18' Series Fridge not working

CamperCathnSteve

New Member
Feb 5, 2021
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Perth
It’s Christmas Eve and we’re heading off on Boxing Day for our holiday . I turned the Dometic 3 way fridge on last night so I could transfer all the holiday food into the caravan. We woke this morning and it has not gotten cold . At all! We had it on electric and the electricity was working because the microwave clock was on. We changed it over to gas. Still not working. Steve’s just levelled the van cos it was on a tilt. It’s 7.30am and we’ll be ringing all the repair places in the next hour but probably got Buckley’s of getting in! Any suggestions? We might have to revert to eskies aka as per twenty years ago! But you don’t pay tens of thousands of dollars to end up having to use an esky. We should’ve checked it a week or two ago. Any ideas !

also I don’t know if it’s an 18 series but I couldn’t post the discussion without choosing a series. I can check with Steve if it’s important
 

Boots in Action

Well-Known Member
Mar 13, 2017
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Ferny Grove, Queensland
It’s Christmas Eve and we’re heading off on Boxing Day for our holiday . I turned the Dometic 3 way fridge on last night so I could transfer all the holiday food into the caravan. We woke this morning and it has not gotten cold . At all! We had it on electric and the electricity was working because the microwave clock was on. We changed it over to gas. Still not working. Steve’s just levelled the van cos it was on a tilt. It’s 7.30am and we’ll be ringing all the repair places in the next hour but probably got Buckley’s of getting in! Any suggestions? We might have to revert to eskies aka as per twenty years ago! But you don’t pay tens of thousands of dollars to end up having to use an esky. We should’ve checked it a week or two ago. Any ideas !

also I don’t know if it’s an 18 series but I couldn’t post the discussion without choosing a series. I can check with Steve if it’s important
My commiserations @CamperCathnSteve regarding your fridge not working. I think you have already hit on the problem. 3-way fridges need to be level to operate efficiently , or at all, and there are some fairly tight parameters too. As you look at the front of the of van fridge door, the fridge MUST be within 3 degrees of vertical (tow ball to rear of van) , and within 6 degrees front to rear (wheel to wheel across the axle line. The closer to those figures, the better the operation and efficiency, so it pays to get it right. Absorption fridges take some time to get cool and even longer to cool down any contents, but should settle down in 24 hours to approx minus 18C to 20C in the freezer section and below 5C in the fridge section. After being on 240 volt power or gas for about an hour, there should be heat felt coming from the exhaust outlet and the freezer should be starting to feel cold. However, the fridge part will not start to cool properly until the freezer has reached approx minus 14C. Best to have fridge on for more than 24 hours to just cool the cabinet before placing any supplies in fridge and they should be already frozen (for freezer) and cold/chilled for fridge. Also, don't pack the items too closely so that the cold air from the evaporator in the fridge part can circulate freely. The attached will help you understand how a absorption fridge works and what not to do.

Merry Christmas and safe travel on Boxing day.

 

Drover

Well-Known Member
Nov 7, 2013
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QLD
Yep, as Booties pointed out it needs to be level, if you use a spirit level on the draw bar it must have the bubble inside the lines...... I fire mine up 2 days before departure, that gives it 24 hrs to cool the cabinet area, adding some bottle of ice can also help things along, remove them later.....

Try to load the fridge up the night before leaving then when you go fridge temp should be optimum, especially if its a single door fridge, in summer running ion 12v will just keep the temp it will rarely make it cooler....
 
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mikerezny

Well-Known Member
Sep 11, 2016
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Firstly,
you will have a much better chance of getting informative help as quickly as possible if you state the brand and model number of the fridge. This is important.

Secondly, is this the first time you have tried to use this fridge?

Fridges that work on gas use the absorption principle which means that regardless of whether they are running on 12V, 240V, or gas, they use energy to heat liquid stored in a boiler. The first step in identifying any issue is to go go outside and find the external vents for the fidge and find the flue outlet which is usually on the right-hand side of the top external vent. After the fridge has been running for about 15 minutes you should be able to detect some heat coming from this vent.
So, thirdly, can you detect any heat coming from the flue on either gas or 240V.

take care
Mike
 
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