How cold is your fridge?

I don't remember my previous fridge never getting cold, even if I turn on the gas some 24 hrs before using the fridge never cools down to an acceptable temperature, I am using the fridge as a coolbox and putting icepacks in it. Does anyone else have this problem? I am told by my local caravan people a new fridge would cost at least £700 to buy and fit.

Hi India Hannaford,

If you put “Fridge” in the search panel (top right) I’m sure you will find an answer, as there are a few possibilities

Hope this helps

Regards,

Brian

Hi,
The fridge in our Symphony works all too well, on either of the three power sources. We've managed to freeze cucumbers and ruin all manner of soft fruit with alarming ease! It does however seem quite tilt sensitive, and refuses to work at all beyond a quite shallow angle.
Hope this helps.

regards

Jeff and Di

Hi there,

Three reasons for lack of cooling:

1. Not on level ground and system therefore not working properly.

2. No heat source. i.e. fuse blown, no gas etc.

3. Leak in the system and refrigerants have escaped.

Check system on dead level ground and wait 24 hours before testing.

If still no chilling in cold box then "decision time" of repair (if possible), replace or use as coolbox. (There are portable coolboxes available at less price than a new fridge if you have the room.)

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Thank you - I am most impressed at how helpful everyone is! My drive is level so it should have worked, I think it will have to be a cool box for now.

Hi there again,

Don't be too hasty!

Definitely check that there is a heat source before deciding!

Next to being on a slope, it is the main cause of a fridge not cooling down and without the heat source it just will not work!

He easiest thing to check is that there is a flame, so try it on gas.

Best regards,

I have had the Trident for a year now - I have tried every heat source and it definitely lights, the DIY methods that have been suggested are far beyond my capabilities for carrying out (and my husband's) might try my sons' DIY skills as they are both so good with their computers perhaps they can install a fan.

Our fridge kept burgers frozen at the weekend on all cooling sources in a T4 Topaz

Could be any one (or more!) of a number of things. As well as the above suggestions, blocked gas jets or faulty thermostat perhaps? Certainly worth getting a gas-trained engineer to look at it before giving up on it if you don't feel confident poking around yourself. The point is that it may be a relatively cheap repair job rather than hundreds for a new fridge.

My 3-way fridge gave up the ghost on gas (fine on 240V and, I think, on 12V). As I have only had the Clubman a month or two the dealer is sorting it out this week. Although I do have a flame visible through the spy-hole, it is very small and I suspect just a pilot light as I am certain it was much larger/brighter when it worked previously.

Good luck!

Thank you everyone - I will book it into the local caravan service place in Newmarket and ask them to have a thorough look at everything that has been suggested. I am very impressed how helpful everyone has been

Hi Again India Hannaford,

As you seem to be having trouble with all three types of supply …. It might be a case of removing the fridge and leaving it upside-down, over-night …… then leaving it the right way up all day, before trying it again ….. (on Mains)

This method has saved a few People buying a new fridge ….. And what have you got to lose ??

Good luck,

Brian

deckie wrote:
Hi Again India Hannaford,

As you seem to be having trouble with all three types of supply …. It might be a case of removing the fridge and leaving it upside-down, over-night …… then leaving it the right way up all day, before trying it again ….. (on Mains)

This method has saved a few People buying a new fridge ….. And what have you got to loose ??

Good luck,

Brian

Deckie is quite correct, this was the standard, "repair" carried out by many gas and domestic appliance companies -And I can vouch for the fact that in 90% of cases it works! (Provided you have not lost the refrigerant charge)

(NB The base refrigerant is ammonia.)

Mike D

Agree!

Here is a simple (honest!) diagram of the tiny refinery you have stuck in the corner of your caravan!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Best regards,

does the fridge really use Amonia and Hydrogen? Or there equivilents in the modern compressor fridge?

Just a quick update on mine - it was a corroded and blocked gas jet which was an £8 replacement part (plus labour) but all covered by my dealer's warranty. Even with all costs it's a lot cheaper than changing the whole thing of course.

Steve

RoadRunner wrote:does the fridge really use Amonia and Hydrogen? Or there equivilents in the modern compressor fridge?

Hi there,

The Absorption Refrigeration system still uses water, ammonia and hydrogen.

Ammonia was a popular refrigerant even in compression systems back in the early 20th century, despite being a "toxic, corrosive and choking" gas if it escaped in any quantity.

However, with the discovery of "chlorofluorocarbons" (CFC's) in the 1980's both industrial and domestic refrigerators started to use CFC's (particularly Freon 22 invented by DuPont) right up until it was discovered that escaped CFC's were destroying the ozone layer and they were banned by the late 90's.

