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Review on 🥶 Thermocouple for Norcold Inc. Refrigerators - Model 619154 by Brent Peterson

Revainrating 5 out of 5

worked well on units

On the Norcold model N300 refrigerator, the thermocouple did not support pilot ignition. The first suspect, as always, was a thermocouple. I looked through the back of the unit at the thermocouple and found that it was not properly screwed into the breaker. The threaded inlet of the breaker was not deep enough to fully engage the threads of the thermocouple terminal. I bought a new thermocouple and tried to install it, but encountered the same problem - the fitting would not screw properly into the breaker. I barely had time to connect the first thread of the thermocouple fitting to the threads in the breaker. The fitting was fully inserted into the breaker inlet. I plugged it in as best I could, but a day later the fridge failed again. Of course, the new thermocouple does not solve the problem. Began to suspect someone had used the wrong breaker on installation or on a previous repair (I bought a used trailer). OK. More research. uhh. Apparently there were some Norcold fridges with wire connectors on the selector wires made of material with too high a resistance factor to effectively conduct the few milliamps produced by a thermocouple through the valve control. To fix this, Norcold called back and made a new wiring harness with just two wires (red and blue) and their connectors. Let's assume they're made of the right materials this time. See Norcold Service Bulletin N300, LP Mode Troubleshooting TNCSTP 081804 for details. Here: http://comet.ak.planet.gen.nz/matelec/PDF/n300_lp_bulletin_081804.pdf. , Refrigerators 628119 Switch Wire Installation Kit) with their connectors along with a new circuit breaker (Norcold Inc. Refrigerators 621737 Thermocouple Circuit Breaker) and the whole thing is easy to install, the previously purchased thermocouple screws right into the new circuit breaker and now the fridge works fine. Incidentally, depending on your specific circumstances, you may not need to remove the entire refrigerator from the cabinet as detailed in the troubleshooting PDF to swap out the wires. I was able to reach through the cooling fins on the back and work with the outside access to the trailer. Wearing long-sleeved clothing has helped when I have my arms up and over the cooling fins - the corners are prickly. Also, when replacing the breaker, be careful when using the pliers to disconnect the connector that goes to the flame gauge. This wire is tiny and you don't want to pull too hard on the connector and end up pulling the wire out of the meter when it eventually detaches. I think I was close to mine. In the end, I can't know if it was the thermocouple, the breaker, or the wires and connectors, but replacing all three components has solved the problem so far. We took it for a 3 day walk with it right after installation and it worked fine the whole time.

Pros
  • interior
Cons
  • old