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Greetings,

Background: Two days ago, the Norcold 1200 refrigerator in my coach caught fire. The coach was winterized and sitting in my driveway at the time, plugged in to 50A RV power on the side of my garage, and I thought everything except the inverter/charger was turned off. Pure, dumb luck saved my bacon though, because I was actually in the driveway stringing Christmas lights when I noticed the burning smell and saw smoke coming out of the side and top of the coach right where the refrigerator is located. Multiple fire extinguishers and a garden hose got the fire put out before it had a chance to fully develop. Amazingly, aside from the melted plastic exhaust cover on the roof, there is no visible exterior damage. Even more amazing, there is no visible interior damage either. The fire was contained between the back of the refrigerator and the motorhome wall. There *is* fire damage, which will be fully revealed when the repair shop pulls the Norcold out, and some melted wiring shorting out stuff elsewhere in the coach.

The Norcold is 22 years old, and even if it can be repaired, I won't have it in the coach again. So my question is this: what should be taken into consideration when evaluating residential-style refrigerators for RV use, and which brands/models seem to have good reputations?

Thanks,

Brian,

Start by going to a residential refrigerator site that provides dimensions for the various brands and models.

You can quickly narrow down the choices that will fit your current refrigerator space or will fit with minimal modification and THEN make your choice among them.

Brian,
If you are going to a res refer you will have to get a power evaluation as to whether you want to run it off grid boondocking or from a park or gennie as the 120v plug in back of refer does not run from the existing onboard inverter. Then an efficient Energy Star unit would be helpful.

Your Notsocold 1200 is under recall, a new one.
https://norcold.com/recall-information/

One new option is 12v https://www.dometic.com/en-us/us/produc ... rigerators, but it is probably smaller than your opening.

Check out https://www.ajmadison.com/refrigerators/ where you can start by looking at width then make the other comparisons. You will need to allow for 120 voltage.

Maybe there will be another class action lawsuit?

Brian,

I'm glad that things didn't turn into a disaster!

If your refrigerator is not too heavily damaged, JC Refrigeration (Amish owners), has a very efficient 12v compressor retrofit units that can be installed in your refrigerator, essentially converting your absorption unit into a compressor-household type refrigerator.

https://jc-refrigeration.com/product/hv ... 10-series/

The biggest issue with a residential is: will it fit? This depends on several things. Where your refrigerator is located and what's under/over/around it. In the case of our Serengeti, the refrigerator is next to the pocket door to the bathroom and any new refrigerator had to be a close to the same depth as the Norcold including handles or it would protrude into an already narrow doorway. I spent countless hours looking at specs online, and measuring counter depth refrigerators in showroom floors. I found a few two door models that would work fine except I wanted to be able to completely open the doors even if the kitchen slide is in. This meant only a side by side door would work. I found a few models including the very popular Samsung RF18 were too deep, and the handles were huge. The only side by side refrigerator that would work in my coach was a 17cf Fisher & Paykel - the drawback was, it cost twice what other models cost.

Then there's fitting the refer in the opening. Again, in my case the width and depth were perfect, but the Fisher & Paykel was taller. A lot of coaches have the furnace under the refrigerator but my Serengeti has Hurricane hydronic heat and only a small register was below the refrigerator. It was mounted on a riser so all I had to do was remove the riser, fasten the register to the floor, drop the refrigerator platform a few inches and it fit great. I could have gotten by only lowering the platform by about an inch, but my wife is short, so lowering it as much as possible made it easier for her to reach things on the back of the top shelf. I felt it looked better too not having the refrigerator up so high.

Another thing you have to consider, is getting the old one out and the new one in. I had to strip the Norcold down to the bare box to get it out of our rig through the front door, and pull the doors on the F&P to get it in. Had to remove the passenger seat too. Even then, I almost got the Norcold stuck in the doorway on the way out.

If you will never boondock, you can use the existing 110 outlet to power the new refer. I wanted to be able to run it off the inverter and the nearest inverter powered outlet was right below the refrigerator in the main storage compartment. I just used a heavy duty appliance cord and fished it down an existing wire chase to the compartment below and plugged it in there.

I ended up with a 1 inch gap on both sides of the new refrigerator and a 4 inch gap at the top. Plenty of air circulation for the compressor to vent. I painted the inside of the cabinet flat black so there was no need to add any trim other than a new vent grate above and below. I blocked off both existing exterior vents but left the lower one so I could still remove it to clean the coil area if needed. The new refrigerator only sticks out about an inch further than the old Norcold, and looks like it was put there by the factory. I didn't need any special tools to do the job. Just a cordless drill, circular saw and hand tools.

My wife absolutely loves the upgrade and of course it stays cold even in 111 degree heat and has almost twice the room as the old Norcold. The only downside to this refrigerator is the crisper drawers ride in a full width pull out drawer so you must open both doors to access either crisper bin. Also, it can't take a gallon milk container in the doors. Minor quibbles in the big picture.

Tom, beautiful fridge and installation.

What I can never understand is how some people make a joke out of these fires. I see it on other forums as a witty clever comment. An RV in a fire due to an accident and someone will say must have been a fridge fire caused it, ha ha.

We may not be able to change the fridge right away but we can be aware. This could have happened when a family was asleep in the RV or had Brian not been there, a total loss. The failures occur internally as cracks and corrosion... There is a potential problem if there is a yellow sodium residue, or the smell of ammonium, or so others have posted. As for me I turned the fridge propane off and will change to an electric only.

Thank you for the posts on this.

10 Cf worked in my 95 sahara 900 w solar fill it chill it and go!