WITHOUT FRIDGE DEFEND YOU ARE NOT PROTECTED
Dometic & Norcold reliability and fire safety, can you live without it?
WITHOUT FRIDGE DEFEND YOU ARE NOT PROTECTED
Dometic & Norcold reliability and fire safety, can you live without it?
The Fridge Defend for Norcold 1200 is the best method to make your fridge safe and save money. This page is for wiring ARP Control, Norcold high temp kit, and fans.
REQUIRED TO DOWNLOAD INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS - WEB PAGES ARE SUPPLEMENTAL - EACH VERSION OF CONTROL HAS INTRICACIES REQUIRING THE WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS.
Instructions: Subjects are listed on left. Click the link to the right to go directly to the subject matter on this page.
The Fridge Defend by ARP should be wired in series, or inline with the wire supplying the 12VDC to the Norcold control board. Think of the ARP as a power switch where the switch is between the ARP red wire and yellow wire. The ARP red wire shall be connected to the 12VDC power wire which delivers power from the RV. The ARP yellow wire shall be connected to the fridge 12VDC power into the control box.
The first drawing shows some of the Norcold 1200 wiring needed to wire Fridge Defend control. Please note that the controller should be powered from a fused source, your RV should have no greater than a 5A fuse for the fridge and the Fridge Defend control. Please see the full Install Manual for more details, this is just an overview of how to wire the ARP Control and the Norcold High Temp Kit.
Please note that the ARP Control can be wired as seen in this drawing, or the ARP can be wired on the side of the recall box where the red wire is. Please use following link to see the best method for wiring: Recommended Wiring Method
There are a total of 3 different styles of Norcold 1200 series control box layouts. The earliest version of control box is in the first drawing on this page. This control box is shown to help determine where the power and ground enter.
We have drawn the outlines of these controls and identified the power and ground (GND) in an attempt to help you identify the proper leads. The installer must confirm the proper wires because there are many configurations for these controls; these examples are simply to show some of the known configurations, not all.
This control box is similar to the drawing above with slightly different cutouts in the box and different locations for the power and grounds. Please be carful with your identification of the power and ground. Generally the Norcold control box circuit board has the terminal ID marked 12VDC for positive and GND for the ground.
There are two methods by which the Norcold recall may be installed and wired.
1) The first method is shown in the first image on this page. This method is most common, the recall is wired inline with the power coming from the RV to the refrigerator.
2) The second method is for the Norcold 1210 where the recall is wired directly to the control board. This wiring method can be distinguished from the first because the Norcold recall is not inline with the power wire coming from the RV battery to the fridge.
The Norcold 1200 Series is generally equipped with auxiliary cooling fans. If these fans fail, the Fridge Defend control will detect excessive boiler temperature and turn your fridge off to protect it. This problem does tend to occur most often in hot weather. If the Norcold fans quit functioning, one can generally hear that they are not running. Please try and recognize the sound of the fans running so that you can determine if there is a failure of the fans. The Norcold High Temp Kit will not detect fan failure due to the high temperature turn off point (800F), only the patented Fridge Defend by ARP can do this job leagly. Please click here for letter from Norcold to us explaining how the 800F recall works.
The Fridge Defend Fan Controller is equipped with a +/-2° fan sensor that may either control all of the fans, or be an auxiliary fan controller in addition to the factory fan controller. Our precision fan controller will only run the fans when needed, thereby saving electrical energy and increasing the efficiency of the fridge by moving the air where it needs to be moved. For example, the most common failure of cooling units in slide-out applications is either the failure of the factory fan switch or the failure of the fans.
The drawing above shows the ARP + Fan Control wiring with a blower fan mounted so that the blower can pull in cool air from the lower vent. The ARP fan sensor can be clamped either to the bottom absorber coil (recommended) or the coil that is just above the bottom. The higher the absorber coil, the cooler the coils are. Please see the User Guide for more on the fan temperature adjustment. We will return to the wiring after pointing out where the Norcold fan components are.
The next two images show the location of the fans and fan switch for the Norcold 1200 series.
The first drawing is a N1200 cooling unit, the pink arrow-1 is the early style N1200 fan location. The arrow-2 is the N1210 location for the cooling fans. The green arrow-3 shows the location of the fan thermal switch. As one can see, it is very difficult to access the fans or the fan switch due to the location on the cooling unit in most RVs.
Please note in this first drawing that we recommend using a GFI type 120VAC receptacle (red arrow) for your shore power supply to your fridge. This can help in the event of an electric heater failure. The GFI just makes good sense for safety sake.
Please click here for further reading about electric heater safety.
The next photo, the green-arrow is a close-up of the condenser where the Norcold fan switch is located. Please note the red-arrow in this photo, the customer said he smelled something getting hot when his fridge ran, it was the wood ceiling above the flue tube turning to carbon which is a fire danger. We put aluminum duct tape over it for a temporary repair.
Finally, the drawing to the left identifies the typical wiring connections for a 1200 series Norcold fridge. As one can see, the factory fan control power originates at the control board, the fan also grounds here. We recommend leaving the Norcold fan control in place and using the Fridge Defend + Fan Control as a second fan controller that runs additional fans that pull air in, and suck air out the top of the cooling unit compartment.
Please visit the following link for more information about the Norcold Recall: