RV, not marine or Norcold, fridges use ammonia (they can't stand the tilting marine units have to live with).
My 2 cents free opinion... the prognosis is poor for a poor-cooling (as opposed to no power, loose wire) issue in a 10 year old marine fridge. Or a home fridge,for that matter. It had a one year warranty for a reason. Loss of refrigerant is an expensive repair (no valves for replacement on these
units) as is bad Danfoss compressor or controller board. My Nova-Kool had poor cooling due to inadequate ventilation until I cut a hole for a 12v muffin fan, then it worked well until Jun when it wouldn't cool below 50-55 degrees. Running the troubleshooting checklist showed a bad compressor on impedance check. Don't even consider a marine fridge which doesn't advertise as being 'self' or 'front' ventilating or you'll need to cut 2 more 5x5 inch holes for that. Nova-Kool troubleshooting version:
http://www.novakool.com/support/documen ... 007PDF.pdf
Pull it out (it's only 4 screws and 110/12v connectors will have long leads) for your testing. But, repairing a 10 year old unit (the mfg date will be on the back somewhere) is probably not cost effective compared to replacing it. Something else will go wrong, plus the technology/refrigerant/Danfoss
reliability has gotten better in new units. After extensive research and
co-ordination with my Beautiful Assistant, we chose this Norcold stainless steel door unit, which is 3.0 cubic foot instead of 2.3 (mainly deeper but plenty of room left under the seat) , cools to 0/32 degrees in ambient 90 degree heat using the exact same Danfoss compressor with free shipping from Westmarine.com ($19 expedited shipping). The black door version is only $749.99 but doesn't match the cushions, which is terribly important to my L.A. My idea to spray paint the cushions black to match was also a No-Go with her. The cutout was not quite large enough, which required a full afternoon and 4 jigsaw blades, eye and ear protection, a N-95 mask, and 3 beers. Maybe a half hours work for someone competent who isn't drinking beer while operating power tools, which I do not recommend. The cutout dimensions given are actually a bit larger than needed. If you go for flush mounting, no additional kit needed. Don't buy the cord, use your old one or a printer cord. The old fridge is trash. (The one bad review on westmarine was that the 110v cord was not included). If you install one yourself, and pro-rate the cost over a 10 year marine life expectancy, 7.5 Boat Units is pretty reasonable. (Some sites had $125 flat rate shipping). Pics are in the album. Defender.com is more likely to have sales, but after shipping costs equals or exceeds Westmarine with free shipping plus West has bonus points rebate coupons and much better return options. If you're going to live aboard, the extra space is really impressive compared to a 2.3 cubic foot model... the freezer is way over twice as big as my old 2.3 cf model yet has a lower amp draw on 12v power. If you too have a L.A., he or she will really like the 3.0 cf size if you have the depth. Defender.com gives required cutout sizes, Westmarine.com may not. If you stick with Norcold, it may fit as is, since they are obviously trying to get a larger fridge into the same cutout.
http://www.westmarine.com/buy/norcold-- ... --14000848
In any event, happy hunting/troubleshooting and good luck!
Cheers!
John and L.A. Eileen
