Domestic NDR 1492 fridge in 02 Marquis 40 Tourmaline

[Roy Lewis]

Hi, we have a 02 Marquis 40 Tourmaline with a Dometic NDR 1492 side by side. I have full freeze capability and the fridge will only hold 50 in 70 deg weather. We have ruled out thermistor, checked out connections have good air circulation, no apparent ammonia leaks. Can't schedule service till mon. Any ideas anyone?

[Keith Moffett]

Use a heat gun or hair dryer and heat the coils good and warm.  Sometimes this will unblock a plug and allow the coolant to circulate again!

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Roy,
If Keith's idea doesn't work, get some dry ice. A couple of slabs in the freezer and 1 in the refrig will keep stuff for a day or 2.
Steve

[Roy Lewis]

Thanks all!

[Joel Ashley]

If the freezer is working right your issue is probably not with the “coils”.  I’d just keep ice made in some half gallon jugs rotating between freezer and fridge until a tech can check things out.

Also, it could be either the evaporator fan isn’t running or the diffuser duct is clogged with ice.  It’s tricky to check for this failure by listening for the fan because it doesn’t run all the time anyway.  But see if you can hear it through shut doors (it doesn’t run with doors open), or leave the door(s) open and hold in the switch button usually in the door frame, to keep power to the fan.  If after some time you don’t hear the fan, it may have a bad connection or other failure.  If the fan does work, check the diffuser duct that may be top center in the fridge back ... it may simply be plugged with ice, so cold freezer air blown toward the fridge by the evaporator fan can’t get into the fridge side.

Be careful if you try chipping ice.  You don’t want to scratch the fridge liner.  Hairdryer melting can work, if you line the back bottom floor of the fridge with towels to catch the meltwater, etc.  But be forewarned - don’t apply too much heat directly on the liner surface;  it can warp and cause other issues.  Take your time and gently heat/coax the ice plug to melt.

Or, you can always revert to removing all your food to ice chests for a day with the unit entirely off, doors open, and defrost that way, as long as residual water doesn’t refreeze in the diffuser duct when the unit is restarted

Joel

[David T. Richelderfer]

We have a Norcold LRIM 1200.  We never get ice in the fridge compartment, but the two freezer compartments do ice-up on the back walls and especially on/behind/around the ice maker.  About twice per year we have to defrost the freezer compartments.  We take out the frozen foods and put them into the fridge compartment, turn off the fridge, and place a saucepan of hot water into each freezer compartment and close the door.  In the meantime, we heat more water.  After about 30 minutes and a couple saucepans of hot water in each freezer compartment, the ice will thaw off the walls and ice maker.  Then it's a simple matter of hand-picking the ice chunks out and throwing them into the sink.  We use either the sink instahot or the induction cooktop to heat the water.  We turn the fridge back on and use a towel to remove any liquid water in the bottom of the freezer compartments.

[Frank Bergamo]

Roy, when you say freezer has full capability, have you actually put a thermometer inside freezer. It should be about 10 degrees if working properly. The freezer gets  priority for cooling over the fridge side. The freezer may be 25 degrees, but that may not be cold enough to bring fridge down to 32-40 degrees. Has your cooling element on back of fridge been replaced, if not that might be your problem. Also, check and inspect your door seals. By putting a dollar bill between seals and fridge with doors closed and pulling it out,  you should get some drag on dollar bill. Also check door hinges for tightness and alignment. These are some basic things that you can try on your own. If no luck, then I would look at burner assembly/heating elements for proper operation. I have found on my NDR 1492 the best settings are 1, 2, or 3 lights illuminated, 1 being for cooler outside temps, and 3 for really hot outside temps. One other thing, fridge works best when coach is totally level. Hope this helps

[Roy Lewis]

Thank you Frank, freezer is at 12 deg. Talked to local RV parts store owner and he had me unplug thermistor from control board  and take it out of loop. Temp immediately started falling and overnight started freezing on fridge side. Installed a Snip the tip thermistor thermostat and all is AOK !!   As always I want to thank all that shared their knowledge with me.

[Joel Ashley]

Now Roy, you told us the thermistor had been ruled out  .  I would’ve proffered that as it’s easy to put a new one in.  Glad you got r dun!   
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ULMPlMYLqgk

Joel

[Roy Lewis]

Hi Joel, Dana and I are fulltiming 2 yrs and 2mos in our Marquis and love it. I tell people what a great club we belong to and learn something new everyday. In this case a owner of a parts house gave me a hint and it worked. That and all the great advice this club has given us in the past 2 yrs is amazing and has aavwd us a great deal of money.

[Frank Bergamo]

Roy, glad to hear your up and running. By unplugging thermistor at control board, fridge is in maximum cooling mode. This is good way to check if thermistor is operating properly if you are not comfortable with Joel's method.