Fridge needed a "kick start"... (1 Viewer)

[timdownieuk]

Anyone else had a fridge that wouldn't chill on mains until given a wee kick start with gas?

Plugged my van in this afternoon in preparation for a trip away and realised that the fridge wasn't cooling (and yes, mains was selected and the light was on).

I switched over to gas and within ten minutes the fridge had started cooling nicely. I then switched back to mains and it's been fine since. The van is on a slight slope but the fridge has worked on mains on this slope before.

Any ideas?

Tim

 

[TheBig1]

could be the mains element starting to fail so not getting as warm

 

[timdownieuk]

could be the mains element starting to fail so not getting as warm

Could be but the van is only 5 years old and in my experience most heating elements either work or fail, not lose power. I'm wondering if on a slight slope, the heat output of the electric element wasn't quite enough to circulate the refrigerant whereas the gas heater maybe has a higher heat output.

Does this sound plausible?

Tim

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[Mr Colpot]

We seem to have a similar issue with ours, in fact I am about to book it in somewhere (not sure where yet) to be checked out.
The element was replaced recently as it kept tripping the mains in the van. This weekend we were on mains but the freezer box did not freeze although the fridge did seem to cool. Ran it on Gas and it was fine. The gas is a bit temperamental to light (sometimes have to hold the button in for 90secs for it to stay alight) - Guy who changed the element said the fridge would need to come out completely to sort out the thermo coupler so havent done anything about that yet.

 

[timdownieuk]

It could be that your gas jet is partially blocked rather than being a primary thermocouple problem. Worth checking and dealing with first if you can do it without pulling the fridge out.

Tim

 

[Mr Colpot]

Thanks Tim - have run it on gas dead level on the drive and it now doesnt appear to be cooling at all. Cant get to the flame piece without moving the fridge forward which will have to do as I cant find anyone locally to look at it before we are away.

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[scek]

Slope! we have the same problem on a slight slope, put in on gas for 5 mins, the switch over to mains and it works fine. On level ground no problem. we think the gas gets hotter than the elecy element and gets it warm and ready...z