Thetford fridge question! (1 Viewer)

[MHVirgins]

Not sure if this is "Autotrail related" or not, but we are currently away in the van for the weekend and have a query relating to the fridge. We can operate on all three settings (gas, mains, vehicle battery) when at home, however, since arriving at this CL near Glasgow, we cannot get the fridge to work off EHU.
We have it on "gas" at the moment, have tried switching the fridge on and off to see if that might sort it, but without any success.
Can anyone suggest what might be wrong or have experienced the same when away on EHU. This is the first time we've had this problem.
Thanks in advance for any advice
Bill

 

[TheBig1]

initially check the RCD trip for the fridge circuit hasnt dropped. switch off the back on. i presume that 240v sockets are working?

 

[icantremember]

Are you getting any fault codes showing in the display when trying to run on mains electric?

If you get fault code #1 then most likely the 240v element has failed and has to be replaced. (ours went a few months ago)

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[lindylou]

We are at Sitges and ours keeps switching itself between gas and electricity. It's just random. Can't understand why.

Lin

 

[icantremember]

We are at Sitges and ours keeps switching itself between gas and electricity. It's just random. Can't understand why.

Lin

Ours was doing the same on a French site before the 240v element failed. I put my meter on the supply and found we were only getting around 160v.

 

[WillH]

When we had that it was the 240v element that had failed. Got a spare off Ebay but a fiddly job to fit it.

BTW passed your house on Tuesday!

Rgds
Bill

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[MHVirgins]

Thanks for all replies, on a dodgy connection, just lost previous message. But thanks for all the info, we now have no water coming through........it's gone from bad to worse
Will update later, someone nicked our booked pitch, left without paying the owner when they left before 7 am:Angry:
Regards, Bill and Margaret

 

[Theonlysue]

thetford

Ours was doing the same on a French site before the 240v element failed. I put my meter on the supply and found we were only getting around 160v.

Hi,
I experienced this in Morocco!
the elec kept on stopping on the fridge, so I read the manual.

The fridge needs a certain voltage to work, and if not enough power it stops, but starts again when the voltage is good again!

9 Control panel Diagnostics​

Refrigerators with a LCD control panel have a special diagnostics area which
displays an error code if there is a fault.
• Fault 1: AC heater current is measured to be 75% below nominal current.
Action: Contact your dealer or a Thetford Service Centre.
• Fault 2: DC heater current is measured to be 75% below nominal current.
Action: Contact your dealer or a Thetford Service Centre.
• Fault 3: AC heater is ON when it should be OFF.
Action: Contact your dealer or a Thetford Service Centre.
• Fault 4: DC heater is ON when it should be OFF.
Action: Contact your dealer or a Thetford Service Centre.
• Fault 5: Senses flame when gas should be OFF.
Action: Contact your dealer or a Thetford Service Centre.
• Fault 6: Senses gas output terminal ON when should be OFF.
Action: Contact your dealer or a Thetford Service Centre.
• Fault 7: Senses gas output terminal OFF when should be ON.
Action: Contact your dealer or a Thetford Service Centre.
• Fault 8: AC mains supply is 20% below nominal.
Action: Your controls are in manual AC mode, but there is no power available.
Check if you plugged in the 230V connection, if so the voltage
supply on the 230V connection is to low, contact the power supplier.
• Fault 9: Gas lockout because flame fails to ignite after 30 seconds.
Action: Your controls are in manual gas mode, but the flame fails to ignite.
Check if your gas cylinder is empty or if one of the shut-off valves is
closed. Select another energy source. Reset the fridge 3 or 4 times
in gas-mode until flame ignites. Contact your dealer or a Thetford
Service Centre if problem isn’t resolved.
• Fault 10: No “engine running” signal is present and control is in Manual DC mode.
Action: Your controls are in manual DC mode and the engine of your vehicle
is not running. The refrigerator can only cool on 12V when the
engine of your vehicle is running. Start the engine or select a
different energy mode.
• Fault 11: No energy source is available and control is in AUTO mode.
Action: Your controls are in AUTO mode, but no energy source is available.
Start the engine, connect the 230V supply or open the gas supply
and reset the refrigerator by turning it of and on again.
• Fault 12: Contact your dealer or a Thetford Service Centre.
• Fault 13: Thermistor fails; control automatically switches to Backup mode (BOS).
Action: Check if the connector above the fin on the inside of the cabinet is
correctly plugged in. If so contact your dealer or a Thetford Service
Centre.
• Fault 14: Display Board and Power board lost communication with each other.
Action: Contact your dealer or a Thetford Service Centre.
• Fault 18: No fault, only lighting all LCD segments on start-up.​

Action: Wait a few seconds for the fridge to start up normally.

 

[WillH]

If you have no water it's probably frozen somewhere after the frost last night!

Bill

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[MHVirgins]

Thanks to everyone who replied, we now think we've got to the bottom of the problem (s)! Firstly, the fridge rectified itself after we moved to another pitch this morning.........strange thing. The water also came back through as soon as we moved pitch.
We had originally booked a pitched at this CL, however, someone had taken the pitch by the time we arrived last night. So we hooked to a spare EHU and had problems from here on it. The caravan that nicked our pitch last night, left before 7am this morning without paying the farmer:Angry: so we moved into this pitch that we should've got last night and have had no problems since.
Nothing was frozen as we have heating probes in the tank, the farmer did say that the EHU that we used before moving pitch was a lower ampage and was probably giving variable output. Touch wood, everything is working fine at the moment:thumb:
Bill

 

[MHVirgins]

When we had that it was the 240v element that had failed. Got a spare off Ebay but a fiddly job to fit it.

BTW passed your house on Tuesday!

Rgds
Bill

Bill, next time you're coming down our way let us know, pop in and have a coffee:thumb:

Margaret & Bill

 

[Mousy]

Were you level on your first pitch? Don't the fridges play up if they are not level?
As to your water, your tanks may have elements but what about your pipes? If there is water in a bend it will freeze.

Glad it's all sorted, this time next year you'll be pros and laughing, good luck:thumb:

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[MHVirgins]

Were you level on your first pitch? Don't the fridges play up if they are not level?
As to your water, your tanks may have elements but what about your pipes? If there is water in a bend it will freeze.

Glad it's all sorted, this time next year you'll be pros and laughing, good luck:thumb:

Thanks for your reply Mousy, we were level and when we keep the van in our garden which has a slight slope it's always been ok. We got talking to another motorhomer on the site and he says that this particular CL is bad for lower ampage. We were getting the "mains power off" message on the display panel, but we reckon this was down the variable power supply. It usually happened between 5 and 10 pm because more demand on the power supply. He suggested that we put the fridge on gas instead after this initial problem and we had no further fridge or lack of water after this despite further low temperatures.
Back home now and back on to the EHU in the garden:thumb:
Margaret & Bill