Nova Kool fridge issues

[roseswan]

Hi- I have a nova kool rfu6209. My fridge stopped cooling so i defrosted it because i thought the temperature sensor had ice on it. After i defrosted it cooled from 75 degrees to 50 degrees and now it is frosting up again.

Does anyone have troubleshooting ideas? I have been trying to reach novakool customer support with no luck.

 

[Comodave]

First welcome aboard.

We had a Nova Kool (Never Cool) in our current boat. It wouldn’t cool well so I pulled it out of the cabinet to see if it would work out of the cabinet with more air around it. Lack of cooling air flow around the back is a very common problem. So after I pulled it out it didn’t cool at all. I had a troubleshooting flowchart for it and I started checking it out. But when I ohmed the compressor it was out of specs so I called them to ask. Their answering system said they do not help customers troubleshoot problems but to call an authorized service center. On their website they list over 20 near me. I called every one of them. None would work on a freon based refer, only ammonia based for RVs. I ended up cutting off the coils, compressor and everything on the back in order to get it out of the cabin. We ordered an Isotherm refer that fit through the door. It cools almost too well. Unfortunately when we threw out the old refer I deleted the troubleshooting chart, but if you google it you can probably find it.

 

[Shrew]

I shopped for a NovaKool this spring. My model has a specific rough cut hole that requires either a bunch of fabrication or replacement with the same model. This spring they had a 16 week backlog on my Nova Kool model.

 

[Comodave]

I had to rebuild the refer cabinet since the new one was 7” taller, but it was well worth the it.

 

[HeadedToTexas]

After i defrosted it cooled from 75 degrees to 50 degrees and now it is frosting up again.

Frosting that fast means you've got a lot of moisture inside. Towel the inside dry. Does the door seal? I'd start by checking the seals.

 

[Woodstock]

I had a Nova Kool RFS6500 side by side fridge/freezer that would not keep the fridge side below about 45-50 degrees. I added ventilation with fans and did several other modifications without success so I purchased a brand new Nova Kool unit to replace it. My original doors had inserts that matched the woodwork in the boat so I swapped out the new doors with the old ones when I installed the new unit. Guess what, the new one didn't cool any better.
When I put the new doors (with new seals) back on the new unit, it fixed everything. Cools down to 33 degrees (or below) now. Several changes made small improvements but the magic was in the door seals for me. Expensive lesson learned but now I know. If you have frost happening quickly, replace the seals.