Bad refrigerator

[darrylwt]

I have a brand new 2019 3120RL Montana picked up 2 weeks ago and was ready to take the 1st trip. Turned on the refrigerator for the 1st time on A/C left it overnight and was 75 degrees inside. Norcold 2118 4 door. According to the display everything is good no blinking AC tried it on LP burner comes on and stays on and no blinking FL the coils in the back of the refer is getting hot but nothing cooling down. No red light at the safety temperature switch so that was not tripped. Called the dealer for service they tried to put me off until the end of January of 2019. Found another dealer to get it in right away and after a week or so they said the refer needs to be replaced and it would take 3 weeks or more. I just don't understand why the factory and or dealers don't check this stuff out before they let the end user deal with their problems it would save every time and money.

[Wicked1]

Basically it would cost more for a dealer to do this, and MFG’s only randomly check the units out. The dealer we purchased from tested everything out even put fresh water in our tank to make the ice maker work. I did request they check everything out only by if there were problems I wasn’t signing the papers to purchase. The CW we used sucked for follow up but the tech was good at testing and correcting our small issues on our 2018 3121RL.

Good luck getting that all to work we were getting a 3121 until I read about the issues and found out the 18 cut Norcold costs $4800 to replace and I can replace our Samsung 18 residential 4 times for that kind of $. I should mention we don’t dry camp, we have a 2000watt inverter and 2 high end batteries so we can run Refridge for about 24-36 hours without ice maker

[AZ Traveler]

Darryl,

Did it work when you did your PDI?

Not sure if you are planning to boondock or staying in campgrounds with hookups. One option is to push for a temp small dorm size refrigerator to keep your trip going. Easy with hookups but will need an inverter if boondocking.

[darrylwt]

Originally Posted by AZ Traveler

Darryl,

Did it work when you did your PDI?

Not sure if you are planning to boondock or staying in campgrounds with hookups. One option is to push for a temp small dorm size refrigerator to keep your trip going. Easy with hookups but will need an inverter if boondocking.

The dealer didn't do the PDI on th refer it turned on AC and LP and there was no faults so they thought everything was OK but it was not left on for a few hours. The refer functions normal just won't get cold

[darrylwt]

Originally Posted by Wicked1

Basically it would cost more for a dealer to do this, and MFG’s only randomly check the units out. The dealer we purchased from tested everything out even put fresh water in our tank to make the ice maker work. I did request they check everything out only by if there were problems I wasn’t signing the papers to purchase. The CW we used sucked for follow up but the tech was good at testing and correcting our small issues on our 2018 3121RL.

Good luck getting that all to work we were getting a 3121 until I read about the issues and found out the 18 cut Norcold costs $4800 to replace and I can replace our Samsung 18 residential 4 times for that kind of $. I should mention we don’t dry camp, we have a 2000watt inverter and 2 high end batteries so we can run Refridge for about 24-36 hours without ice maker

I do a lot of off grid and I was worried about keeping the res. refer going without adding more solar.... I do have 265 watts and going to add another 265 watt panel and 300ah of lithium batteries I may have been ok but hindsight it's too late now

[Montana Man]

I would suggest operating every single function the trailer has several times. Make a list of issues to be fixed when it goes in for the fridge. Check also labeling on switches and every possible tv connection.

Getting past these issues is a pain. You'll eventually get everything working, hang in there we all have.

[WeBeFulltime]

My dealer hooks all units up and checks EVERYTHING over a 2-3 day period. I have bought 3 units from them and all were done this way. Our last one even had a full bin of ice. Your dealer is a dud!

[RoadRunnerTR21]

Originally Posted by WeBeFulltime

My dealer hooks all units up and checks EVERYTHING over a 2-3 day period. I have bought 3 units from them and all were done this way. Our last one even had a full bin of ice. Your dealer is a dud!

Same here. Our PDI was very thorough all the way to having ice in the bin. Did we uncover minor issues after the shakedown cruise? Yup and I fixed all of them.

[richfaa]

The cooling units failed on both our 06 3400 and our 13 3402 Big sky within the first 3 years of long time use. We are on shore power all the time except when in route or defrosting. We replaced both with a quality cooling unit from the Amish place in shipsuwana????, ind and they have never failed.

