There are two parts to this (too long to read) story. First, I had a fire in the fridge that didn’t burn up the coach. Second, in the spirit of this self help forum, I fixed it by myself without having to get an appointment, drop the coach off, move back into the condo, wait, etc.
If you have had to replace the fuse on your 1200 Norcold more than once, you might be headed for the same fire.
The Friday before the Labor Day Weekend I heard the fridge running on propane when I was plugged in and supposed to be running on AC. That has happened before and the problem was a blown automotive style 8 amp AGC fuse on the outside circuit board. It is not easy to get to, but it is easy to replace.
This time I removed the cover and was surprised to see that about half the circuit board was black with soot and the area around the fuse holder was partially melted. There had been an "electrical fire" that looks like it was caused by a faulty fuse holder that is soldered to the board. My Norcold is not in the recall group and I don’t think the circuit board was the recall issue.
The fridge was stuffed with food for the Wooden Boat rally we were hosting. I thought it best to get a new circuit board but let it run on propane until the rally ended. It would not have been good to serve rotting food to my Beaver friends!
I called Beaver Coach Sales. They said they don't stock the boards and that I should call Laurelhurst Distributors in Portland. A nice guy answered the phone. I said I had been referred by Beaver Coach Sales. He said my circuit board had a part number on it. It doesn't! He said they all do and it was not possible to have a board without a part number. I looked some more. I assured him it was not there. He told me where on the board to look. It was not there either. He used the model and serial number to look it up. Then he quoted me $230 wholesale and over $300 retail. Then he realized I was only a consumer and retracted the $230 price. It was Friday and too late to ship. I said I would call back on Tuesday. He said I needed a qualified technician to determine that my black and partially melted printed circuit board was broken.
I remembered that years ago I replaced a refrigerator circuit board on a Fleetwood trailer with an after market one made by Dinosaur Electronics. Back then Dinosaur was considered better made and was the preferred choice for repair work when qualified technicians determined melted circuit boards needed replacement. I decided to try that route again. I found the website, phone number, etc. I called and got a nice guy that was smarter than the first nice guy. He helped me find a local stocking service center called RVMobile.com in Everett. “TJ” owns it AND answers the phone. He was also smart, friendly, etc. But he had the board in stock and was ready to ship!
TJ charged me $240 plus tax and freight. All the other refrigerator circuit boards made by Dometic and Norcold are between about $60 and $100!
Yesterday I replaced the board. I fought with a half dozen hard to reach screws and got the cover off. I took photos first so I could keep track of about a hundred wires. I unplugged the wires, replaced the board and plugged the wires back in. It took about two hours including finding the screw driver and getting cleaned up afterwards.
The fridge works on electric again. The fuse holder in the Dinosaur board makes the fuse holder on the Norcold board look like it was intended for a cheap lead painted toy made in China.
