Norcold door issue - Montana Owners Club

swanny · 12-20-2011, 03:27 PM

I have a question, Has anybody checked the refrigerator and freezer door seals? I have the Norcold 4 door unit. I tried the dollar bill test but the bill was too short, so i used a strip of paper. I found Zero resistance around most of the doors. According to their manual that means the gaskets are not sealing and should be adjusted. There is no info on adjustments.

Also has anybody noticed the door latches are IMO are very strange the way they work? At least on mine if I close one of the refrigerator doors it latches , not sealed but latches. then when I close the other door the latch on that door pops the latch of the first door i closed. It doesn't pop it totally open, but just a little bit. It seems that both little door latches use the same small square hole for holding the doors closed. If I close the second door slow I can see and hear it pop the other latch.

Please tell me I'm not the only one with this problem and somebody fixed it or had it fixed

Happy Holiday's, kevin

**Carl n Susan** · 12-20-2011, 05:12 PM

In terms of the "weird" door latches and the square holes, are you talking about the Storage Latches? They are not intended to lock the doors closed but rather the opposite. From the Norcold manual at:

http://www.thetford.com/LinkClick.as...d=467&mid=1224

The door seals are also addressed here. It looks like it is a dealer adjustment if they are too loose.

mainer · 12-21-2011, 12:32 AM

When we were at the rally I had Keystone check out our refrigerator because I too felt that it wasn't sealing correctly. They did do an adjustment.

The Norcold rep was also at the rally and I questioned the amount of frost that builds up so quickly, according to him that's not a problem, that's normal. (not sure about that) I did find out that the left side of the freezer gets colder than the right side, so that's where you should store the ice cream, left side on the bottom.

As far as the doors go, I do notice that when I close one of the refrigerator doors it seems as those the other side pops. I just press on the other door to ensure that it is closed.

You are not alone...

swanny · 12-21-2011, 01:47 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Carl n Susan

In terms of the "weird" door latches and the square holes, are you talking about the Storage Latches? They are not intended to lock the doors closed but rather the opposite. From the Norcold manual at:

http://www.thetford.com/LinkClick.as...d=467&mid=1224

No not the storage latch, I understand how they work. I'm talking about the latches that hold the doors closed. I'd your is like mine both door latches close into the same square hole.

The door seals are also addressed here. It looks like it is a dealer adjustment if they are too loose.

K&Gs3400RL · 12-21-2011, 02:59 PM

Our left side freezer door was replaced because of excess frost along the top and side of the left freezer. It still did it so I added insulation behing the rubber seal and now it still frost's up at the top about 3" or so but not nearly as bad. And our lower doors do the same thing.

adelmoll · 12-31-2011, 02:55 AM

We already had to replace our cooling unit in the Norcold and the thermostat.. That is the last thing we will replace... Next time, and per the repairmen there WILL be a next time, we will put in a residential refrigerator.. We have lots of friends that have already done this.. I don't know why the dealers continue putting in this piece of junk knowing that they all have problems and very expensive problems..

Helen

cdaniels · 12-31-2011, 01:25 PM

We have the 4 door refrig and 1 refrig door jars open and the alarm bings when pulling the Montana. Never opens completley but we tried everything to fix it. We finally drilled a small whole in the metal bracket between the 4 door and put a tooth pick to hold it. Works so far. No more door ajar and alarm.

Yes we found out the left bottom is the coldest in the freezer also. Had ice cream on the other side that turned all soupy and thought what the heck. We've had ice cream in here before. Then realized it was on the other side.

snfexpress · 01-01-2012, 06:42 AM

We spent 3 years arguing, er discussing, the door seal problem with Norcold. We had ice build-up on the underside of the ceiling of the left freezer compartment - it would look like an ice cave after 3 days! After two door replacements and still no go, we went to the Service Center and since it was within the 3 year warranty, insisted that it be replaced; it was.

We believe the magnets that are on the inside of the plastic where the seal seats were either missing or somehow bad. The seals would not snap to the fridge casing.

To our surprise, while this one works very well, it only has a 1 year warranty!

K&Gs3400RL · 01-10-2012, 03:28 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by snfexpress

We spent 3 years arguing, er discussing, the door seal problem with Norcold. We had ice build-up on the underside of the ceiling of the left freezer compartment - it would look like an ice cave after 3 days! After two door replacements and still no go, we went to the Service Center and since it was within the 3 year warranty, insisted that it be replaced; it was.

We believe the magnets that are on the inside of the plastic where the seal seats were either missing or somehow bad. The seals would not snap to the fridge casing.

To our surprise, while this one works very well, it only has a 1 year warranty!

WE have the same problem on our left freezer door, The door has been replaced and it helped but did not go away. Then I put some insulation under the rubber seal, and it stopped. Well for a while, now its back. And Im waiting to here what there going to do next.

stiles watson · 01-11-2012, 03:12 AM

The only problem I have had in the 4 years with my Norcold 4 door is that the outside drain closed up and filled the inside tray. Then the water in the tray froze causing the water to spill over into the bottom of the refrigerator. Fairly easy fix: clear the end of the hose on the outside, remove the bracket retainers (6 screws)and empty then replace the narrow tray. Fifteen to twenty minutes work.

Got to do the paper test. Agree that the left is colder. Seems that the frequency of problems with the refrigerators along with the expense would show the merit of an extended warranty.

loua_loua · 01-23-2012, 02:15 AM

Gail and I are in the process of having our Norcoold Model 1210, double door refrigerator replaced. We have a 2011 3455SA which we purchased in October of 2010, and recently noticed frost build up in the freezer as well as sweating on the top of the refrigerator. Water droplets covered the entire roof of the refrig. So we had a dealer look at it, and they worked with Norcold to issue the replacement. Turns out that there are magnets under the molded plastic that the door gaskets close on. These magnets actually serve to pull the door gaskets in tight when you close the doors. Well, our unit was missing all the magnets on the left side of the frige. A way to check to see if your unit has the magnets, is to make a chain of about 6 - 8 paper clips, and see if they are magnetised to the refrige, around the edge of the unit where the door gaskets would meet the unit when the doors are closed.
Hope this helps.......
Lou & Gail

Waynem · 01-23-2012, 04:26 AM

Sorry I'm a little late on this one. This is a common problem associate with the Norcold 4 doors, and maybe even 2 doors.

When you close the door, the top of the door (striker plate) engages the little movable light latch at the top. What happens is that the striker plate is not fully engaging the latch, the light comes on, and the alarm bell sounds.

Two fixes, one temporary.
Temporary: Fold a piece of tissue paper, paper towel, or cardboard. This does not have to be thick. Fold the item into a little 1/2" or so square so that it is about 1/8" thick. Scotch tape it to where the striker plate hits the light switch. That should take care of the dinging.

Permanent: Place a washer on the bottom hinge to raise the door so the striker plate hits the light switch.

Now consider this: We have an SOB MH. So can you imagine several trip and having that dinging going off all the time? I have selective hearing, but Earlene sure let me know it was dinging. I had to fix it.

Happy trails.

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by cdaniels

We have the 4 door refrig and 1 refrig door jars open and the alarm bings when pulling the Montana. Never opens completley but we tried everything to fix it. We finally drilled a small whole in the metal bracket between the 4 door and put a tooth pick to hold it. Works so far. No more door ajar and alarm.

Yes we found out the left bottom is the coldest in the freezer also. Had ice cream on the other side that turned all soupy and thought what the heck. We've had ice cream in here before. Then realized it was on the other side.

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