Thetford freezer not keeping frozen when driving.

[iain26]

We have a Thetford N3000 fridge freezer which is 3 way and a separate freezer compartment.
We have been having issues with frozen food seeming to defrost and refreezeing, meat shows signs of frost damage etc.
I have now put in a max/min thermometer and have found that we lose the cool particularly when driving.
We have had it checked and been told the 12v is present when the engine or running and the freezer appears to be working.
The feeezer is supposed to be around -18 but I have recorded -20 to -7 so there must be something wrong somewhere.

I am surprised how much cool is lost in a relatively short space of time I.e. a 6 hour drive say, so I checked the door seal and this seems to be ok however I did notice the door has dropped and can be lifted 15-20mm.

Has anyone any experience similar or do I have to get to like very soft ice cream in future?

 

[MisterB]

Do you have the freezer on 240v overnight or for a few hours before you leave? I think expecting it to reach minus temp on 12v is asking a bit too much

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

We usually have ours on ehu for 24 hrs before we set off and only put in food that is prefrozen. No issues in any van we have had. But fridge and freezer is always better on ehu or gas.

 

[iain26]

We usually have ours on ehu for 24 hrs before we set off and only put in food that is prefrozen. No issues in any van we have had. But fridge and freezer is always better on ehu or gas.

Yes we do that as well, but ours loses it cool when we are driving, particularly if we have long drives and then on gas overnight.

 

[tonka]

The 12v whilst driving will only help to try and maintain temperature it does not cool or freeze as stated in the handbook somewhere.
I used to find the freezer in my 2012 Autotrail pretty poor. No way could I keep ice cream.
We used to move on to gas as soon as we stopped anywhere, I may have even been guilty of forgetting and then driving with the gas and fridge on !!! Think that's a hanging offence to some.

Your obviously aware ref the seal and the only other thing I can mention is not go overfill the compartment. Needs some space for air flow. Also don't crank it up to the max, you may find it will work better on a low setting, experiment till you find the best setting.

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[Lenny HB]

Being a Brit van I would check the volt drop you are getting across the cables to the fridge. Brit vans are notorious for using under sized cables on the 12v wiring. Anything more than 3% I would replace or double up the cables.

 

[autorouter]

Are you sure that the 12V is actually reaching the 12V element? While you are checking that, you could check if the element has failed. It should have a resistance of just less than 1 ohm.

The 12v Power goes to the fridge control board. The control board switches it to the element if the D+ signal from the alternator reaches it.

The element is usually relatively easy to replace, by accessing the lower outside vent.

If the element wiring is the correct size, and it's drawing its specified power, the performance should be just the same as the 240V element.

 

[The Wino]

Ours has always not been very good on 12v. I would say the opposite to a previous poster I think the freezer will stay cold better the fuller it is providing everything put in is already properly frozen.

 

[ceejayt]

Kind of related but here is a really useful life hack for anyone going away and leaving their freezer....

Fill a glass with a couple of inches of eater and freeze it. Planning ce a coin on top of the frozen water and place back in the freezer. If, on your return, even though the freezer is on and cold, the coin is at the bottom of the glass then at some point your freezer defrosted (power cut?) and then came on again.

We have a freezer in our apartment in Malta where they have regular power cuts and this tip has saved us a couple of times.