3 Way Fridges

VK3FEMT · Senior Member

3 Way Fridges

Wombat 280 · Guru

Stupid as it may seem but you have selected the right power source . With mine you have to select the source manually as it doesn't change because you plug it in to the battery or mains supply .

Just a thought not meaning to question your abilities

VK3FEMT · Senior Member

Wombat 280 wrote:
Stupid as it may seem but you have selected the right power source.

No offence taken...
Yep, changed the 'fuel' selector to both 12 and 240 and made no difference, at first I thought the 240 wasnt working in the van, but the flouros and the rangehood are working just fine.

I can only guess at this stage, knowing absolutely nothing about these things, that it simply isn't wired into 12/240 as it does fire up on gas, so working on logic I would think if all is well with the fridge, and it was wired to work on all then it should work.

I really don't want to shell out for a portable freezer just yet, as I have other things that are higher on the list of priorities. So I am hoping I can find someone who knows a bit more about these things then me.

drongo & wendy · Senior Member

G,DAY STEWART
My 3 way wouldnt cool to well even on gas, but after a trip over a few bumps all systems worked
I talked to a fridge bloke and that was his advive before taking to get maybe unneeded repairs. Worth a try ay

Basil Faulty · Guru

Not working on electric? have you checked the fuses? haver you opened the rear bottom vent on the outside and checked to see that 240 & 12 V wiring is attached? Otherwise the heating elements may be blown.

dave06 · Guru

now without looking at the fridge and assuming it is running alright on gas the next thing that will stop your unit running on 12/240v is the heating element, if you havent got a manual and/or you havent tried to run it properly on gas

(1) select gas give it a good test on gas for at least a full day (24 hours)

(2) select 240 hook it up to 240 and walk away for a day or two, this is an absorption fridge and as such will not make any noise

(3) select 12v, hook it up to a constant 12v power source and walk away for a at least a day

if step one works but not step 2 or 3 then it is a heating element problem, pull the fridge out, spin it around and have a look for some numbers and take a good look at all the workings, draw diagrams if necesary, or chuck it in the boot and take it to a caravan parts sales place and ask for another heating element for your model and advice on how to replace it,

most are simple but I will not go into great detail to tell you how to do it only to find out that it is a different model, suffice to say it is a simple thing to do!!!

mike and Judy · Guru

sometimes the gas supply is so low (leaking) that you need to turn it upside down to allow the gas to flow,
suggest you remove it from van first

Basil Faulty · Guru

mike and Judy wrote:

sometimes the gas supply is so low (leaking) that you need to turn it upside down to allow the gas to flow,
suggest you remove it from van first

Not sure if this will help, used to work with the old Kero fridges because they used to rust internally and block the valve and turning them upside down caused the ammonia inside to run to the top then run down again....

Basil Faulty · Guru

Heres an article that explains how these fridges work, if it works on gas but not electricty then it's the electrics at fault somewhere.....

http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/tech/servel.htm

VK3FEMT · Senior Member

drongo & wendy wrote:
My 3 way wouldnt cool to well even on gas, but after a trip over a few bumps all systems worked
I talked to a fridge bloke and that was his advive before taking to get maybe unneeded repairs. Worth a try ay

Plenty of rough as guts tracks around here!
Gonna go fishing tonight, so maybe that will loosen some rust and make the fridge work again.

And thanks Bazza, Dave and Mike for your comments. I think I will take off the vent looking thing on the outside of the bus (if I can), that would line up with the bottom of fridge and see what connections are there, maybe low-n-behold there may be a fuse there for it. All fuses in the fuse box appeared to be ok when I took a look the other day, although I will breakout the multimeter today when it cools down a bit.

I will give it a good run on gas later today as well, although when my dad was giving me the rundown on how it worked, he had it running on gas and it was only a few minutes, but you could feel it cooling even then. So it definately (appears) to be cooling without drama on gas.

