Motorhome Fridges, Are They All Crap? (1 Viewer)

GeebeeJaybee

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May 28, 2015
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We are now down in Fleurence and i am worrying about our fridge. Are they just crap or is it only ours?

It seems alright overnight on gas when its cooler but through the day when driving with it on cab battery it does nowt. Similarly if on gas if not the middle of the night. No hook up here but was ok on that in Uk but then again it wasnt 25 degrees plus!

So, are they just crap?

Jen
 

Techno

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No they should work but so many things go wrong.
Some fridges work better than others but its not confidence inspiring to know that some batches of Dometic left the factory with not enough chemicals in the cooler or non at all
 
May 29, 2013
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I put a datalogger in our fridge / freezer. In the UK early June with an ambient of about 17c, daytime, but cooler overnight we found that with almost empty fridge/freezer we got;
On hook-up, -3c in the fridge, -14c in the freezer. Similar results on gas. But when driving on battery after 4 hours, the fridge came up to +8c and the freezer up to 0c.

What we have found to do is put the fridge/freezer on hook up the night before we go away (assuming a long drive),and put freezer blocks in the freezer. Next morning put frozen stuff from home freezer into MH freezer and put ice blocks into the MH fridge, then fill fridge with stuff from home fridge. That would maintain the required coldness for a six hour drive. When we get to destination, put hook-up or gas on asap on full and it will take the coldness down again.

In South of France a couple of weeks ago we had 30c ambient and on hook-up the fridge performed great, we actually had to turn the setting down as it was freezing too much.
 
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Techno

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I did 280 miles yesterday and the fridge and freezer both stayed just as cold as when we set off.
It has taken 23 months to get mine working just before the warranty expires early August
 

mjltigger

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this is our 4th 3 way fridge and up to now all of them have been superb.. this one doesn't seem to cool very well on 12v but does stay cool once cold. The gas works great and I haven't tried it on hookup yet..

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Ethle the wondervan

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Our 13 year old Electrolux is consistently reliable if not a bit too cool at times. Touch wood. Good luck, hope yours is a simple fix.
 

magicsurfbus

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Ours has been hit and miss so I put an LCD thermometer on it just to keep tabs. I was told Dometics are most efficient with the thermostat on the midway setting, but ours rarely settles at the 5C that's considered about right for a home fridge - it's up and down like a yoyo. I wonder if half the problem is the ones fitted in UK-destined MHs are built for northern European ambient temperatures? Gas and Electricity cool it pretty quickly but 12v varies, and in fact I'm thinking our 12v element may have packed up recently. It doesn't help if they're stuffed full with recent supermarket purchases, as they take a while to cool down in hot weather. Best to keep freezer packs permanently in the freezer then transfer them to the main compartment whenever you stock the fridge up.

A fault that was pointed out to me last year was the flue pipe can corrode and bits of rust fall on top of the burner, making it less efficient. Our mobile engineer guy blew it out with a pressurised air can and it made a big difference.

It's ten years old now so I'm thinking maybe I get it properly looked at by a Dometic-registered engineer but there's not that many of them around.

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sdc77

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Make sure it's full and cold (hook up or gas) before you leave and it will be fine while you're driving. Or fridge is normally on as it's the house overflow (beer) fridge when we're at home
 

SMB

Apr 26, 2013
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My first Thetford fridge was crap and died after 18 months. The second works well apart from when its really hot, even with an external fan fitted inside the grill but I expected that. However the interior light doesn't work and I have emailed Thetford FIVE times asking about this and have yet to receive a reply other than 'we are experiencing problems with our email system'. I'm back in England tomorrow (hopefully as the French have decided to cause trouble again at Calais and the DFDS crossings are suspended, I'm leaving from Dunkirk ) so I will ring them then and see if one of their trained monkeys can help me with my problem. So, in reply to your question, yes they are all crap but not as bad as Thetfords customer services. Tossers :envy::envy::envy::swear2:

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etap

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Nov 19, 2014
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Yes our new Thetford ff works ok on gas but refused to work on elect. in Italy this June, but seems to work ok at home on elect.
I emailed Thetford twice to ask if something could be wrong ( maybe the elect. in Italy was not strong enough) but they have not answered so much for company relationships !!!
Etap
 
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GeebeeJaybee

GeebeeJaybee

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Make sure it's full and cold (hook up or gas) before you leave and it will be fine while you're driving. Or fridge is normally on as it's the house overflow (beer) fridge when we're at home
It was cold and full when we set off and friday. Were on hook up friday night and fine. We are now unable to hook up as on aires etc so gas it is.
It was serviced last month so maybe its just the 30 degrees temperature here.

