Thetford Absorption Fridge not cooling but ice box cold

[Christy]

As per heading - was away last weekend on EHU and fridge worked fine.

Has been on EHU for 24 hours now and the ice compartment is cold and freezing water but the actual fridge area does not appear to be getting very cold. The vent outside is quite warm and i have removed the cover and given a good vacuum.

The fins inside the fridge at the back are quite warm - should they be cold?

Any clues as to what cause might be please?

 

[Odd-no-more]

Possibly the heat sinks compound has dried out, get some new compound, remove the cooling fins in the fridge compartment clean off the dry compound and put new on the cooling tubes

 

[Christy]

Possibly the heat sinks compound has dried out, get some new compound, remove the cooling fins in the fridge compartment clean off the dry compound and put new on the cooling tubes

That sounds difficult

 

[Figaro]

That sounds difficult

No, it's a simple and cheap job, do a search on here and lots of useful posts will pop up to tell you how to do it.
It will make a massive improvement to the performance of your fridge

 

[Richard n Ann]

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

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[Christy]

Thanks folks Very helpful.

 

[bigwood]

We are due to be away using our fridge on gas as we will be off grid so I have ordered some of the paste.
Considering our Rienza is a 55 reg this must help towards reducing the amount of gas we will use.
I made a strange discovery regarding our fridge whilst cleaning it after our last trip.
The door has never stayed closed without locking it for the five years we have had the Rienza. I took the shelf’s off the inside of the door to clean behind them, something had spilt behind one of them.
After putting the shelves back the door now closes without needing to lock it. The shelves don’t look any different.

 

[Christy]

A few years back our house freezer door would not stay shut. I read about vaseline. You just rub vaseline around all the rubber seals and it fixes it! In fact sometimes it requires a really strong pull to get it open. I have recently done this to the motorhome fridge as felt the seal was not great. Especially when travelling. Works a treat!

 

[bigwood]

The heat sink paste arrived this morning so I took the plate out of the back of the fridge. There was a pencil mark were the pipe ran along the back of the plate but no heat sink paste. The pipe had some remains of heat sink paste that crumbled away when I ran my finger along it.
I put one and a bit tubes on the plate and the rest of the second tube on the pipe. That may be a bit over the top but the left overs will only sit on the workshop shelf.
As the fridge seemed to work ok before I dont think it will make a huge difference but it might reduce the gas usage a slightly.

 

[bigwood]

A follow up regarding the results of replacing the heat sink paste. We have been off grid for the last four days and used the fridge on gas.
Its not been very warm weather but the fridge seems a lot colder than it used to be. I have turned the setting down. This must mean I use less gas so that’s a bonus.

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[mitzimad]

i did ours because i ordered the paste and for a previous fault that was fixed before the paste arrived it definitely made a difference and it is easy to do