Basil Faulty · Guru

bamphoto wrote:

drongo & wendy wrote:
My 3 way wouldnt cool to well even on gas, but after a trip over a few bumps all systems worked
I talked to a fridge bloke and that was his advive before taking to get maybe unneeded repairs. Worth a try ay
Plenty of rough as guts tracks around here!
Gonna go fishing tonight, so maybe that will loosen some rust and make the fridge work again.

And thanks Bazza, Dave and Mike for your comments. I think I will take off the vent looking thing on the outside of the bus (if I can), that would line up with the bottom of fridge and see what connections are there, maybe low-n-behold there may be a fuse there for it. All fuses in the fuse box appeared to be ok when I took a look the other day, although I will breakout the multimeter today when it cools down a bit.

I will give it a good run on gas later today as well, although when my dad was giving me the rundown on how it worked, he had it running on gas and it was only a few minutes, but you could feel it cooling even then. So it definately (appears) to be cooling without drama on gas.

yeah, mine has an inline fuse which you have to grope around for hidden behind the rear of the fridge and when the Van was brand new I had the same problems as you exacary, complained and was told the check fuses....Of course when I did find it the 12 V fuse was in a little plastic bag and the 240 v fuse was taped to the outside of the fuse holder....

Wombat 280 · Guru

Basil Faulty wrote:

Heres an article that explains how these fridges work, if it works on gas but not electricty then it's the electrics at fault somewhere.....

http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/tech/servel.htm

Thanks for that Basil that link was well worth while see i have one of those units

dave06 · Guru

may just be a simple matter of the electrics not even hooked up!!! sounds stupid, but it wouldnt be the first one that I have seen running solely on gas!!!

Gary and Kerry · Guru

Decided to sleep in the van last night as the airconditioner in our bedroom isnt working.7.00pm and 43 degrees inside the van. Thought to myself this might be a good test of how the fridge will handle the heat so turned it on(240v), set the thermostat to high. Also turned the aircon on, pleasant 27 by 10.30 enabling a good nights sleep, 33.9 overnight low here.
Checked the fridge this morning, was a little cooler but not by much.

Is this an indication of the ineffiency of van fridges or just because it was extremely hot to start with and needed longer to to cool down?
Would gas operation be better for a quicker cool down?

Fridge is a Dometic 150L, the empty space above it has been packed with insulation batts leaving about 1 inch clear directly above top, as recommended by a fridge mechanic.

Van is parked under my carport, rear is fully exposed to the afternoon sun but fridge area is in shade all day.

Any advice welcome

dave06 · Guru

Gary unfortunately you have just exposed the heat absorption fridges biggest drawback, basically anything over 30 degrees and the fridge will not work efficiently, 35 and over forget it, 40 you may as well use a fan to cool your food

If you had a "t" for tropical model it would have maybe been better but I'm afraid you really should look at grabbing a compressor type if you venture into heat for any length of time, forget the absorption

it can be under a tree out of full sun but as the temperature rises your cooloing capacity drops, we have lost a lot of good meat through these things and that is why we carry the engel with us now, we've been in 50 degrees and still had a frozen steak and an ice cold beer, cant be beat

Gary and Kerry · Guru

Thanks Dave
Budget wont stretch for both, so next question, which is the better investment compressor type fridge or engel type fridge?
.

dave06 · Guru

well for my lifestyle it is the engel simply because we have rekindled our love of the camper trailer and are starting to leave little blue home at times, so portability is the go for us, I have even started looking at 4wd's of late toying with the idea of building another motorhome, based around a toyota 100 series traytop, god help me satan has taken hold!!!

however if I had a booze bus, sorry a van then I would look at a 3/4 size compressor fridge with accompanying solar and battery power setup

JRH · Guru

G'day,

It has been my experience that when the ambient temperature exceeds 30 degrees the higher one sets the thermostat on the absorbtion fridge the worst the performance, as a guide set the thermostat on 4 and leave it there, check the fridge with a fridge thermometer and keep everything crossed.

The Dometic Absorbtion fridges are really the pits, they are designed and built in Sweden where the temp would very rarely if ever get into the high 30's let alone the 40's.

