Norcold N611V

[Henry]

Refrigerator only runs on gas. Won't switch to electric when shore power is plugged in. Also the fridge is not cooling, only the freezer is cooling.

[Kirk W]

I suspect that you have 2, unrelated problems, with the cooling issue the more critical. The problme of the freezer cooling but not the chll box is pretty typical of early stages of a cooling unit failure. This picture should help to explain how your refrigerator works.

A couple of things can cause the symptoms that you have and none of them are good. The first is a loss of refrigerant due to a leak somewhere in the sealed system. If you get any odor of amonnia in the refrigerator or inside of the panel on the outside of your RV, or is you seen any yellow sludge of powder anywhere in the back, those are indications of a leak. Another thing that can happen is for the chemicals in the refrigernt to develop crystals that block or partially block the cooling tubes. The entire process is by convection flow and there is no pump so it doesn't take a lot to create problems. You will notice in the drawing that the refrigerant all enters the top of the freezer first and cools it, with any remaining cooling then passing down into the chill box area. For that reason the decrease in cooling ability always effects the chill area first but if it continues to get worse it will in time stop cooling the freezer as well.

Your other problem could be as simple as an open circuit breaker to supply 120V to the refrigerator or possibley a fuse on the refrigerator's main circuit board. If you download a copy of this Norcold service manual, on page 13 there is a picture of the fuse for the 120V side of things.

[Wrknrvr]

   One other scenario that could cause less cooling capability would be if the fridge is in hot weather and sun is shinning on the rv where the fridge is.

  But that does not solve the no Ac cooling mode.

[Ray,IN]

Follow Kirk's advice; insure the AC receptacle where the frig is plugged in has 120VAC then go from there.

You may download the free Norcold service manual for your model from bryantrv.com

[oldjohnt]

Good morning Henry, Good advice and diagrams above, I agree with the fine gentlemen. The very basic short n sweet FIRST things I look at if a fridge operates on gas but NOT AC are as follows: NOTE I haven't studied your fridges diagram so part or all of this may NOT apply.

1) Insure there's 120 VAC power at the receptacle where the fridge power cord plugs in (plus its indeed plugged in) and if not check panels circuit breakers and/or if any GFCI breakers are tripped (even if they typically would NOT feed the fridge receptacle). I take it other 120 VAC devices and the coach is okay when plugged to shore power ?? Is the fridge powered direct by shore power or is there some sort of an Inverter involved that's powering it ?? 

2) Some fridges have a glass fuse on the circuit board that protects the 120 VAC fridge heater feed. Check that fuse, if it's blown no AC operation

3) This may or may not ????? apply to YOUR fridge, but on some there is a small red push to reset button in the flu chimney near where the 120 VAC heating element is located.

4) It's possible the AC heating element in the flu chimney has burned open (it happens) an ohm meter can determine that.  If alls well when switched to AC and the fridge isn't cool there would be 120 VAC at the heating element IS THERE ??? even if so the element could still be bad/open. Also a bad/loose/open wiring connection may be the problem 

5) Are there any Auto or Gas or AC switches in the eyebrow panel and if so is  it set correctly??

6) Of course there could be an eyebrow panel problem OR THE CIRCUIT CONTROL BOARD IS BAD.

NOTE Usually the owners manuals have good step by step troubleshooting procedures FOLLOW THAT NOT ME. I purposely have not discussed improper cooling, that's above my pay scale lol  

 Best wishes

John T

Edited August 12, 2022 by oldjohnt