Refrigerator Issue

[feeez]

This is kind of a "repost". I had added this to one of my older postings but got thinking that may have not worked the best.... here it is

Repost,

We got in the water (finally) this past week. I got the fridge up and running and everything seemed AOK, my beer was cold!!! After it had been running for a day I noticed that it would come on, run for about a minute, stop and then resume running. It would eventually turn off properly (I could hear the "click" of the thermostat). As time went by this "short cycling: got more persistent to the point that it was on and off, on and off. I decided to shut it down as I did not want to leave the boat with the fridge doing that for days on end thinking that it would not be good for the compressor.

Cheers
Fraser

[Viper]

I'm thinking a couple of things; either the compressor is okay and it's simply reacting to what a bad t-stat is telling it to do, or the compressor is failing and cutting out. The t-stat would continue to tell it to work. When this cycling gets short enough, the compressor will fight to start under high pressure which usually causes the thermal cutout to kick in. It's like unplugging a fridge while it is running, then plugging back in a second later. It will try to start but usually cuts out a few times until pressure decreases before it's able to run again. Hot wire the t-stat and see if it'll stay running.

[mjk1040]

It will also short cycle if it's low on Freon. Time to measure it up for the new replacement I'm afraid. Or spend big bucks at the repair shop?

[feeez]

I contacted Nova Kool support and the contact there was very helpful. First thing he suggested was to pull the fridge, and disconnect the fan from the controller. A common problem as the fan ages it draws too much current and can cause the controller to shut down and restart. Seem to work fine during this test. I replaced the fan ($20) from a computer store and everything seems OK, an added bonus is the fridge runs way way quieter now. I still think there is new fridge in our future sometime but for now we will run with it.

Cheers
Fraser

[camsaure@aol.com]

I am having the same issues with an old Norcold DE828. This post gave me some places to start looking. I would like to get it working properly. I does cool good but short cycles like mentioned. Of course replacement is in the future, but I would like to get it working properly now and replace it in the fall or winter.

[km1125]

Refresh my memory... IIRC, the 828 was the one with two compressors and two power supplies.. which also means it has two thermostats. Is that correct?

Do both compressors cycle quickly? Does this happen regardless if it's on AC or DC?

btw, I think I have a lot of parts for that model that I got when a friend replaced his. I parted it out and got rid of the case but think I still have a lot of the original parts.

[camsaure@aol.com]

Yes it is one with the two systems, 1987 m0del year. I have not tried any diagnosis yet but will in the next few days. But I will try it on 12 volts tomorrow. I may be in need of some parts. I am hoping to squeeze another year or so out of it before upgrading to a new one. Thanks for the reply.

[km1125]

I have all kinds of info on that model too, I think. Owners manual, electric diagrams and parts diagrams (although I doubt you could actually order parts anymore).

If it's like I'm thinking, there's also two thermostats, one controlling each compressor. So one compressor might work fine and one might not, and you should be able to tell just by turning one thermostat to 'max' and the other to 'min' and then alternate.

[camsaure@aol.com]

I tried it on 12 volts and it did pretty much the same. Could that mean the fan as mentioned, or maybe slightly low on charge? Or is it possible both thermostats could be bad?? Just got your last post, there is only one contol knob on bottom front or am I missing something?

[km1125]

Source of the post I tried it on 12 volts and it did pretty much the same. Could that mean the fan as mentioned, or maybe slightly low on charge? Or is it possible both thermostats could be bad?? Just got your last post, there is only one contol knob on bottom front or am I missing something?

You really should start a new thread for this issue. The OP had a different brand of fridge and you're going to get confusing suggestions/responses as folks read through the thread and respond to different post or info they see.

(but I did dig up the schematic for yours and it does show only one thermostat that controls both compressor sections).