Thanks everyone.
 

DanielFord

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Jun 1, 2013
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If you are running gas, you have got to get the van level. More import is the left to right angle, certainly in ours anyway. On hookup, the angle seems more generous, but after too much lean it will stop.
A handy tip, the thermistor is usually attached really close to the outlet, move it closer to the middle. In ours the right hand cooling fins are much colder then the ones on the right. I moved it to the centre fins, and now the fridge gets much colder in all modes

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Nov 4, 2011
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Also some motorhome builders don't fit the fridges correctly, not sealing them at the back so the heat built up goes around the sides which doesn't help the fridge operation.
 

Jaws

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The 12v side of things is only meant to maintain what ever temperature the fridge is at.. So its no good loading it up and driving off as it will not get colder..
You really need to turn it on at least 6 hours before leaving on a trip

The Thetforfd fridges are VERY mains voltage sensitive .. While the Dometic will struggle on at silly low voltages the Thetford will simply switch off at 190 to 200v... I would urge anyone with a Thetford who is travelling abroad to leave it on full auto so if a camp site mains voltage drops it will revert to gas
 

scotjimland

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Also some motorhome builders don't fit the fridges correctly, not sealing them at the back so the heat built up goes around the sides which doesn't help the fridge operation.

Also.. some don't install the 12v supply with proper sized cable for the run, which causes a volt drop.. every volt lost means almost 10% loss of power.. not hard to understand why 'some' are crap on 12v

Ours works fine on all power options.. the 12v supply cable is 4 mm

So if it's poor on 12v, check the voltage at the back of the fridge on the 12v element connections. .. with engine running it should be between 12v - 14v .. if not at least 12v, then consider rewiring with heavier cable.

If you have the correct voltage check the element connections are not loose or corroded.

Other possible fault if voltage is low, is a bad connection or contact on the 12v split charge/fridge relay found under the bonnet.

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Last edited:
Jun 6, 2012
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One other thing to look at is the fridge seals to make sure that they are in good condition and seal ALL the way round. A small gap anywhere in the seal will result in a big temp drop.
 

gozomike

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Mine works well on all 3 supplies, if I leave the settings too high (or is it low for cold:rolleyes:) it can get very cold including on 12v. It is a manual changeover Thetford fitted by WildAx and has 5 levels for each :rolleyes: supply, I normally run it on number 3.

If you are struggling in hot conditions it may be worth making sure the vents are on the shade when parked.
 

Jim

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The 12v side of things is only meant to maintain what ever temperature the fridge is at.. So its no good loading it up and driving off as it will not get colder..
You really need to turn it on at least 6 hours before leaving on a trip

That's what I always thought but I got told otherwise here..

How does the 12v cope with cooling when the fridge is in normal use, ie the door being opened now and again? I always thought the 12v option was only good for travel, and even then not that good. When its been very hot I've kept it on gas rather than 12v to keep cooling to the max. Is this not the case?

In theory the 12 volt side should work as well as the mains side. Mine does. Am told that many dont work so well on 12volt because of voltage drop due to the coach builder not putting heavy enough gauge wire in.

mine works best on 12v hence why i wanted to do this in the first place, we always lay a 2 litre bottle of water across the middle shelf,whenever travelling we always end up with slushy ice frozen water.

Since then.....The fridge in our RV has very chunky wires on the 12v side and can and does go from warm to freezing very quickly on 12v alone, definitely no need to cool it on mains first.

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May 8, 2011
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Once the external temp gets above 20 then my Dometic is crap. The only way to keep it cool is to buy a block of ice every other day and put it in the tray at the bottom. This is the same for gas and electric. I now travel with a Waeco 12v cool box as well. In a PVC this is not an ideal solution.
 

Jim

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Once the external temp gets above 20 then my Dometic is crap. The only way to keep it cool is to buy a block of ice every other day and put it in the tray at the bottom. This is the same for gas and electric. I now travel with a Waeco 12v cool box as well. In a PVC this is not an ideal solution.


