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It is well documented on the Internet in many places about the pending class action lawsuit against Norcold. There is a design defect in these gas aborption refrigerators making them a high risk for fire hazard. The RV world has plenty of articles out there on this topic like this one on RV Daily Report. And all the RV forums have plenty of postings on the topic. A summary of the fire hazard issues can be found on our website here
Many new RV's are being built with residential style all electric refrigerators because of these concerns, but if you have a coach with a Norcold installed... like the Norcold 1210 in our 2008 Country Coach... it is a very expensive proposition to replace it and depending on the age and condition it may not be necessary anytime soon. But forewarned is forearmed and since the potential for fire exists and the damage it can do is enormous, it pays to familiarize yourself with the potential issues, and keep a watchful eye on the situation. Fortunately there are some precautions you can take.
I examined the cooling unit on our Norcold 1210 accessible from the outside door behind the refrigerator. This contains the absorber vessel, the coils, the boiler, and the electrical components. I have learned a lot from fellow Country Coach owner Scott B. of Muniac.com . His site contains a lot of detailed info and photos, and documents his upgrade on his Allure 400 to a new GACU or cooling unit from JC Refrigeration. Eventually we may all have to make a similar upgrade or switch to an all electric unit, but I was gratified to discover that my 2 year old coach's unit is still in pristine condition. Below is a photo of my cooling unit compartment.
As you can also see in the photo above the unit has had the Norcold recall sensor installed indicated by the yellow arrow at the top, and the sticker applied to the absorber vessel is indicated with the second yellow arrow and reads "Equipped with thermal sensor #P-010". This can be helpful but is certainly not failsafe.
I am taking an additional precaution of installling a SS-30 Halon Extinguisher with the 90 Degree Auto Deploy from RV Cooling. David Force over there is a great source of info and advice, and installing this high tech extinguisher in the compartment will provide a lot of peace of mind against the possibility of potential fires. Because this extinguisher is designed to deploy automatically when a fire is sensed, you do not have to be present to deal with it. I will install it right where you see the silver flashlight in the photo above (I'll update this photo after it has been installed).
I already had installed two additional circulation fans along with a thermostat to control them, shown as the beige control box at the top of the photo below with the dial. this will go a long way to keep the operation cool moving more air across the condenser to make the unit operate more efficiently and generate less heat.
Another area of concern is the boiler which is located in the foil insulated column at the right of the compartment. Scott B. has documented the leaking and corrosion that can occur in this area. The images below are borrowed from his complete online documentation and show the corrosion from leaks on the cartridge heater tubes. Sodium chromate is leaking down the boiler into the burner box. Not a good sign. If your Norcold looks like this it is definitely time to replace the GACU.
I removed the cover on the burner box at the bottom of the boiler unit to look for any signs of corrosion as shown above. Fortunately my unit looks to be in excellent shape at this time.
Another worthwhile upgrade is the replacement of the foil insulation around the boiler and cartridge heater tubes with some galvanized stove pipe. This will greatly reduce the likelihood of any leaks spraying on to the hot boiler tube and causing a fire. The unit from JC Refrigeration comes with this feature as shown in Scott's photo below. I may look into performing this upgrade at some future date and would make it so the lower portion could be slid up to expose the cartridge heater tubes near the bottom for any signs of corrosion or leakage.
In summary, I feel pretty confident to continue using my Norcold 1210 but armed with all the information about what to watch for, I am pretty sure I will be able to spot signs of trouble before it becomes a real hazard. And with the peace of mind offerred by the SS-30 Halon Auto Deploy Extinguisher I think we have a reasonable measure of safety to continue our travels and enjoy living in our Country Coach.
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