Norcold 1200 - Amish CU upgrade

[JimCasazze]

For anyone with a Norcold 1200 considering replacing the cooling unit, I have just spent the weekend upgrading to the "amish" revised cooling unit.  This was a bit of a project, taking about 10 hours (including a few trips to home depot) to complete.  

The new system is running now and cools very fast compared to the original Norcold unit.   Then again, I'm not sure if the old one was original or working correctly for that matter.  What I can say is that in about 2 hours, the freezer was almost to freezing temperatures having been turned off for over a week and working in 85 degree inside temperatures.

The project required several read throughs of the (not so great) instructions, watching a few you-tube videos, and much "thinking".  It is a two MAN job at certain stages to be sure, particularly when trying to re-align and install the new cooling unit.

I will post more information here when I have more run time on the new unit, including temperatures, cool down times, etc.

I will say that one thing that really bothered me was seeing black - charred wood at the top of the refer compartment, near the roof chimney.  I wonder how close the coach came to a fire.  We did have the "recall" safety upgrade installed, so this damage may have occurred prior to that - but no way to know when it happened or if was still an issue.  

For anyone interested in doing the Amish c/u upgrade - I'd be happy to share my experience, problems, some insight and suggestions.

J

[Keith Moffett]

you tube link?  Perhaps a brief description?  Sure sounds like it works so far.

[JimCasazze]

This is the youtube video that I found to be the best for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x9quds5I6o
With this approach, you don't have to lay the fridge down, which in my opinion works better if you have two Men to do the job.
Using the wooden box allowed me to pull the unit myself and reinstall it without any assistance.  

The part in the video, where he installs the new cooling unit by himself is a bit unrealistic in my opinion, especially when you are trying to line up the screws from the front of the unit, while adjusting the cooling unit on the back.

Interestingly, one part that was not addressed in any of the videos is that the ref unit fits so snug into the cabinetry, that removing it was very difficult.  This is in part due to the age of the ref and slight swelling of the cardboard like outside case, which binds on the edges of the cabinet sides.

By the way, one of the best pieces of advice (as the video says) is to label every wire you remove very carefully.  I'm very good at re-assembling things, but had I not meticulously label every wire, this would have been a mess.

I've attached a photo of my completed work,  just prior to sliding the unit back into place.

J

[JimCasazze]

Just a brief update on the Amish cooling unit upgrade.  Having now used the coach several times, taking it out of storage here in Florida where the box is probably at 90+ degrees when we turn it on.

I rally can't say it works better than a NEW Norcold, since my 10 y/o unit may not have been functioning properly since I got it.  BUT, this new unit has the freezer cold in less than one hour.  The refer takes about 5 hours on LP, but that is still at least twice as fast as my Norcold.   Ice is overflowing in less than 12 hours.  It might have been even faster had I realized that no ice is made when running on LP.  I switched over to AC after about 3 hours.

I will post additional findings as we get more time and miles on the new unit, but so far I am very pleased.

J