Our RV refrigerator failed, then the manufacturer failed harder

Our first two months camphosting in Utah had one significant headache: our Norcold RV refrigerator failed soon after we arrived. Then, to make matters worse, Norcold’s customer service failed us numerous times.

Our RV is a 2022 30-foot Airstream Flying Cloud Office model. It took several months to fix all of this. And I believe the only reason we resolved the refrigerator issue was because Airstream stepped in to help.

Let’s start with lessons learned

• If an appliance doesn’t seem to be working right, it’s not. Don’t assume it’s “just an anomaly.”
• Do not take no for an answer from an appliance manufacturer. Let them tell you no a couple of times, and document each step along the way.
• When in doubt, shout about it on social media and be sure to tag the company involved, and the company that owns them.
• If you have an appliance issue, don’t let an RV manufacturer brush you off. They chose to use that appliance in their rigs, so they need to stand by that decision.
• When you find a customer service agent willing to help, hold back your anger and frustration. We got a lot further with folks because we knew none of this was their fault personally and they were trying to help.
• If things aren’t right after the first fix is complete, stay in touch with customer service until you’re satisfied.

The problems begin with our RV refrigerator

As with nearly all RV manufacturers, Airstream uses appliances from other companies. In this case, our trailer has a 10-cubic foot DC-only fridge from Norcold. (By the way, the DC-only RV refrigerator does fine when boondocking. We have 380 watts of solar and two AGM batteries. So don’t listen to people who say you can never go off-grid with these. You just need to have the right equipment combo, just as you do with anything else while RVing.)

Our trouble with the refrigerator started in April when we were en route from Florida to Utah. We noticed a few times that the interior temperature had risen. We chalked it up to crazy travel roads, elevation changes, a lot of different heat and humidity combinations, etc. So, we bumped up the cooling setting to help the refrigerator keep up with the fluctuations.

We knew, however, that when we had the refrigerator and freezer pegged at max and it still wasn’t keeping up, something was amiss. We contacted our RV warranty company and they offered to send out a mobile technician to check things over. The tech arrived the next day. After looking things over, he determined the unit had probably frozen up due to us having the settings at maximum. Apparently, it’s a common problem and people should never set their RV refrigerator to max cooling. He suggested shutting it all down for a few hours to let it thaw and then let it run.

We thought our RV refrigerator problem was solved

This appeared to be the solution. After we turned it off for a few hours, the refrigerator started and cooled down as quickly as usual. (Side note: the new compressor fridges are ready for food within a few hours. Our old absorption RV refrigerator had to run overnight before it was ready.)

Unfortunately, we only got a few days down the road when the interior temps shot up again. This time, I turned the unit off overnight to ensure a completed thaw. Voila! The next morning, everything seemed to be working just fine.

Luckily, we had our Dometic powered cooler with us. So we were able to put most of our refrigerated items in that. The frozen items were staying frozen with us not opening the freezer door during these down times. (Alas, we did lose some Klondike bars, which was devastating to Jessi. For me, it was eye opening to see how much oil comes out of those things when they melt. Bleh.)

By the time we arrived in Utah, the refrigerator was operating on a hit or miss basis. Thankfully, in addition to our Dometic taking all of our frozen food, we had access to a refrigerator at the campground for our fresh food.

Our march through Norcold’s customer service gauntlet

And so began our long march through customer service hell offered by Norcold. The RV warranty company found us another mobile tech — not easy where we were in Utah. (We weren’t in the middle of nowhere, but we could see it from where we were parked. LOL)

That tech ran all the tests he could and found nothing coming up as not working correctly. I got ahold of Norcold and was told to take the unit to a certified Norcold dealer. Nope, that was not going to happen based on where we were living at the time.

Our mobile RV tech made a heroic effort to help. He contacted Norcold through every front door and back door number he had for them. But they were unresponsive. I reached out to Norcold via phone, email, website forms and more. After numerous attempts, I was finally talking to a person. Unfortunately, they said “take it to a dealer.” They also refused to give me any additional contact number for our RV tech to try.

Social media to the rescue, unfortunately

I’ve always said I never wanted to be “that guy” who complains on social media to get attention from a company. But, alas, I was at my wit’s end! So I jumped on social media and complained on Facebook and Twitter (now X), tagging Norcold. The next day, someone at Thetford contacted me via Facebook. It turns out, Thetford owns Norcold. And they have someone in Marketing who knows when to nip a public complaint in the bud.

Because of Thetford’s involvement, we managed to get additional information for our technician. That meant waiting for him to be available again. He covers a service area that has him traveling many hours between service calls. But he got to as soon as he could. He ran the additional tests and discovered nothing was showing up as malfunctioning. Except, by now, the refrigerator was basically dead. It turned on and cooled everything down. But then, with no error codes showing on the control board, it would send the interior temps up into the 60s and eventually run again to cool down.

Calling upon Airstream

It was time to make a call to a higher power: Airstream. I reached out to Airstream’s customer service. Given the high price of their units, it was time for them to show me some of that stellar reputation they have for service. I wanted them to do something on our behalf about this dead refrigerator. While working through the process, which included suggesting we contact Norcold first (!), Thetford reached out again. This time, the story was that it’s possible our refrigerator failed because Airstream installed it incorrectly with inadequate wiring.

Back to Airstream! They, of course, said that’s not right. They noted our unit had the refrigerator installed the way Norcold told them to do it.

I told Airstream I didn’t care who was at fault, I just wanted a refrigerator that worked! I explained all we had been through with adjusting, testing, and retesting our now-useless unit.

To their credit, Airstream stepped up and told Norcold to send us a new refrigerator. The customer service manager at Airstream had the new one drop-shipped to our RV tech’s address in Utah. They also approved covering the cost of him delivering and installing the new refrigerator.

A new refrigerator that still wasn’t right

In a testament to Norcold’s quality control matching its poor customer service, the new unit arrived with a scratched and dented front door. The packaging showed no signs of damage, so we assumed the refrigerator had been shipped without being properly checked. Also, the travel latch on the freezer door was broken. The RV tech swapped the old refrigerator door onto the new unit and changed out the freezer latch. Then away he went, hopefully for good. (I’m sure he was hoping that just as much as we were.)

The newly installed unit works well. I think it cools better and more consistently than the old unit ever did.

But now, as Paul Harvey used to say, here’s the rest of the story.

Upon getting ready to depart Utah a few months later, we realized the refrigerator door travel latch would not engage. The door was dropping, making the latch misaligned. I rigged up a way to prop up the door with a shim and got the latch to lock for travel days. But that was in no way a permanent solution.

Problem solved, we hope

Upon arriving back in Michigan, I knew I would be taking the Airstream to a dealer in Grand Rapids. We already needed a few items addressed. Plus, I wanted our first seasonal inspection since we had 10,000 miles on the rig.

So I reached out to Airstream. I told them what was happening with the refrigerator, and appealed to them to take care of any refrigerator repairs under warranty. That same customer service manager came through again. She had the dealership put her name on the work order and Airstream covered the fix.

The dealership installed new bushings to ensure the refrigerator door stays up where it’s supposed to. The travel lock engages nicely.

As we prepare to hit the road again at the end of this year, we’re counting on our refrigerator chronicles to end. We’ll keep you posted…along with our new customer service contact at Airstream!