Avoid Norcold At All Costs!

Bad news here.  We leave in two weeks, and right now we don’t have a refrigerator.  Our brand new Norcold DE0061 compressor fridge proved defective on the test trip - it is short-cycling and not freezing, and right now we’re not quite sure what to do about it.

After three laborious calls to their service center, testing with meters, being transferred here and there, disconnected, etc., they are finally admitting that the compressor itself is bad, as are many others from their early 2009 shipment of cooling units.  It’s using too much electricity, AND not cooling properly, AND loud enough to wake hibernating bears.  (And I am one of those, says Anna!)

To make matters much worse, there are no replacements.  There is a shipment of new units coming in - a month after we are to depart for Alaska!  However, they are all spoken for by another manufacturer.  After that, they “just don’t know” what will happen, or even if they will keep selling this model.  (Nice - the cabinet is done and installed - glued in with SikaFlex.  Removal of the cabinet is destructive.)

Soooo HERE’s what to do about it….

I (well, RUF, Inc.) have (has)  just become the first Wyoming distributor for NovaKool fridges, so if you need a good compressor fridge that is MUCH quieter than Norcold, let me know.  ;-)  I’ve used them in Unimog projects in the past - even in the first AATREC-FG camper.  NovaKool’s RFU9000 is their flagship model, and will fit perfectly in the current opening.  It’s even smarter, with the freezer compartment on the bottom.

Now I’m going to go tend to my numb left arm by taking a couple aspirin, and then I can finally get back to work finishing up all the loose ends.

I even have a line on the cushions, either from Denver OR from Miami.  It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out, so close to departure!

Om-mah-ney-pahd-me-om.  That doesn’t work.  Stress relief really pisses me off!

This entry was posted on July 28 2009 at 12:22 and is filed under AATREC Construction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.