Replacing Norcold 1210 in GT5

[makers55]

Just curious has anyone with a GT5 specifically a 34H5 considered or has replaced their norcold 1210 with a residential fridge? if you have replaced what model fridge did you go with?

thanks!

[NXR]

Not me.

What problems are you specifically having, if any?

We had a lot of problems with the way it was installed in the slide that negatively affected performance. The dealer corrections made a big improvement.

When the fridge is running, do you feel any heat rising up above the doors like we did? The are between the trim and the doors on the very top was uncovered and open on ours. That caused a "dead air" space that negatively affected performance even in mild heat. Even on 9 the fridge would not stay cool. Now we run it on 4 all the time.

Ray

[makers55]

Originally Posted by NXR

Not me.

What problems are you specifically having, if any?

We had a lot of problems with the way it was installed in the slide that negatively affected performance. The dealer corrections made a big improvement.

When the fridge is running, do you feel any heat rising up above the doors like we did? The are between the trim and the doors on the very top was uncovered and open on ours. That caused a "dead air" space that negatively affected performance even in mild heat. Even on 9 the fridge would not stay cool. Now we run it on 4 all the time.

Ray

Ray, yes the usual usual with the dead space above the fridge and no baffle at all at the top vent, so having to run it at 8 during 90+ degrees....I think more than anything the convenience of a residential since we rarely bookdock and usually at campgrounds with hookups....i have noticed the samsung RF18 seems to be the fridge of choice but for this particular GT model thats seems to tall....

[NXR]

If you haven't done anything to the dead air space yet, buy a roll of that aluminum foil tape and run it across the back of the fridge (accessing it from the external vent). That will seal off any fumes from going inside and also make a big difference in performance. Our dealer plastered that stuff all over the rear edges, top and side, as far as they could reach. Even without the slanted baffle that made a big difference. We actually were in Florida all winter and we could keep the fridge at 4 without the slanted baffle.

The issue we did still have was that the freezer would drift up to the mid-teens in direct sun and turn the ice cream to mush while the fridge stayed at 37-38. At night the freezer was back in the single digits.

I'm guessing the temp in the fridge actually indirectly controls the temp in the freezer. I'm thinking that because there's no visible thermistor in the freezer compartments. And because there is no separate temperature setting for the freezer.

If so, then trapped heat due to the lack of the slanted baffle could cause the upper rear to warm up and raise the freezer temp while leaving the fridge along.

The rig is getting worked on right now and we should have it back this week, I hope. Then I can see if the slanted baffle fixes that freezer problem.

Our dealer said they put some foil backed insulation board on top of the fridge, siding it in from the inside, to fill in the space. Then they foil-taped the edges. Probably something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Roxul-Insulat.../dp/B01LYUPAH1

They also put a plastic panel to cover the top of the fridge and put some foil tape inside that area as well. Or, rather, they said they did. I never looked.

Ray

[makers55]

Thank you for the great feedback! i will definitely get that dead air space taken care of and see if that does make a difference...sounds like it will...

[NXR]

Before I scheduled to have the slanted baffle installed I was toying with the idea of taking some aluminum foil and building a temporary baffle to see how it worked. When mine is running I could feel a slight breeze of heat leaving the vent. After I built the temporary baffle I was going to put my hand back in the same place and see if I could tell any difference in the strength of that heat breeze.

I was going to place one edge of the aluminum foil along the top of the fridge at the top of the condenser and the other end at the top of the exhaust vent.

I was going to bend the vent edge of the aluminum foil upwards so that when the panel was set in place, its two fasteners would pierce the aluminum foil and then the exhaust panel would hold it in place.

Might be worth a try and not much effort or cost. The real baffle is supposed to be the full width of the enclosure, not just the vent width, though. That's probably to catch heat rising up the edges and channel it outwards.

Ray

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by NXR

The issue we did still have was that the freezer would drift up to the mid-teens in direct sun and turn the ice cream to mush while the fridge stayed at 37-38. At night the freezer was back in the single digits.

I'm guessing the temp in the fridge actually indirectly controls the temp in the freezer. I'm thinking that because there's no visible thermistor in the freezer compartments. And because there is no separate temperature setting for the freezer.

Ray

Not sure about the Norcold, but residential refrigerators work like this:

• There is only one thermostat; one element that starts the compressor and interior fan.
• The thermostat controls the refrigerator temperature which must be tightly controlled between, say, 34-38F.
• The freezer temperature is much less critical. It could be -25F to +25F and the only thing you would notice is how difficult or easy it is to dip ice cream.
• The freezer temperature control merely adjusts a damper which directs the amount of cooled interior is diverted to the freezer.
• If you set the freezer to a cooler temperature, the unit will run more often to maintain the selected refrigerator temperature.

Does this sound like your Norcold?

[NXR]

The Norcold simply displays a number from 0 to 9 or maybe 1 to 9. That's it. No moving parts at all. 9 is colder. We usually keep it parked on 4. There is a thermistor inside the fridge and nothing in the freezer.

Our home fridge has separate temperature controls for the freezer and refrigerator as well as a temp display for each.

