Fridge Problems only on Propane

[carnivore]

I’m beating my head against the wall on this one and would love some input.

Our 2019 E2 has a 3 -way Norcold model N412.3 FUL fridge Sn# NR00iy5 

It seems to work perfectly fine on both AC and DC but has a problem when running on propane.  The temperature won't get any colder than 50-55 and the freezer and only goes to between 25-35. 

The flame seems to always ignite just fine and looks blue and normal, so I don’t suspect a propane or solenoid or gas flow problem.  

Steps taken so far:

1-The burner tube with gas jet looked fine with no carbon buildup but I changed it out for a new one anyway. Flame still looks blue and good.

2-Replaced the thermistor with a new one and put it on the same fin as the original which is center of #5 from the right. 

Problem NOT solved so I

3-changed out the circuit 628661 board.

4- Ran a 12 gage swab down the burner tube but it as well as the helix diffuser was already clean with zero carbon buildup.

Problem still unresolved

 I did not change the smaller approx 2”x4” green board that sets next to the main board. I believe this one is called the DC control board.  This could be next step but like I mentioned, it works fine on AC & DC.

Anyone have any suggestions for my next course of action?

 

[Ronbrink]

16 hours ago, carnivore said:

I’m beating my head against the wall on this one and would love some input.

Your LP regulator may not be functioning properly, check if the cooktop operates correctly or the QC ports, if equipped. Switch the regulator to the other tank, a tank valve may have been opened too fast and has an internal shutdown. If that doesn’t work close each and reopen slowly for the first quarter turn to reset. 

[carnivore]

Ron, I don't think it is a propane flow problem.  The burner lights immediately when the control board demands.  I don't have a manometer or whatever the necessary tool is to check propane pressure, however when the fridge burner is burning, I have lit both stovetop burners as well as turned the water heater to propane and fridge burner tube and stove burners stayed blue with no sign of fuel starvation.  This problem has me baffled so far.  

[jd1923]

5 hours ago, carnivore said:

Ron, I don't think it is a propane flow problem.  The burner lights immediately when the control board demands.

Can't see how the "fridge burner is burning" and it's not cooling. Your fridge may be fried, sorry to say.

We're hoping ours lasts forever as I have not yet seen a single compressor fridge that can freeze two steaks and two trays of ice at the same time!

[Rivernerd]

15 hours ago, carnivore said:

This problem has me baffled so far.  

Have you opened a ticket with Oliver Service?  They may know.

[MAX Burner]

On 9/29/2024 at 10:25 PM, jd1923 said:

We're hoping ours lasts forever as I have not yet seen a single compressor fridge that can freeze two steaks and two trays of ice at the same time!

Same here!  We're "keeping our fingers crossed" and "knocking on wood" hoping that our Dometic fridge hangs in there.  It cools fast and freezes nicely - we usually run ours on level 7.  The two heat exhaust fans we installed seemed to have helped increase its overall efficiency.

[Ronbrink]

20 minutes ago, MAX Burner said:

It cools fast and freezes nicely - we usually run ours on level 7.  The two heat exhaust fans we installed seemed to have helped increase its overall efficiency.

Just returned from a week long trip since the two exterior exhaust and an interior fin fan were installed on the Norcold 3-way. Prior uses required levels 7-9 depending on time of year, for example level 9 in 100+ Texas temps. Although ambient temps this go were mostly mid 80 to lower 90s, level 5 was the sweet spot for all modes of operation; level 6 was not egg friendly at the top shelf in front of the fin/fan combo and ice in the freezer was too cold to handle with wet fingers! No doubt this fan system, as described, vastly improved the efficiency of my unit and will hopefully extend its’ life. 

[jd1923]

6 hours ago, MAX Burner said:

Same here!  We're "keeping our fingers crossed" and "knocking on wood" hoping that our Dometic fridge hangs in there.  It cools fast and freezes nicely - we usually run ours on level 7.  The two heat exhaust fans we installed seemed to have helped increase its overall efficiency.

