If your refrigerator isn’t cooling or you smell an ammonia odor the cooling unit may have failed. If this is the case you will need to replace it with a new or remanufactured Norcold Cooling Unit.
Before installing the replacement fridge evaporator you will need to make sure it fits correctly. The purple arrows on the photo indicate the location of the rear screws that hold the evaporator in place.
Quiet Design
The refrigerators made by Norcold are quiet and dependable. They are designed to improve mobile living by delivering excellent performance, and user-friendly features for the whole family. They are ideal for marine applications, and also fit nicely in RVs, trucks and vans.
The gas absorption fridges are built in the US. They use propane as well as electricity, and are designed to be able to run on either one. When there is an electrical outage, the fridge will automatically switch over to gas.
When the Dometic or Norcold cooling unit is assembled at the factory, expanding foam is applied to seal and secure it in the fridge. If the foam is misapplied, air and moisture can leak in to the refrigerator and cause cooling problems and corrosion.
JC Refrigeration installs two additional fans behind the Norcold refrigerator. These fans start hours sooner than the original Norcold fan and create a draft that moves heat out of the refrigerator faster.
Reliable Performance
RVs come equipped with a variety of refrigerator options. You can find portable models, compact fridges, and large two- and four-door fridges with either LED or standard controls. Regardless of size, most Norcold fridges operate similarly.
They use an absorption process to work, which means they run on gas or propane. Heat from an electric or LP burner boils the ammonia in the system, turning it into gas while leaving water as a liquid. This process ensures that your fridge stays cold.
However, the boiler can overheat if you use it in hot weather or if your fridge isn’t properly insulated. The Fridge Defend by ARP prevents this from happening by monitoring the temperature of your boiler and automatically shutting it off if the temperature exceeds a preset level.
Easy to Maintain
If you notice the telltale ammonia smell or yellow residue behind your refrigerator, your cooling unit has leaked. This usually means it’s time to replace it.
When replacing a Dometic or Norcold cooling unit, it’s important to keep air out of the evaporator. If the evaporator isn’t properly sealed, air infiltrates and creates water vapor, which then drips down the absorber tube and causes a rupture or even a leak.
Once the back mounting screws are removed, jiggle and lift the cooling unit out of the evaporator foam pack pocket (see the Evaporator Foam Pack Pocket image on this page). Before installing the new cooling unit, apply sealing tape around the perimeter of the evaporator foam pack, so it adheres to the refrigerator cabinet.
JC Refrigeration installs their refrigerator cooling units with a thermostatic switch that causes the two rear Norcold fans to turn on hours sooner than the original thermostatic switches did, which helps move the heat out of the fridge faster. The result is a cooler, more efficient refrigerator!
Affordable
In the RV market there has been a new product that has been emerging that allows you to replace your Norcold 1210 or 1200 refrigerator with a residential style Freon cooling unit without modifying your cabinetry to fit a residential fridge. The units are made by JC Refrigeration and they mount directly to the existing mounting space on the back of the refrigerator. The unit is controlled by the existing electronics on your RV refrigerator and it uses the same ammonia refrigeration system that was installed originally.
A residential refrigerator will need two extra batteries to operate, and is also dependent on solar or generator power. An RV refrigerator operates on AC, but also runs on LP gas – very important for RVers. Norcold’s gas absorption refrigerators are quiet, durable and easy to maintain – no wonder they won an award from Trailer Life Magazine! And the best part is they’re affordable. You can find them online and at your local RV store.norcold cooling units