Once above 20c I have two fans kick in. They are quite noisy, but the fridge stays cold. One trick Ive learned when on gas and when it's really hot outside. TRY TURNING THE FRIDGE TO A LOWER SETTING. Sounds stupid I know, but on gas there is a gas/ambient combination sweet spot and lowering your fridge setting a notch can make it colder. Definitely worth experimenting to find your sweet spot.
 

GJH

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Once above 20c I have two fans kick in. They are quite noisy, but the fridge stays cold. One trick Ive learned when on gas and when it's really hot outside. TRY TURNING THE FRIDGE TO A LOWER SETTING. Sounds stupid I know, but on gas there is a gas/ambient combination sweet spot and lowering your fridge setting a notch can make it colder. Definitely worth experimenting to find your sweet spot.
Beat me to it Jim.

That is definitely worth trying. It works with our fridge.

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Gorse Hill

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Yes our new Thetford ff works ok on gas but refused to work on elect. in Italy this June, but seems to work ok at home on elect.
I emailed Thetford twice to ask if something could be wrong ( maybe the elect. in Italy was not strong enough) but they have not answered so much for company relationships !!!
Etap
Voltage in Italy is 230 and 50Hz, same as here so unlikely to be that unless you were plugged into a faulty supply which seems logically since it works at home
 
Nov 30, 2009
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We used the new compressor fridge Ralph fitted into Pug , for the first time at Misterton.
Because we were away for 4 nights the fridge had a good run.
Ralph had to alter the settings a couple of times as it was too cold inside the fridge. It wasn't even on the coldest setting . He had to turn it right down.
My tomatoes had frozen !
No hookup, no gas, just solar and battery.
 
Oct 29, 2008
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The gas jet is only small so even a partial blockage will result in poor to no cooling on gas. Just because it was serviced doesnt mean the gas jet was cleaned. Ours stopped cooling on gas, so I removed the jet assembly and tapped it upside down on a piece of paper. A few particles of rust / soot fell out and I put a tiny strand of copper wire through the jet to clean it. The fridge now cools on gas perfectly. We have a wireless thermometer in the freezer, the temperature drops even on 12v while traveling.

The big killer to keeping them cool is keeping the door open, so remember where your food is and open the door grab it and close it straight away.

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Techno

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We used the new compressor fridge Ralph fitted into Pug , for the first time at Misterton.
Because we were away for 4 nights the fridge had a good run.
Ralph had to alter the settings a couple of times as it was too cold inside the fridge. It wasn't even on the coldest setting . He had to turn it right down.
My tomatoes had frozen !
No hookup, no gas, just solar and battery.
That is the beauty of self build. Unfortunately most of us are stuck with what the converter fitted as nothing else will fit. There seems to be only two choices of Dometic or Thetford and they either work well or are a nightmare. Nothing lasts forever but I don't think a 2 yr warranty is adequate given how little use a new fridge gets in that time. Price of parts to the end user are also ridiculous.
 

Jaws

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Voltage in Italy is 230 and 50Hz, same as here so unlikely to be that unless you were plugged into a faulty supply which seems logically since it works at home
Yesssssss... Well I have seen it as low as 180v on some of the bigger sites !!!
Voltage in the UK is supposed to be 230v but in a lot of areas is now 220v to match the rest of Europe
Today mine is sitting at 222v according to the read out ( which may be wrong of course, but is on a pucka EE supplied panel which I occasionally get to borrow for testing purposes ;-)
 

scotjimland

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UK/EU Mains Voltage Harmonisation

Let's say we did…and keep everyone happy!
Find and bookmark our home page at http://www.coffeetimeuk.com/

Also see:
Your Electricity Board by law must deliver 230 volts +10% - 6% (ie. between 216.2 volts and 253 volts), and to maintain the frequency at 50Hz ± 1% (ie. between 49Hz and 51Hz) over a 24 hour period.

The EU decided, in its wisdom, to harmonise the UK standard mains voltage of 240v AC and the European standard of 220v AC, at 230v AC. Fine in theory but the costs of replacing all the supply equipment to deliver 230v was uneconomic (there being no advantage whatever in changing, other than ‘harmonisation’). So to avoid accusations of failure to harmonise, they simply fiddled with the legal voltage limits, nothing actually changed!.

The law now states 230v +10% -6%, thereby allowing the European 220v system to stay at 220v and UK to stay at 240v, yet both appear to be harmonised!

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