I have a wireless temp monitoring system for the Norcold. Unless you're adding something warm like water bottles the fridge stays around 34 to 38 depending on the outside sun. The freezer goes down to 5 or 6 at night and can be as high as 18 during the day even if the doors are never opened.

Ray

[makers55]

Just a quick update on this. We decided to replace the original cooling unit in our GT5 34H with a 12V DC HVAC cooling unit from JC Refrigeration. We have been on the road for just a few days and the difference in temp and time to cool down is amazing! Going from 85 degrees to low 40's in the fridge and low teens in the freezer in just over two hours and that was the setting on number 4 to start with. We have since set the temp at 3 and with the sun pointing directly at the fridge in the afternoon the freezer maintains 0 to -1 and fridge is 35 degrees. I love the simple use and no more fans, propane use, excess heat in the pantry, fire hazard, baffles and insulation to worry about. the quality of the cooling unit is second to none and the folks at JC Refrigeration were great to work with and are dedicated to providing the best customer experience. Norcold should just make the fridge box and contract coolings units from JC

[NXR]

How many amps does it pull?

When you add several water bottles, how high does the temp in the fridge go and about how long does it take for it to get back to usual?

We just got ours back from the factory where they worked on the Norcold installation and it made a big difference. It was 90 degrees out with the slide in direct afternoon sun and with the fridge set to 4 the freezer was at 3 with the fridge was at 35. We'd never seen it that good. After the dealer did all of their work it was much better than originally but the freezer could still creep into the mid-teens in the afternoon in direct sun. My Klondike bars were not happy.

Yeah, and we have the hot pantry at the top as well. It melts my wife's chocolate, which is rarely a good thing...

Ray

[makers55]

Ray, it draws 7.5 amps but the best part is the quick cool down in 2-3 hours versus 24+...also the recovery time is much faster from having an open door or putting room temp water bottles in. you may lose a degree or 2 for 5 minutes but then its back...but having all that heat gone from the top and from the pantry is awesome . Glad to hear yours is doing much better after being serviced!

[NXR]

Thanks for the quick reply. If we had four 6 V house batteries instead of two 12 V ones I might consider this. Right now we could not use Harvest Hosts or similar without running the generator with that kind of current draw.

Our cool-down time was never been 24+ hours, even originally. Once the dealer did the first set of repairs it's been like four hours to get to 8 and 37.

Thanks,

Ray

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by makers55

Ray, it draws 7.5 amps but the best part is the quick cool down in 2-3 hours versus 24+...also the recovery time is much faster from having an open door or putting room temp water bottles in. you may lose a degree or 2 for 5 minutes but then its back...but having all that heat gone from the top and from the pantry is awesome . Glad to hear yours is doing much better after being serviced!

Can you add a few pictures as well as did you install or a dealer?

Thanks

[makers55]

i will upload some pictures later today and we do very little boon docking so the amperage was really a non issue for us as we can run the generator as necessary. I also have no idea what the amp hours on my current 2 battery systems is as there is no identification or labels. if you have an idea please let me know....thanks!

[NXR]

Originally Posted by makers55

I also have no idea what the amp hours on my current 2 battery systems is as there is no identification or labels. if you have an idea please let me know....thanks!

Me either. No labels, nothing, but they do drop fast.

Ray

[makers55]

Originally Posted by Iggy

Can you add a few pictures as well as did you install or a dealer?

Thanks

JC refrigeration did the install in 2.5 hours so went quickly. they will also ship the unit direct to you with everything you need to install including step by step videos. here is a picture of the unit in place and the propane line capped off.

[Iggy]

It looks like they installed a new control board.
Nice clean install with a compressor but no propane gas any more.
How much was the unit and install? $1,000 plus?

[makers55]

Originally Posted by Iggy

It looks like they installed a new control board.
Nice clean install with a compressor but no propane gas any more.
How much was the unit and install? $1,000 plus?

the control board is the same and getting rid of the propane was another reason to replace the cooling unit. the unit itself was 1045 and 350 for install. to me well worth to me to turn it into basically a residential fridge without all the hassle of installing one....drove home from st. louis yesterday in 97 degree heat with the fridge on #2 and freezer temp was 2 and fridge stayed at 38 consistently....never would happen on the original....

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by makers55

the control board is the same and getting rid of the propane was another reason to replace the cooling unit. the unit itself was 1045 and 350 for install. to me well worth to me to turn it into basically a residential fridge without all the hassle of installing one....drove home from st. louis yesterday in 97 degree heat with the fridge on #2 and freezer temp was 2 and fridge stayed at 38 consistently....never would happen on the original....

Great. So did you add a invertor for powering during driving?
Did you GT come with one? What size?
Wait is the 100% 12 volt DC version?
I don't have one.

[makers55]

Originally Posted by Iggy

Great. So did you add a invertor for powering during driving?
Did you GT come with one? What size?
Wait is the 100% 12 volt DC version?
I don't have one.

yes i have an inverter but this is 12 volt dc so runs directly off the house battery...battery charges while driving and i may get 2-3 hours off battery directly when parked so a battery upgrade maybe next .