Our hull, older than yours and @Ronbrink's has only 5 levels. We run on #4 unless it's really hot outside. Have not tried out the new Beech Lane dual fan yet with fridge on and full of food.

Leaving a week from tomorrow for the Texas Rally (a slow 10 days getting there)! The fridge always ran pretty well, freezer great. Hopefully with the fan will allow for better cooling in the fridge section, getting water bottles in the door shelving cold more quickly. 

[Ronbrink]

39 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

Have not tried out the new Beech Lane dual fan yet with fridge on and full of food.

The inside fan for air circulation really helped in spreading the cold and maintaining a more consistent temperature.

[jd1923]

On 10/1/2024 at 1:01 PM, Ronbrink said:

The inside fan for air circulation really helped in spreading the cold and maintaining a more consistent temperature.

Leaving next week for the Texas Rally. Ordered this interior fan today and should have time to install it in the next few days.

Ron, how did you connect this interior fan to available 12VDC?

Edited October 4 by jd1923

[Ronbrink]

8 hours ago, jd1923 said:

Ron, how did you connect this interior fan to available 12VDC?

The interior fin fan wire was routed through an existing port in my Norcold, as seen in the above pic. The wire was then connected to a constant power source behind the fridge. You may recall that I tapped into the Oliver’s 12V DC to create two sets of lead lines, one for the interior fin fan another for the exterior exhaust fans (first pic). In your installation of the exterior fans the existing small block was used to provide power (second pic). Simply connect the interior fin fan leads to that block, as well.

 

[Ronbrink]

On 9/29/2024 at 6:18 PM, carnivore said:

Ron, I don't think it is a propane flow problem.  The burner lights immediately when the control board demands.  I don't have a manometer or whatever the necessary tool is to check propane pressure, however when the fridge burner is burning, I have lit both stovetop burners as well as turned the water heater to propane and fridge burner tube and stove burners stayed blue with no sign of fuel starvation.  This problem has me baffled so far.  

My apologies for the post highjack. Getting back to your issue, any resolve? If your unit works fine on AC/DC, the problem could be the propane oriface impairing gas flow. 

[jd1923]

5 hours ago, Ronbrink said:

The interior fin fan wire was routed through an existing port

I noticed the existing hole in your picture the other day and then forget about it when I asked the question. Once fished through to the exterior bottom, the rest is straightforward. It's great there is an existing hole and thank you for your help!

[mountainoliver]

Sorry I can’t directly help with your issue but my Dometic fridge would not run reliably on propane either. The Oliver folks tried everything and replaced everything, even replacing the fridge with a new one and it still wouldn’t run reliably on propane. I’m sure they thought that I was doing something wrong but many friends saw the issues while boondocking. I finally just replaced it with a compressor fridge. Best decision ever, five years and zero issues. Seems like a lot of mainstream brands are switching over to compressor type fridges now that lithium batteries and solar power are more mainstream as well. And, hope with the help of other Norcold owners you can get to the bottom of this issue. 

[jd1923]

On 10/1/2024 at 1:01 PM, Ronbrink said:

The inside fan for air circulation really helped in spreading the cold and maintaining a more consistent temperature.

Got ours installed yesterday and with Ron's advice, I now have the same two Beech Lane exterior and interior fans. I had some trouble fishing the wire down. I fed a length of coaxial cable as a fish tape, and it kept getting coiled up and caught halfway. Eventually, I used a mirror and hook to pull it down, and still only about 30 minutes total.

I'm not sure of our make/model. It's a 3-way fridge with 5 vs. 10 cold settings and the fin length appears twice as wide vs. the picture Ron shared. Notice the fan on the coils, drip tray below and grommet below that. I used a leather punch tool, to punch a second hole in the grommet just fitting the second wire.

Turned it on at 7 PM last night, put a tray of ice cubes to freeze and 6 bottles of water inside. Started it in DC mode and it consistently pulled 15A, close to 17A total with the Victron MP2 running and other peristatic draw. 17A over 15 hours = 255AH. SOC was 99% so I figured I should see 56% SOC now with 600AH batteries and that was very close to the SOC reading at 10 AM today on the Victron SmartShunt.

