A Tale of Procrastination, Shame and Triumph (1 Viewer)

JJ

Mágica
May 1, 2008
19,228
47,725
Quinta Majay, Pinheiro Bordalo, Portugal
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over 50 years
Just over ten years ago I bought a compressor fridge from CAK Tanks.

Italian design and German workings... the best of both worlds.

Easy to fit (two wires) and no need to level the van so exactly.

I bought a solar panel to produce the electricity.

For years it worked beautifully... with the fridge and then the laptop using a fair few amps I added more solar panels.

In the last few years the fridge started to work less and less well. I could hear it struggling... there is a cooling fan and a compressor... they make different noises... the fan would start up and then the compressor... but the compressor was kicking in and running for a little while and then switching off leaving just the fan running. I looked at the display and it was sucking up loads of leccy and the volts dropped. Needs more power I thought, another panel and thicker wires... not much better... batteries knackered, been dragged down too low and damaged, get new batteries...

...and with all this the fridge was less and less efficient. Piston in compressor must be worn... bet that is expensive... better order a new unit from CAK tanks... will they have one? Worry and more worry and loads of milk thrown away because the fridge had stopped working in the night. All right, in the day when the sun produced enough power it was ok but...

Well yesterday, parked at Quinta Majay (my tiny plot of land in Central Portugal) and with the sun blazing down, I went to get a cold beer out of the fridge and it wasn't cold...

Disaster.

So this morning, with another hot day in prospect, I decided enough was enough... I would wire the fridge directly to the genny to get it going and I removed it from its cupboard. This involved unscrewing eight screws and took about 73 seconds.

Instantly I saw the problem. The cooling fins of the evaporator thingy was completely and evenly caked all over with a centimetre thick layer of dust and fluff... the poor compressor and fan, German built or not, didn't stand a chance... the fan tried to cool things down... the compressor said "not enough air, I am switching off" and so no cooling.

No wonder over the years the fridge has been less and less efficient...

Just now I nearly got frostbite getting a cool can of coke...:thumb:

All well and good saying "don't do today what you can put off until tomorrow" but some times there is a downside...

...now should I finish my floor today? No, that can wait...

JJ :Cool:

 

artona

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Jul 31, 2007
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Its been a very busy and extremely tiring year for you JJ.

First you got around to fitting that nature pure filter system that you purchased about 7 years ago and now you have cleaned out the fans on the fridge.

By the same token that it took the major event of a warm beer to make tomorrow arrive you could leave it until you trip on the floor and spill ya beer to make tomorrow happen again.............
 

Scout

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Apr 4, 2009
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its not only fridges, my home pc keep crashing for no apparant software problem, took off the cover cooling fan caked in dust, quick hover around inside, hey presto cool pc running fine


( we should better go and check our m/h fan belts just in case it runs in threes ):Eeek:

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niggle

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Aug 5, 2010
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Safety service/hab service comes to mind you and the van need one ??

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Feb 27, 2011
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Happy to hear it was an easy and cheap fix JJ ::bigsmile:

You do tell a story well :ROFLMAO:
 
Jan 13, 2008
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Perhaps if you cleaned your van more often you wouldnt accumulate so much crap behind the fridge:ROFLMAO:

Its probably the cleaning that caused the problem.. it disturbs the dust too much :ROFLMAO:

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Wildman

Free Member
May 30, 2008
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Well what can I say JJ,at least you now know the cause and may possibly clean out behind it a little more often. Thereby saving your batteries.
Other than that wahey, power to spare now no need for the genny
Be interesting to see how you manage in the winter now.:thumb::thumb:
 

Carol

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Oct 2, 2007
14,044
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18 years s Motorhome (33years caravans)
I witnessed cleaning of part of The Beast at Stratford in June. JJ did a great job of supervising Delwood :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

Come on in all fairness didn't you see me in the Beast with my brush and shovel at Stratford, (there are pictures to prove it) and anyway when a man is creating a masterpiece its bound to cause a bit of dust, to say nothing of the beautiful part finished parkay flooring.

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