was flashing on the display. The guys simply couldn’t figure out the source of the problem.
We didn’t worry about it for months because we were hooked to shore power. Just last month, we took the RV to Thomas & Sons RV to have some things repaired while we were gone to Florida for a week. This time when we took it in, no codes were thrown and it had been working fine on shore power. They seemed to listen to us about our concerns of something wrong with the propane making it not work long when boondocked.
When we returned, sure enough, they found that our propane regulator and lines were full of oil. How that oil got there we don’t know, but that regulator replacement also seemed to fix other things as well. I noticed that the burners on the stove worked better. Although we don’t use our oven often, I couldn’t get it to work right the last time I tried it. I thought I’d give it a shot and now it works like new.
Yay! One step closer to boondocking. We love that things are working better. We were so glad to have meet up with the folks at Thomas & Sons to really listen to the problem and get things taken care of for us.