I taped two Ruuvi Sensors in place. One to the interior freezer door and another in the top furthest corner of the fridge door. This morning the freezer was at 10F and the fridge 46F. Turned to interior fan on and off and have not yet noted a difference. It's hard to tell as these temp numbers change slowly. The exterior fan set at 90F has been running regularly at low speed.

The fridge sensor was installed on the outer door in the warmest corner of the fridge. I'm going to move it today, tape it under the upper fridge shelf to get a better average internal reading. A proper fridge should get down to 38F or lower, though we do not store dairy products or anything perishable for more than 2-3 days. The temp should improve with the new sensor location and 3/4 filled with food. Chris is filling the fridge with foods today. We're leaving tomorrow morning, starting our road trip to Texas. We'll see some of you there!

[skalywag]

This may not be the case and Our fridge runs well on all three sources, but I understand that they are more sensitive to being Level (especially) whilst using propane.

I "fired" up ours (empty) yesterday and it was showing -8 in the freezer and 33 in the fridge in about 8 hours. This was in my driveway and ambient temp was in the 70s.

[jd1923]

1 hour ago, skalywag said:

I "fired" up ours (empty) yesterday and it was showing -8 in the freezer and 33 in the fridge in about 8 hours. This was in my driveway and ambient temp was in the 70s.

Wow, those temps are almost too good. You should probably run it a lower setting. Ours is set on 4 out of 5. Update on our fridge, now half full of food. I moved the Ruuvi sensor from the far corner of the door to under the drip tray. Read the labels in the picture. I had these in my garage and guitar cabinet, hence the pics. It's been a semi-cloudy day and rooftop solar is keeping up with the fridge on DC mode. Warmer in the cabin than the trunk, cause the windows are closed and no A/C on. Very happy with these temps now.

[Geronimo John]

On 10/9/2024 at 7:31 AM, jd1923 said:

the same two Beech Lane exterior and interior fans

Thanks JD and others!  Good to hear of progress on the refer upgrades.

I purchased the Titan double 90 mm fan set up.  The manual function works well, but the Auto function failed half way through its first year.  Titan did not cover their defective controller despite at least 15 E-mails and "hoops" they tossed out to delay doing so.  After four months of dragging it out, I contacted Amazon and got a full refund.  As such I can not suggest using Titan as a supplier.  

I know this has been covered but I've have been on the road for almost four months and missed several important posts... hence I apologize for asking what was covered I am sure.

Which Beach Lane fans are being used for interior and the exterior refrigerators?

Thanks

GJ

Edited Monday at 06:01 AM by Geronimo John

[jd1923]

6 hours ago, Geronimo John said:

Which Beach Lane fans are being used for interior and the exterior refergerators?

Ron can chime in. The exterior fan works wonders in cooling the external coils. Jury is out on the interior fan. Temp numbers have not changed for me with it ON or OFF.

https://a.co/d/5epsJqH

https://a.co/d/bfzfJBO

[Ronbrink]

9 hours ago, jd1923 said:

Temp numbers have not changed for me with it ON or OFF.

Being unsure of your ‘new sensor location’, I would be inclined to place it in the furthest and least accessible area for circulation in the fridge just to check if cold air is reaching it when loaded; test with and without fin fan ON and compare results. 

[Ronbrink]

16 hours ago, Geronimo John said:

Which Beach Lane fans are being used for interior and the exterior refrigerators?

As @jd1923 referenced!

[jd1923]

3 hours ago, Ronbrink said:

Being unsure of your ‘new sensor location’, I would be inclined to place it in the furthest and least accessible area for circulation in the fridge just to check if cold air is reaching it when loaded; test with and without fin fan ON and compare results. 

I meant the interior fridge fan, no sensor on that one. The exterior one comes on when needed. I set at 90F, the highest setting. Sensor tape to foil very top of the outside opening.

inside fan had it off at first, the run it a few hours, fridge ad freezer temps by Ruuvi sensors do not change. 

Edited Monday at 03:09 PM by jd1923
Added 2nd paragraph