High Altitude Norcold Refrigerator Operation

[Bill Ruh]

FWIW, it got down to 22 degrees fahrenheit when we overnighted in bryce canyon's north campground last month, which is slightly over 8000'. Frig worked fine on propane. I ran the furnace and hot water heater in the night and they worked ok too. I added a gallon of rv antifreeze to the partially-full gray and black tanks to avoid freezing -- don't know whether I needed to or not, but saw no evidence of freezing when we dumped later the next day.

I agree with Ralph that correlating our collective experiences (both good and bad) is useful.

[bechlumber]

I did not know what model of Norcold refrigerator that I had so I went over to where I store my Born Free. I have Model #N641 in my 2002 Born Free 24'. I went thru the users guide to see if there was anything about altitude. There was nothing. As I stated in my previous post I have had no problems.

It would be useful to know the models numbers from everyone that has posted.

[Trisha]

Model N641 same as yorurs. Page 12 of manual top of page.

[Trisha]

I just had a feeling that whenever someone posted, only to say 'it never happens to me.' and offers nothing further...I felt as if I was being told maybe I'm inferior because it never happens to them. I felt like I was being invalidated.

Trish,

I see those kinds of postings frequently on computer-related lists. I don't think the intent is to invalidate the reported problem as much as it is to clarify that the problem is not universal. This can often be valuable trouble-shooting information. As you point out, though, it's more valuable if the no-problem poster provides more information about the nature of his system (fridge, in this case).
Ralph

Thank you Ralph for this understanding. Most helpful. Makes sense.

And with mr. lumber <sm> bringing up the idea of model number...that's helpful.

I wonder if they've changed anything in the past few years.. from 2002 to 2005. I further wonder if there's a better refrigerator for this application?

does anone know of a refrig model that is especially reliable or even maybe made for altitudes?

My main concern is that if I lose the frig, I have medications that must be kept refrigerated, and further they're hideously expensive... but I have to have them daily. So frig function isn't frivolous for me. It can literally destroy $1,200 worth of drug if it doesnt' cool for a long-enogh period of time.

I'm sure others have similar issues.

f

[Ralph Strauch]

My main concern is that if I lose the frig, I have medications that must be kept refrigerated, and further they're hideously expensive... but I have to have them daily. So frig function isn't frivolous for me. It can literally destroy $1,200 worth of drug if it doesnt' cool for a long-enogh period of time.

Trish,

Your drugs certainly present a unique problem, which most of us don't have. You might consider getting a small thermoelectric cooler as an emergency backup, particularly at night. These things plug into a 12v socket and can either heat or cool their contents, depending on which way the plug is switched. They will cool to some fixed number of degrees below ambient temperature, so aren't great in really hot weather, but in my experience the fridge lighting problem is less in hot weather anyway. It does draw on your battery, but would be much more efficient (and kinder to your neighbors) than using the generator for enough time to keep the fridge cold.

A search on "thermoelectric" at <http://www.campingworld.com> will bring up a bunch of them.

Ralph

[Bill Ruh]

Hi Trisha,

One option for keeping meds cool when the frig isn't working is to fill large ziplock bags with ice and surround the meds with the bagged ice, perhaps in a refrigerator drawer or on the lowest shelf. If you are willing to give up a little freezer space, you could always carry a day's supply of ice, which would give you time to find and buy more ice for subsequent days.