Best Regards.

John

dave06 · Guru

with mine (an electrolux) the thermostat only works on 240 volt so messing with that is not going to solve anything, the absorption fridge is a very good peice of kit and MOST of the time does it's job efficiently and quietly asking very little in return for it's keep

most of us dont like the hot weather and tend to steer away from it but occasionally we get caught in some and we swelter and unfortunately so does the fridge, a fan at the rear (of the fridge not you) will help to disperse a lot of built up heat but they simply cant cope in temps above 30 degs and that is the only drawback with what is essentially a very good fridge,

in all the years that we have had our's, I have had to screw it back into place a few times after very rough roads tried to throw it on the floor and we have had a few times when the meat went off but it has not been serviced or repaired in any way, I just wish all things in life were as reliable

VK3FEMT · Senior Member

I lite the fridge up last night down at the lake on gas, took a fair while for it to start cooling, but 2 hours later it was pretty damn cold and the water bottle in the freezer compartment was starting to ice up!
Impressed? **** yeah...

I am still not sure about the 12v part, will road test that tommorrow when heading to Melb, leave it on 12v and see what happens, a mate says it would drain the battery pretty quick on 12v if the engine wasnt running.

For memory without running out now its an electrolux rm2310.

Re the 240v prob, well lownbehold today when I pulled out the drawers from under the sink to clean them, what should I find? A little ol power switch, funnily enough this said power switch had a plug in it!!! Said cord connected to said plug was running off in the direction of the fridge, and since theres nothing else down that neck of the woods running on 240 I am hanging my tent pegs on it being for the fridge.

So hopefully thats cured all my problems with the other power sources.

I am going to Melb for the weekend, and leaving sometime early Fri morning in the cover of darkness to beat the heat, so can test out the 12v side then, need to drive during cooler times as there is no aircon in the beast, looking at getting a portable unit (compressor job, not evaporative) if anyone has got something like that and happy with it let me know so I can take a look at them.

dave06 · Guru

sounds like you found the troubles with the fridge and lucky you for getting out of it so cheap.

compressor fridges well really only one on the market that I would look at and that is engel, but I havent tried the others in the kimberleys or up in the simpson

mike and Judy · Guru

When I have been in Cloncurry and later Mt isa, the frig was struggling in anything over 35 degrees,
My son fitted two small computor fans to the bottom vent blowing the heat upward, and lo and behold it works a treat in 35 plus degrees,
Drawback is it is wired to the 12 volt circuit, I wonder if you clamped a 12 volt charger to it throught the 12 wiring it might generate enought power to them, on 240v

Any absorbtion frig will run in high tempature if you can move the tempature of the coils
I E, the small fans
M&J

enjoy your sunrises

VK3FEMT · Senior Member

Mike;
I will check this out as have a few of these fans kicking around.
They draw buggerall power so having them run off the battery even 24/7 wouldnt be an issue, I reckon it would take a good month to drain the battery dead, probably even more.

Easy enough to whack a SPST switch inline anyways.

Its 10.30pm here in Hells Gap, and still hot as hell, no breeze, was thinking of going down to the lake to get the breeze :)

jimbo · Guru

Mike and Judy..That is the best idea I reckon It worked for me.

Jimbo

twobob · Guru

M&J

"I wonder if you clamped a 12 volt charger to it throught the 12 wiring it might generate enought power to them, on 240v"

I would consider adding a transformer to the fridge, as the fans are low wattage, and couple the output from it, with the 12v wires, via a diode. The diode will prevent the 12v circuit being active while 240v is available, but either (when available) will run the fans.

Little explaination maybe required - transformers put out approx 14.5vdc and battery is 12vdc, therefore the higher voltage will block the diodes. The reason for the diodes is to stop a charger or transformer "seeing" the battery and try to charge them as well, thus overloading

Hope that did not go over the top, simple really when seen, and you may already have the transformer in some broken equipment, diodes cost cents

-- Edited by twobob at 12:13, 2009-02-01