Norcold fridge question?

[DinTulsa]

I have a Norcold fridge in my open Range roamer, we have been camping since last Friday night and I’ve noticed my fins in the refrigerator start thawing and refereeing twice. The second time was this evening, but I did put some warm steak on the top shelf, so that could have been the issue. Do fridges normally thaw the fins and refreeze them? I think I’ve noticed it before, but we have been in and out of the fridge a lot this trip so I’ve seen it.

Freezer stays cold and nothing gets soft, everything is rock hard

[j-d]

We have an N811 so my ears opened up when Doug mentioned the "defrost" which I put it quotes because it seems to do more to let the fridge go warm, than it does to clear the fins of ice. Armed with Doug's explanation and results of some hard experience, here's what we do:

Cycle the N811 to OFF for a couple minutes around noontime, every day.

Realized the doors aren't solid enough to seal. The latches hold a foot or so of gasket against the sides of the fridge, but don't seal down to the bottom of fridge or up to top of freezer. Trying to "spring" the door(s) so the far corner from the latch hits the gasket first, does not help. Door isn't stiff enough to hold that shape. So, the Fridge Gestures: Close Fridge includes a Knee to the Lower part of the Door. Close Freezer includes a High Five to the Upper part of the Door. Utterly amazing the difference this has made!

When the Fins get fouled with Ice, we have a squirt bottle. One that does a Stream. Fill with hot water, open the Fridge and spray the Fins just as fast as I can. Takes a little over a minute. Close Fridge with Knee. Defrosted! Ours has an outside catch cup for the water. I haven't run it over.

I have a couple little 12VDC computer case fans helping convection over the outside coils, too. These few little changes have allowed us to keep using our 16-year-old N811.

[Old-Biscuit]

Thank you dougie for clarifying that detail.

I should have included that specific info as it really makes a difference on whether or not OPs fridge does defrost on its own

My bad :S

[dougrainer]

Biscuit should have explained the Defrost cycle. All it is, the refer just shuts OFF for about 2 hours every 48 to 54 hours, IF LEFT ON CONTINUOUSLY, and that allows the fins to warm up enough to get rid of the ice accumulation. Ice is NOT a good conductor of cold and actually insulates to prevent optimum cooling performance. If you do not want the defrost cycle to happen, just turn the refer off and on once a day and the defrost will never happen. That resets to 48/54 hour timer. There are NO defrost heaters on these models that have the built in timer. Doug

[DinTulsa]

Nx811F

[Old-Biscuit]

Depending on MODEL.......yes there can be a 'defrost' cycle

N6XX
N8XX
1200
1210

Defrost mode can be between 40-54 hours of operation


Which Model do you have????