In industry propane has always been a popular refrigerant but due to its flammable properties never really found favour in the domestic market.

As a result of the CFC ban it has been replaced in the domestic market by a variety of, mainly hydrocarbon based, "blends" that perform similarly to CFC's and propane but without the ozone depleting problem and with a higher ignition temperature than propane.

The truth is that they are not quite as "good" as either propane or the CFC's, but they are not destroying the ozone layer!

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Hi all,

Interesting info Dutto, you are touching on my niche there.

For 'freon' (CFC) look up Thomas Midgley on Wikipedia, the man who also developed the idea of putting lead in petrol.

Two unfortunate 'developments' as far as the atmosphere is concerned.

BTW, the current trend in refridgeration is to use CO2, -in other words a regression back to the 1800s

History lesson over!

Mike D

Mike,

Prior to offloading and using the lead for gasoline blending, back in 1969, a man from Octel on Merseyside turned up at the Humber Oil Refinery to give us all a lecture on the properties of tetraethyl lead (TEL) and tetramethyl lead (TML).

During the course of the lecture he pointed out "If you get poisoned by TEL or TML the symptoms are that you have bad dreams, go mad and die!"

Being an inquisitive soul I asked "What's the cure then?" to which he replied "You obviously weren't listening lad. I've told you. If you get poisoned by TEL or TML you have bad dreams, go mad and die!"; and thereafter he definitely had our full and undivided attention for the rest of the course!!

Best regards,

Hi Ian,

Yes its amazing some of the things we have been in contact with in the past -and survived!

Two notable 'nasties' refrigerant wise, in my early days, Methyl Chloride and Methylene Bromide, both not advised to 'sniff', but both worked with, and no sign of Health and Safety in those days!

Mike D (Less a few brain cells.)

Use to wash our hands in ‘Carbon tetrachloride’ (in my Stainless-steel days) ….

Rolled ‘Mercury’ (quicksilver) in the palms of our hands as Kids …….

As you know from my posts …. Hasn’t affected me at all

“Chris, which pills do I take first ??”

Brian

deckie wrote:
Use to wash our hands in ‘Carbon tetrachloride’ (in my Stainless-steel days) ….

Rolled ‘Mercury’ (quicksilver) in the palms of our hands as Kids …….

As you know from my posts …. Hasn’t affected me at all

“Chris, which pills do I take first ??”

Brian

Yes Brian,

(In my stainless steel days?)

We used to use Freon 11, a liquid refrigerant, similar to CTC, as an effective hand degreasant, (you could get 'high' on it too). How the did we survive?

Time for my pills now.

Mike D

Not to mention the great properties of benzene as a dry-cleaning agent!

Rinse your overalls out in a bucket of benzene, wring them out (by hand obviously), hang them over a rail for sixteen hours and "Bingo!" ready to wear and clean as the day they came from the shop!!

Just like the cane at school - it never did me any harm but the jury is still out on whether it did me any good either!

When I cleared out my Mum's house a couple of years ago I discovered half a pint of mercury that my brother had been "saving" so that his nieces and nephews could play with it!

Not having any use for it, I took it to the local reclamation yard where they treated it like a stick of dynamite; and where I had to sign a register before they would accept it!

Changing times eh?

Best regards,

Hi Ian,

I'm surprised you could carry half a pint if mercury, must have weighed a ton!

I,ve got 8 litres of Perchlorethylene (Dry cleaning fluid for the un-informed) in my shed. Very useful, but I wonder how my local recycling centre would react if I turned up to dispose of that!

The word 'PANIC' springs to mind!

Regards, Mike D

Hi there,

More amazing than the weight was the origin!

It was the product of EVERY broken mercury thermometer, temperature switch, tilt-switch etc that our Joe came across in over 30 years as a Buildings Maintenance Foreman!

Another favourite memory of him (he died just over a year ago) was that he was impervious to glass-fibre insulation! Insulating the loft in the family home saw me itching like mad after moving the polythene wrapped bales from the car to the house and Joe asking me what was my problem as, dressed in shorts and vest, he ripped it into suitable lengths up in the loft.

Best regards,

In the 70s I and a gang of 6 pulled apart with our bare hands about 100ft of 12" dia steam pipe lagging, yep good 'ol asbestos, bloody 'uggins'

of the stuff, THEN, after the pipes were repaired, we re-lagged it with the same, didn't affect (cough-cough) me one bit!!

I washed down the inside of airtight metal shed-sized cabins prior to painting with an open 5 gall can of carbon tetrochroide, washed my hands with

celulose-thinners , & to cap it all, stuck my hands into a vat of caustic-soda, whilst degreasing alloy spinnings, wondered why my fingerprints

disappeared & the skin went kinda soft like