HELP - Refrigerator Not Cold

[Rubber Tramps]

Our 2009 Norcold refrigerator has stopped working. Power light is on, we've tried it on both electric and gas, but it is not cooling. Frozen items are getting mushy. Any thoughts? Thanks.

[H. John Kohl]

Based on previous post the first question is where are you parked and how cold it is out side?

[camper4]

Other than what H. John Kohl asked, it doesn't sound like an easy fix. With control power, trying gas and electric cooling, that leaves the controller. The circuit board or there is a break in the cooling piping.
If you smell ammonia there is a break in the piping. Other wise I can only think of the controlling circuitry.
IMO

[Rubber Tramps]

We're in AZ, but temps have been down to 10 at nights. It did warm up today, but has been cold for 3 nights. What does that mean?

[H. John Kohl]

There are posts about having to heat the coolant so it properly works. Suggest putting a light bulb in the fridge area out side and see if you can warm it up. If it is not too cold then the possible problems suggested by camper4 are your next area to trouble shoot.
Here is a link to one of those posts about cold refrigerant.
Read it through because it has good suggestions.

[sreigle]

I am not sure whether that's true of the Norcold refrigerators. When I posted I was talking about the Dometic, where the thermistor wire runs through the back wall into the exposed area in the back. The sudden drop in temperature **can** occasionally cause confusion in the logic of the control board to where it thinks the fridge is too cold so it shuts down the cooling apparatus. That may be true for Norcold, also, but I don't know that.

The above was the explanation given to me by our service manager at our dealer. He had me raise the thermistor to the max and put a 60w bulb in the external compartment. It took a few days to fully recover but it worked. We had been in lows dropping into the low single digits rapidly from upper 20's.

I also have to say that this is the very first time we've ever had this problem in all our years of travel. And we've done a month or two every winter where subfreezing temperatures are the norm.

Also, keep in mind the control board requires 12v to operate the fridge. If the battery is disconnected or really weak, it won't work. I've seen where a battery has run down because the breaker for the converter was tripped and thus the battery wasn't getting charged. I'd start by looking at the breakers and fuses. Next I'd dig out the fridge manual and check for fuses in the external control panel area (or wherever the manual says to look). The Dometic has a couple of fuses. I'd bet the Norcold does, too.

[Rubber Tramps]

Well, we're back in business. It appears to have been the cold weather. Service tech put a baffle at the top of the outside unit to deflect the warm air down over the coils to keep the gas from gelling. Did a reset and it's working great. Thanks for all the replies!