Norcold makes ICE

We have a 12V/120V Norcold refrigerator. The unit works very well. But the freezer and the lower unit create tons of ice and requires defrosting every week. The door seal appears to be good and a temp gun shows no leakage????
A dollar bill test passes ??? What have you experienced?
What have you done that fixed this?

Same here, I'll be interested to see any replies. Freezer frosts up and is super cold, lower half doesn't get cold enough. Tried various settings on the dial. Works that way in the cool spring or hot summer for me, outside temp doesn't matter.

Yes, I am looking for answers. The top frosts up in a few days. I know moisture has to be getting in somewhere. The lower drips water and ices up at the top. No problems with cooling.

On my NovaKool the freezer portion seldom frosts up and the reefer portion needs defrosting every two weeks or so. One trick is to never leave any moisture laden stuff unsealed. Many centuries ago when I first moved to AZ the old cold plate reefer frosted up hard in two weeks in the middle of the desert. It just sucked those open beer cans dry.

The costs to go frost free are big in terms of power draw, but a land based frost free is what many boaters indeed do especially on larger vessels where the genset sees lots of use.

Put a little battery powered fan in the fridge to circulate the air. Old Westfalia camper van trick. Works wonders.

My Norcold had a huge defrosting problem that I knew was the seals plus the old retainer slide lock finally broke....I screwed a couple double hung window locks on both the fridge and freezer...they are the kind that engage then pull closer...pic below

Wow!!!! The fridge stays WAY colder and the freezer now just needs it after several months (went to Fla for the winter so yes warm and humid).

Wow!!!! The fridge stays WAY colder and the freezer now just needs it after several months (went to Fla for the winter so yes warm and humid).

>I love it when a plan comes together!!<

psneeld said:

My Norcold had a huge defrosting problem that I knew was the seals plus the old retainer slide lock finally broke....I screwed a couple double hung window locks on both the fridge and freezer...they are the kind that engage then pull closer...pic below

Wow!!!! The fridge stays WAY colder and the freezer now just needs it after several months (went to Fla for the winter so yes warm and humid).

Click to expand...

Can you show us a picture of how.you installed this latch? I will head to Home Depot and pick up two tomorrow

The plate on the right is aluminum with enough of a bend and lip to grab the twist latch. The stock catch didn't have enough reach so there is some fabrication or alteration necessary...but the fridge has never been so cold.

Everything attached with short stainless self tapping screws.
Note this pic is of a different latch than shown above...this one had some reach to it...yet still not enough that the modded latch was necessary.

Thank you. I am definitely going to look into a latch like that