Norcold 2020 fridge N180.3 saga

YanniLazarus

My Norcold stopped working on propane, and with help from "The Norcold Guy" we discovered that the fridge would not light manually with a grill lighter. I ordered a new gas valve, and after 3 months the part just arrived (upside: my ice cooler skills are greatly improved! ) the Norcold now lights and cools on gas, BUT the flame meter does not move at all toward the green zone. I just ordered a new meter, but wondered if I can use the fridge without the meter. My guess is...no.  (quiet sobbing sounds in background)  We pretty much only boondock so that propane feature was pretty sweet.

Grumpy_G

The meter just indicates that the gas flame is present. If the fridge works otherwise the only downside would be that you wouldn't know when the flame goes out. Does the needle not move at all or just not all the way ? 

Freespirit

You can use the fridge without the meter. We used ours the first year without a functioning meter. Replaced it year two. 

YanniLazarus

Thanks Fellow t@bbers.  No needle movement at all. Freespirit, was it as easy as it looks to replace the meter? Anyone else have to replace the gas valve? 

webers3

Curious, do you boondock in CT? Where?

YanniLazarus

You make me laugh... CT boondocking is pretty tame. For us, it's harvest host sites (always our site preference)  CT or VT state parks which don't have utilities, or when desperate hipcamp sites.

webers3

Right, no “boodocking” in CT, that’s why I was curious if you had found some place. BTW last year I gave up on the 3 way and went with ICECO portable fridge that fits in the same space, never looked back. Still have the Norcold sitting in the basement, if you are interested 😀

YanniLazarus

Where exactly is that basement? Might like it for parts! 

webers3

Milford CT

Freespirit

@YanniLazarus, replacing the meter is fairly easy. It all depends on how they routed the two wires you need to disconnect from the non-working meter.  In my case, one wire was easy to remove but the other wire was routed under some wires and a little hard to get to. 

I took my time and used a small screwdriver to (pry) release the old wire and then used the screwdriver to guide, aligning then push the new wire in place. You can do it!

YanniLazarus

So relieved/happy to have my 3-way working again.   How long is the socially- acceptable wait before I start claiming the advantages of a 3- way over a 2-way? At least a season, right? This darn thing never lit this easily...

Denny16

Anytime you want Yanni, but today, the only advantage the propane fridge has over a AC/DC compressor fridge, is it’s ability is most situations (not all) to cool the fridge without using substantial amounts of power.  On DC, the trhee-way actually uses more power than a DC compressor of the same size.  

It’s previous advantage of providing more cold storage space, has been lost to the new larger DC compressor fridges available today, which nüCamp has switched to using.  

Glad you got it working correctly, may it give you trouble free service now.  Happy camping and stay safe.
 Cheers