In Praise Of The Norcold Fridge

lapowers57

We just had our first trip where we planned to stay at Wallmarts on the first and last nights.  I had concerns as we had a fully stocked fridge and I had read that the Norcold was finicky about being level in order to run on propane.  I new we couldn't run on battery all night so I was prepared to level the trailer if necessary.  We pulled into the first Wallmart and I found a spot that looked reasonably level side to side and had a slight downhill pitch towards the front.  After parking, I set the frdge to propane, pushed the button and it fired right up.  Same thing the last night we stayed in a Wallmart lot.  The fridge served us well on our 12 day trip.  My alternator allowed us to travel on DC during the day, the propane kept us going when we had to hookups and when I finally remembered there was an AC setting on the fridge I was able to run it on AC when I had hookups and save some propane.  

Photomom

Agree completely. We just did a 12 day road trip, 12v on the road, 120v where we had it, last couple days on propane in a rustic state park. Fridge worked great! Especially on propane, I had to adjust the thermostat warmer to keep stuff from freezing!

Nomad

The Norcold can be a finicky little bugger - At times it seems to want level and other times could care less. At times a 3 on the temp dial produces the right temp and other times it's a 4. I've learned to just go with the flow.
More times than not though, I level er out.

lapowers57

We too found that on propane it ran much colder then on DC.  We froze a few things and now know it is 3 on propane an 4 on AC or DC.

Photomom

The temperature setting does nothing when on 12v. 

JohnDanielsCPA

My understanding is these refrigerators are not as sensitive to being as level as they used to be.  A simple rule of thumb is if your rig is comfortable to be in, it's probably fine for your fridge.  That said, I am referring to those carried in larger trailers/fifth wheels.  So I am assuming that rule would hold true for a smaller fridge as well.

Nomad

Not sure that's the case from my experience.

lapowers57

When camping I would always level the camper.  But when pulling into a Walmart for the night and am leaving the T@B hooked up to the TV which pitches it up a bit and I will put down the stabilizers but I won't level.  Hopefully finding a comfortably level spot in these situations will continue to work.

Nomad

Left to right seems to be the one that's the finicky one for me anyway.

Tommy

PXLated said:

Not sure that's the case from my experience.

What have you experienced with the fridge and being out of level? We've been pretty out of level a few times and it seems to run as normal on propane. 

SweetlyHome

Agreed with PXLated that the thermostat is not functional in DC operation.  Also, it has been mentioned here that the unit does not cool as well in DC mode.  I believe this is because less heat can be generated with the limited DC power available.  After a long hot day on DC it is never as cold as on a similar day with AC or Propane in our experience.  The thermostat does seem inconsistent.

Nomad

SweetlyHome - That was Photomom with the DC note.
Tommy - Barely keeps things cool - But as I've mentioned, nothing is consistent with my fridge.