[Wicked1]

Originally Posted by richfaa

The cooling units failed on both our 06 3400 and our 13 3402 Big sky within the first 3 years of long time use. We are on shore power all the time except when in route or defrosting. We replaced both with a quality cooling unit from the Amish place in shipsuwana????, ind and they have never failed.

Morton’s on the Move ( A YouTube couple living FT) just did a video on converting an RV fridge to a residential fridge, they got the parts from a company in shipsuwana Ind.

Tom Morton has a whole video on how they did it, he does all the work on his Dodge Dually and their 5th wheel and puts the videos on YouTube.

[jstadler]

I had the same problem. I disconnected all power, AC and the battery from the trailer. Let it sit for a half hour and then it worked. There was something that needed to reset.

John

[krahopkin]

Had my rig washed in Yuma, they got the high limit switch wet, ended up buying a new refer unit, be careful

[vipermanden]

Wicked one, Be careful what you wish for. I talked with the tech at Keystone about which refer I should get and he said if you are on the road a lot get the RV refer. If you are a fulltimer and park it for a month or more or are a snowbird, then get the residential refer. He said the residential refers are not made to handle the bouncing around like an RV fridge is. So choose wisely.

[Hamlej]

Hope you have better luck than we have had trying to get the same refrigerator in our brand new 3820FK fixed or replaced. Our problems started on September 8th. Keystone gives our dealer the excuse that they are trying to find a solution by working with Norcold and hope to ok the repairs soon!! It’s only been three months. Keystone definitely lacks in the customer service arena.

[rohrmann]

Regardless whether the trailer is still in Keystone warranty or not, it would have been easier to have the dealer just contact Norcold directly to get things started. Keystone may still have to pick up labor for some of it. We had an A/C fail while still under warranty, and the CW we took the rig to for repair just went through Dometic and never got Keystone involved. I wonder if Keystone just drags their feet intentionally?

[vipermanden]

OK, I will share our little adventure with Keystone and Norcold RV Refer in our 3820FK. We had the 3820FK for 2-1/2 years and traveled 30,000 miles in it, and every now and then we noticed the refer would go out and not work. We had Keystone and Norcold on the phone trying to tell us what to look for, and low and behold, the refer would magically come back on line. Turns out about 6 months ago, we figured out the connection. Every time we turned on the rain sensing fan in the kitchen, it would turn off the refer??? We finally figured out this weird connection, because we did not use that front rain sensing fan very often. So we had our service center address this, and they said that they wired the refer directly to the battery to avoid the electrical interference this fan was causing???

[cliff]

On the back of the fridge is a black plastic control box about 4" x 3" with a red led int it. Run a magnet around the light until it goes out. I forget where the sweet spot is. It has a magnetic reed switch that turns off the fridge. This happens a lot if you run it empty. Hoppe it works for you.

[bowlesj]

Originally Posted by vipermanden

OK, I will share our little adventure with Keystone and Norcold RV Refer in our 3820FK. We had the 3820FK for 2-1/2 years and traveled 30,000 miles in it, and every now and then we noticed the refer would go out and not work. We had Keystone and Norcold on the phone trying to tell us what to look for, and low and behold, the refer would magically come back on line. Turns out about 6 months ago, we figured out the connection. Every time we turned on the rain sensing fan in the kitchen, it would turn off the refer??? We finally figured out this weird connection, because we did not use that front rain sensing fan very often. So we had our service center address this, and they said that they wired the refer directly to the battery to avoid the electrical interference this fan was causing???

Our 3820FK, as well as others I know of have this same problem. Actually seems like they may all have this problem since this is the only unit with the fridge up front, and hey why not tie the power sensitive fridge into a fan motor, and I am unsure if Keystone has corrected at the build level yet.

Regardless, we corrected the problem in the same manner except I left the fridge wiring intact and cut out the fan power circuit and rerouted to splice in with the front utility light, the clear one on the drivers side with the on off switch on the light housing under the 5th wheel overhang. All has worked perfect ever since. Yes, you will still have the fridge overheat circuit board get wet on occasion and need the magnet to reset, but this is a separate issue.

John - 2016 3820FK

[vipermanden]

John,

Very interesting. I hope your thread gets read by every 3820FK owner. We did not put 2 and 2 together, because we hardly ever used that front fan.

Dennis

[Hamlej]

Our 3820FK is also tied into the fan, everyone ar Keystone acts surprised when we mentioned it. I guess they are unaware of the problem.