This last trip out our fridge wouldn't cool before we left. 1 month out of warranty as well. Packed the food in a cooler and headed to the CG. Sitting around the campfire I was reading a little about issues on our Norcold 1210. Most seem to come down to three issues
Page 49-51 of the manual indicates which LED on the display number relates to which fault is on the fridge. There are multiple pages of fault codes so you can scroll and check each page. I would highly suggest printing this manual out and keeping it in the camper. The literature I got with my camper was not nearly this detailed and pretty useless.
In my case, page 5 fault, #1 was illuminated indicating Thermistor failure. I also checked page 3, which is the actual fin temperature. Mine was 0, further indicating there was no communication with the probe. At the very least it should had been reading room temperature.
A little more googling pointed to people being able to unplug it and basically hot wire the fridge. The fridge light is on this connector so you will lose the light inside the fridge as well. I unplugged it, set the fridge to 9 and went to bed. I woke up and the fridge was down to 30 degrees! It proceeded to drop in temperature so I lowered it to cold setting #6 and it settled right at 35 degrees.
I ordered a new thermistor for $20 and waiting for for it to come in. In the mean time I am a little annoyed at the fact they removed instructions on how to diagnose issues, basically forcing you to go to a dealer where they can up-sell you on a repair, or possibly a whole new fridge. The good news is you can bypass this thermistor should yours fail so your food doesn't all spoil.
I don't know if this is common knowledge or not, but I did not know about it and information was extremely scarce on the subject.
EDITS 9/29/21. ABOVE IN BOLD FONT with comments below..
I went to turn the fridge on for a trip this weekend....nothing. No power no nothing. I unscrewed the back of the main board and the 12volt fuse was popped. This appears to be somewhat common. When I searched "Norcold 1210 issue" this is the first post that came up in google so I thought it would be helpful to add this new problem to this original post.
EDIT 9/30/21
Fuse blew again. Did some more googling and some people said it was the fans on the cooling fins go out and cause the fuse to blow. I poked my head in the top access panel and I see 2 computer fans. They were not running despite having 12 volts going to them. There's a red and black wire going out of the control board and up the lower access panel to the fans. GD put a blocker in so the fans would vent over the fins. As a result I can't get my hands in there to replace. I will have to cut the board out and splice it back in to change the fans. For now I just unplugged the fans and will see if the fuse holds. I think I have some extra fans laying around to get me through the weekend. It should be somewhat cool so I am not that concerned if I can't get them replaced.
We did fall camping without fans plugged in and the fuse did not pop. The fridge maintained temperature as well.
EDIT 6/22/22
I finally got around to replacing the fans. Didn't need them for fall camping. I also removed the board blocking the fans. I read some posts that GD put them in all the campers and some didn't need then. The fridge is staying cold in 100 degree temps so I'd say it's all working as it should. It appears the fans only run when getting power through the sensor on the fins. That's the red wire on the right of the fins. It must close the switch when reaching a certain temperature. When the switch closes it provides the 12V to the fans. The fans I got are pretty loud so I could hear them cycle on and off.
- The sensor/board that is visible behind the fridge through the access panel. I believe it's an overheat trip which can be reset with a strong magnet. It's prone to getting water in it and causing it to trip as well. If tripped, there should be a red light/led visible. (overheat / high limit board)
- The Thermistor which is the piece that goes on the fins to regulate the temperature tends to fail.
- The 12V (or 120v) fuse in the panel blows and needs to be replaced.
Page 49-51 of the manual indicates which LED on the display number relates to which fault is on the fridge. There are multiple pages of fault codes so you can scroll and check each page. I would highly suggest printing this manual out and keeping it in the camper. The literature I got with my camper was not nearly this detailed and pretty useless.
In my case, page 5 fault, #1 was illuminated indicating Thermistor failure. I also checked page 3, which is the actual fin temperature. Mine was 0, further indicating there was no communication with the probe. At the very least it should had been reading room temperature.
A little more googling pointed to people being able to unplug it and basically hot wire the fridge. The fridge light is on this connector so you will lose the light inside the fridge as well. I unplugged it, set the fridge to 9 and went to bed. I woke up and the fridge was down to 30 degrees! It proceeded to drop in temperature so I lowered it to cold setting #6 and it settled right at 35 degrees.
I ordered a new thermistor for $20 and waiting for for it to come in. In the mean time I am a little annoyed at the fact they removed instructions on how to diagnose issues, basically forcing you to go to a dealer where they can up-sell you on a repair, or possibly a whole new fridge. The good news is you can bypass this thermistor should yours fail so your food doesn't all spoil.
I don't know if this is common knowledge or not, but I did not know about it and information was extremely scarce on the subject.
EDITS 9/29/21. ABOVE IN BOLD FONT with comments below..
I went to turn the fridge on for a trip this weekend....nothing. No power no nothing. I unscrewed the back of the main board and the 12volt fuse was popped. This appears to be somewhat common. When I searched "Norcold 1210 issue" this is the first post that came up in google so I thought it would be helpful to add this new problem to this original post.
EDIT 9/30/21
Fuse blew again. Did some more googling and some people said it was the fans on the cooling fins go out and cause the fuse to blow. I poked my head in the top access panel and I see 2 computer fans. They were not running despite having 12 volts going to them. There's a red and black wire going out of the control board and up the lower access panel to the fans. GD put a blocker in so the fans would vent over the fins. As a result I can't get my hands in there to replace. I will have to cut the board out and splice it back in to change the fans. For now I just unplugged the fans and will see if the fuse holds. I think I have some extra fans laying around to get me through the weekend. It should be somewhat cool so I am not that concerned if I can't get them replaced.
We did fall camping without fans plugged in and the fuse did not pop. The fridge maintained temperature as well.
EDIT 6/22/22
I finally got around to replacing the fans. Didn't need them for fall camping. I also removed the board blocking the fans. I read some posts that GD put them in all the campers and some didn't need then. The fridge is staying cold in 100 degree temps so I'd say it's all working as it should. It appears the fans only run when getting power through the sensor on the fins. That's the red wire on the right of the fins. It must close the switch when reaching a certain temperature. When the switch closes it provides the 12V to the fans. The fans I got are pretty loud so I could hear them cycle on and off.
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