Fridge not cooling on highest setting - Montana Owners Club

BerryrunCamper · 07-26-2018, 02:16 PM

We have a 3710fl with the RV fridge which is struggling to maintain temperature half filled with food on the highest setting with outside temperatures in the lower 80s. Any ideas? I hate the idea of taking it to the dealer.

**DQDick** · 07-26-2018, 03:22 PM

What is the year of your rig and what is the size and kind of fridge you have?

drjjj · 07-26-2018, 03:35 PM

We are at Mustang Island (near Port Aransas, TX) in the same situation. Will look at adding external fans upon return. We may have "over filled" the fridge when we left home. Now that we have been here for two weeks and the fridge has more room it seems to be doing better. The freezer works fine, so one thing we do is freeze two bottles of water and change them out every day putting a frozen bottle in the fridge. Has helped FWIW.

BerryrunCamper · 07-26-2018, 04:01 PM

It’s a 2017. I’m not sure of the fridge size but it has the double doors. It’s a Norcold.

1retired06 · 07-26-2018, 08:26 PM

What are the temperatures you are getting?

BuilderBob · 07-26-2018, 09:05 PM

Check the seals around the doors you can put a dollar bill close the door and see how tight the door seals are when you pull it out it should be snug when you pull it out also check the flap in the middle between the doors or your doors mite need adjusting. And is the sun beating on the frig side.

BerryrunCamper · 07-27-2018, 05:25 AM

We’re getting temps mostly in the 40s. We had a high of 51. At night it goes to about 37 and then climbs during the morning. Our outside temperatures are low 80s and we are shaded for half of the day. We’re trying to limit how often we open it for obvious reasons.

jcurtis934 · 07-27-2018, 06:25 AM

You might try pulling off the outside vents while sitting still to see how much change this makes for you. Assume the two fans are running and you can hear them? You also should look at the metal top two air directors. Both should be the width of the fridge enclosure, very top one should start at the very back top edge of the fridge and arc upwards and forward to meet the side of the slide near the top of the top opening. Bottom one should be flat to the wall at its bottom and be very close to the fins at its top.

Maurice45 · 07-27-2018, 06:51 AM

Just went through this with our 2018 with the 2118 Norcold reefer. The problem was the thermostat on the upper fans was faulty, after replacement we can set the temp control at 4 and everything stays nice and cold.

Maurice45 · 07-27-2018, 07:00 AM

Forgot to mention the flap on the left door that seals the crack between the doors. Make sure that it closes completely . If it doesnt , the door needs to be adjusted to allow it to close completely.

BerryrunCamper · 07-27-2018, 07:15 AM

We were wondering about thermostat. We’ve already done the obvious things such as checking door seals and making sure all fans are running.

We’re shaded for half of the day but it doesn’t seem to matter.

1retired06 · 07-27-2018, 07:26 AM

We run a small AC fan positioned at the lower vent facing up and it makes a big difference helping to push heat up and out. Particularly helpful for frigs in slides because of the 90 degree turn at the top vent.

Bad Moon · 07-27-2018, 08:01 AM

We have the same issue with the dometic. Temp ranges from 33 to 42 on setting 4. Ambient temp was in the triple digits. We leave it on either “auto” or “LP”, because on AC it sometimes stops working altogether (service dept, of course, couldn’t find anything wrong). Good tips here; I will be checking fan, thermostat, etc.

jimcol · 07-27-2018, 01:22 PM

To eliminate one more possibility might try running it on gas. Sometimes those electric heat elements get flaky.

richfaa · 07-27-2018, 06:04 PM

"

How cold is a refrigerator supposed to be?

To ensure that your refrigerator is doing its job, it's important to keep its temperature at 40 °F or below; the freezer should be at 0 °F. Since few refrigerator controls show actual temperatures, using an inexpensive freestanding appliance thermometer will allow you to monitor the temperature and adjust the setting"

Of course home fridges are not up against a outside thin wall with high temps beating on it. The cooling units on our 06 3400 and this 13 3402 both failed within the first year. we are long timers and the fridge is never off except for cleaning and defrosting.

We replaced the OEM cooling units with a quality unit from the Amish place in Shipshawanna ?, Ind. We have no problem keeping those temps at a setting of 3 or 4 on the OEM Norcold. The door seals will leak and need to be corrected.

Kyle and Lisa · 07-27-2018, 06:40 PM

We are full time and try to keep our fridge full which helps it cool, and have no issues with it set at #6 and it is a norcold RV fridge.

**Carl n Susan** · 07-27-2018, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BerryrunCamper

We’re getting temps mostly in the 40s. We had a high of 51. At night it goes to about 37 and then climbs during the morning. Our outside temperatures are low 80s and we are shaded for half of the day. We’re trying to limit how often we open it for obvious reasons.

I am assuming these 37 to 51 readings are for the refer compartment. What are the temps in the freezer compartment?

If the freezer is cold, check the Thermistor and the placement of the sensor (little clip) on the refer fin. The higher the clip, the colder the refer should be.

richfaa · 07-28-2018, 08:55 AM

The probability of the cooling unit to fail is high if a high end user. These are Recreational Vehicles and not designed for high end use as many here including us use them. As I stated ours is never off except for the occasional cleaning and defrosting.

Do check the Thermistor as Carl suggested as they can get moved by objects in the fridge.

Butch & Kathy · 07-28-2018, 01:41 PM

Is your fridge in a slideout? If so it is very important to install cooling fans in the exterior compartment, one at the bottom to blow cool air in, one at the top to suck warm air out. Also I installed a fan on the fridge interior on the cooling fins. These two things along with ARP-RV helped tremendously.

One more thing - Do not keep opening the doors to check the temp, these thing take a long time to recover. Buy a remote fridge/freezer thermometer.

walterc2 · 08-01-2018, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BerryrunCamper

We have a 3710fl with the RV fridge which is struggling to maintain temperature half filled with food on the highest setting with outside temperatures in the lower 80s. Any ideas? I hate the idea of taking it to the dealer.

When you say the highest setting, do you mean numerically? On our norcold refrigerator, 1 is the coldest setting, and progressively higher numbers are warmer. In other words, if you put it on 1, that is the coldest setting.

You may also like: