Fridge only working on gas (and not very cold)

[MattR]

Hi
Our Electrolux fridge is taking a long time to cool down on gas - the ice box gets to freezing but slowly. The 12v and 240v cooling doesn't seem to be working or if it is, it is very, very weak at cooling.

Any suggestions as to what I can do to resolve this? Are the 12 and 240v element(s) linked? Why would the gas option be slow to work too?

I've got 12v fans to extract warm air from the back of the fridge.

 

[Two on Tour]

If your F/F is not performing very well on all 3 power sources, then it may well be that the thermal paste has shrunk back and not transferring the cooling across to the fins in the fridge compartment.
The thermal paste used by all the absorption fridge manufacturers is very poor, so replacing it with a quality thermal paste will only improve the cooling.

As it looks like your are in France at present, then take the plate with the fins on it off and have a look at the thermal paste on the back. You will see witness marks where the thermal paste should be touching the pipework. You can then push the thermal paste to the track of the witness marks to build up a thicker layer and then refit the fins, which may improve the cooling.

 

[Steve N Tracy]

I changed the thermal paste it on our Thetford fridge freezer and it still struggled with 4 bars lit, turned it down to 3 bars and it worked much better.

 

[ljbarber]

You might have the setting too low, don't turn the dial to max (9) on my dial, it works best on 6-7

 

[ljbarber]

Also keep the fridge away from the sun if you can

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[Sheddy]

What is the ambient temperature, isn't France in a heatwave?
If so fridge will struggle, try and keep in the shade, only open the fridge door as few times as possible. You could temporary remove the exterior vent covers when parked up. Set the temperature to a medium to low setting definitely not high.
You may consider having external fans fitted in the future.

 

[MattR]

You might have the setting too low, don't turn the dial to max (9) on my dial, it works best on 6-7

The gas setting is low, medium and high - it only chills on high now. It used to work on medium.

Also keep the fridge away from the sun if you can

Fridge side is in the shade.

What is the ambient temperature, isn't France in a heatwave?
If so fridge will struggle, try and keep in the shade, only open the fridge door as few times as possible. You could temporary remove the exterior vent covers when parked up. Set the temperature to a medium to low setting definitely not high.
You may consider having external fans fitted in the future.

External fans running when the temp gets to 35°C.
Ambient is cool overnight / early morning - we've had it running better in warmer conditions.
The fridge isn't opened often as it takes too long to cool down again. It is quite full of drink to reduce the voids and try and retain cool conditions when the door is opened.

 

[MattR]

I changed the thermal paste it on our Thetford fridge freezer and it still struggled with 4 bars lit, turned it down to 3 bars and it worked much better.

I'll try that when we get back. I'm curious why it isn't working on 12 and 25v too.

 

[Richard n Ann]

I'll try that when we get back. I'm curious why it isn't working on 12 and 25v too.

When you've got the aluminium fins off inside, run the fridge and check the evaporator pipe frosts up behind it. Ours frosted up great and when I renewed the paste the fridge was fixed.

Our 3 way fridge saga

My story just might help someone with 3 way fridge trouble so here goes; We've had our motorhome 3 years now and the fridge was always ok even in Spain's high ambient temperatures, until suddenly about a year ago we were in Spain, temperatures were the usual high twenties and I noticed the...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[Two on Tour]

I'm curious why it isn't working on 12 and 25v too.

As I said in my post if the thermal paste is not doing its job on gas, then it's not doing its job on 12v and 240v, as the gas 12v and 240v are all sources of heating the refrigerant in the boiler section of your absorption F/F.

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