Fridge in southern Spain, not cold enough

[rosalan]

We have a large Dometic fridge freezer that does not run cold enough.
Mains, we are getting about -5c in the freezer, while food in the fridge is going off.
Gas, struggles to even reach that.
To date it has been serviced by Dometic in Porto Santa Maria 50e
An ice pack has been placed in the fridge as recommended by Hispavan near Vera.
Twin thermostatic fans have been fitted inside the top vent 145e but still the temperature remains below acceptable.
External temperature has at times been high but at the moment it is a coolish 27c
Does anyone have ideas what else I can do.

 

[Snowbird]

If you have twin fans fitted and the fridge has been serviced, the only other thing that I can think of is, is your fridge level as they do not work well if not.

 

[Podney]

Too much in it?
Not level?
Damaged door seal?

 

[Richard n Ann]

.

 

[tonka]

1. Are the fans blowing the right way ? ie drawing up from the bottom and blowing out.
2. What setting si the fridge on ? A common mistake is people turn up the control to a higher setting, try going lower so the fridge does not have to work so hard and creates less heat to get rid of.
3. As Snowbird says, level ?

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[bigtree]

Have you removed the cooling fin/plate and looked to see if the thermal transfer paste is ok ? I found mine doesn't have a lot and is dry,to date I haven't found which is the best paste to buy.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Have you removed the cooling fin/plate and looked to see if the thermal transfer paste is ok ? I found mine doesn't have a lot and is dry,to date I haven't found which is the best paste to buy.

I bought some semiconductor heat transfer paste in a syringe on ebay. Sorted it

 

[vin0114]

Direct sunlight can have a big effect on the fridge vents. Ours is protected with a fiamma back box. Can you attach a temporary shield when parked up - does your fridge cool better when travelling?

 

[BreweryDave]

The simple fact and the bottom line is, the fridge will only cool by so much, like an air conditioner, no matter what you do. If the outside temp is high, 30 plus, then it’s gonna struggle. Fans, shade, out of the sun etc will all help, but there’s simply nothing you can do. Fresh stuff goes off in a couple of days, so we buy less and more often. Been on Algarve all summer, inc over 40 degree days, freezer was ok mostly but we did keep plenty of bought ice cubes in it, and froze freezer packs overnight to add to the fridge in the daytime.
One other tip, keep the ice buildup in the freezer down, and keep the fins in the fridge clear ( rather than full to the brim with beer, sadly!)

 

[pagey]

as already said turn the fridge down to about half it helps a lot to lower the temp at the back of the fridge which in turn helps cooling

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[rosalan]

Thank you all for your help and advice.
We had already bought a bag of ice cubes to leave in the freezer, which seemed to help.
I had not heard about the conductive paste behind the fins and will look into this, although I am not sure where to put it.
Hispavan in Vera who rent out vans, said they always leave an ice pack in the refrigerator, which I have done and does make a difference.
Our van is perfectly level, measured on the fridge in case it was out of line.
We are in Andalusia and when asking a Dometic engineer what the problem could be, he pointed to a street temperature display that read 35c

 

[MitchandJenny]

Park your van so that the fridge side is in the shade.
It helps.
Mitch.

 

[Rob Turner]

I had the same in Southern Italy a month ago.
Got twin fans, was all checked before I left and still 15-20 in the fridge.
I switched from mains to gas and it was better.
I resorted to using the freezer more like a fridge.
I’ve got a compressor cool box in my garage and that was fine for the beer/wine.

3 way fridges are crap and if mine ever goes wrong it’ll be replaced with the new Thetford compressor fridge, bigger than the RMD 8555 and cheaper.