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Norcold N81X fridge problem


etu

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We are in route to South Dakota from Georgia and have been operating our fridge (Norcold N81X) in gas mode successfully for 3 days until last night. Now the green light is flashing 4 times about every 3 seconds. My manual says this "this is a fault within the refrig controls" and "is not owner serviceable". We parked last night at my BIL house in St Joseph on an incline and it was working fine when we parked but started flashing within about 2 hours later.

Two questions, 1)  did parking on incline have something to do with this and 2) what do I need to do?  

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If you only parked on the incline the one night but had the problem prior to that then it wasn't the primary cause.  On your RV check the vent area to make certain nothing has gotten in and is building a home.  We had this happen earlier this summer and the same problem occurred and we found a few mud daubers  building there and we had to clean them out.  Frig worked fine after that.  By the way, we had screens over the vent to keep them out but they were determined.  A fatal mistake.

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We didn't have the problem until after we had parked on a steep incline for about 2 hours last night.

I've since hooked up to power at our next stop and I have the same error code (4 flashes followed by 3 second solid light). Any advice will be appreciated. We are in Rapid City tomorrow night for 9 days and a fridge would be great. But I'd like some advice before calling a repair service I don't know or if its something I could fix or troubleshoot myself. 

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1 hour ago, etu said:

We didn't have the problem until after we had parked on a steep incline for about 2 hours last night.

I doubt that your problem was caused by being off level unless it has caused your over temperature safety to open. I don't have a service manual for the model that you have but you may want to visit Bryant RV website to see if there is one there. Most Norcold refrigerators have an over temperature safety device located at the bottom of the burner area that is to prevent problems in the event the boiler gets too hot. They usually can be seen from the outside access panel on the refrigerator and are to the lower right side. Most have a red led that will be flashing if the device has been tripped. Parking off level with the refrigerator in operation could cause that to happen.  I believe that Bryant gas instructions for resetting one of them on the service document page. 

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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Thank you all. We fixed the problem and best i can tell it did occur because we parked on such an incline the cooling system did not work efficiently and after it did not show a reduced temp after running for a period of time, it went into the error code mode. (Initially one flash). While it was in this error code mode I reset it by switching off/on. But I had not corrected the unlevel condition so it went back into same mode. When I did this twice it went into another mode that locks out the cooling system. That mode requires a reset ofthe circuit board. Below is a link to a website that explains the process step by step with good pictures. . We followed the instructions and it is working fine. Thanks for everyone's help. 

https://www.arprv.com/no-co-norcold.php

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9 hours ago, etu said:

That mode requires a reset ofthe circuit board. Below is a link to a website that explains the process step by step with good pictures. . We followed the instructions and it is working fine. Thanks for everyone's help. 

That is the same reset that I referenced and the instructions Paul has on his ARP site are also on Bryant RV. I also point out to you that the reset which you did was designed into the system to prevent your overheated refrigerator from getting hot enough to cause a fire. You might want to consider installing an ARP-RV device to prevent this from happening in the future.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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