We have a 2014 38GK. We have been south in it for 3 months. Frost had built up heavily around the ice maker and back wall of the freezer. and this morning the fridge had stopped cooling both in the bottom and top.
We turned it off, defrosted the freezer, turned it back on and the fridge is not cooling.
Opened the back cleaned out the tube that drips into the drip pan. Noticed the motor was hot. We have turned the fridge off.
Any ideas and advise would be greatly appreciated.
What kind of a refrigerator do you have? If it is a Norcold or Dometic then it has no motor so I am unclear about your statement that the motor was hot.
It is a Norcold. It appeared to be a motor. However it is a round cylinder with a curved black pipe that appeared to run into the chimney. We have the fridge on AC. However with that area being hot we don't know what is going on. We are leaving it off for a couple of hours so it will cool down. Thank you for trying to help us.
Those fridges cool by absorption created by heat (either 120VAC or propane) If you can, try it on the other medium. If on electric, the fridge needs both 12VDC from the fuse/breaker panel and 120VAC (there is an outlet in compartment behind fridge).
Please read the Norcold troubleshooting manual's and operating manuals which are in the manual section of the technical library on our website. They may give you some insight as to how the refrigerator works and what to check. One of the more common problems is that the electronic control board fails. If that is the case then your best bet is a mobile RV service technician as they normally carry spare boards.
Further to the comments from Jim and Mary, the refrigerator has an electric heating element operating on 120 V AC and a propane heater which operates on 12 V DC control. Jim's comment is right on the money that you should switch from 120 V to gas on your control panel on the fridge. It may just be that your 120 V electric heating element has failed.
Thank you both very much!
King50 My fridge did the same thing last year. Had a rv repair man come out and found that the sensor that is clipped to the fins in the lower section of the fridge had gone bad. Wail we were waiting for the part to be ordered the repair man removed the sensor and unplugged it from in side the light. to my surprise the fridge ran normal.
Thank you for the help, when we switched to gas it started cooling. So must be the 120 v heating element. Will call RV repair man.
Thank you again for the help
Before you go calling someone, you should check the outlet that it's plugged into to make sure it's getting power. Hate to pay a Service Tech to reset a circuit breaker.
On our 14 model 38GK there is a fan at the top area of the frig at the top vent. I also installed an additional fan at the bottom to use when in Florida for the month of September as we were frig side to evening sun. Frig kept cold and no problems.
You might want to check the fan.
When you get it running again you might consider installing an internal fan from Smart RV products ( https://smartrvproducts.com/works/). We spend 2 months every year near the Gulf of Mexico during the hottest months, after installing this fan my Norcold 1210 set on 6, on the internal thermometer, stays at a consistent 35-39 degrees. Additionally, the frost build up in the freezer compartment is held to a minimum. It really has improved the operation of the refrigerator.
