Fridge freezer + external thermostat

[Davidhood999]

Hi

 

Does anyone know of anyone in Essex or Suffolk area that will look at our 12 volt / 240 volt fridge freezer with an external thermostat controller display? I've been searching for ages for someone to look at it after exhausting all avenues myself but people / companies that I have found are nowhere near.

 

Many thanks.

 

David.

[stevec176]

Think you'll need to be more specific about make, model and year of your fridge freezer.

[Derek Uzzell]

This is a follow-up to David’s 21 April 2021 enquiry

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Dixell-external-fridge-freezer-thermostat-fault/58012/

 

In that forum thread David identified the external thermostat display as a Dixell Universal R model (Installing and Operating Instructions here)

 

https://climate.emerson.com/documents/universal-r-en-gb-3723528.pdf

 

but provided no details of the fridge/freezer itself.

 

David’s motorhome is a 2004 Rapido 924F model that he obtained towards the end of last year, and he said in his first forum posting on 4 December 2020 that he was new to motorcaravanning.

 

Online data indicate that a 2004 Rapido 234F would have been built with a large Dometic fridge/freezer mounted against the motorhome’s rear wall. The Dometic appliance might have had manual controls (or possibly be one of Dometic’s earlier AES models) but it’s absolutely certain that the Dometic fridge/freezer would be the ‘3-way’ type (gas/12V/240V, not just 12V/240V) and would not have had the Dixell Universal-R unit.

 

I’m guessing that, sometime in David’s motorhome’s past, the original Dometic appliance gave up the ghost and (possibly because a similar replacement 3-way fridge/freezer was considered too expensive) a 2-way (12V/240V) appliance was fitted instead controlled by the Dixell unit.

 

As Steve has said, details of the fridge/freezer will be needed to have any realistic hope of providing focused advice.

[Davidhood999]

Hi

 

The fridge freezer was indeed replaced about 2 to 3 years ago, it is an Isotherm model which I think is by Webasto Marine. The external thermostat controller/ display is by Dixell and is the Universal R model.

 

I suspect it's the thermostat / display rather than the fridge freezer itself as it's just unresponsive and just keeps flashing continuously but I'm far from expert. The fridge freezer was working perfect before this but the thermostat kept playing silly buggers and turning off every now and then and the only way we could turn it on again was to turn thermostat down to 50 degrees and then back up to 3 degrees again and then the fridge freezer would come back on.

 

Many thanks.

 

David Hood.

[Derek Uzzell]

I suppose that - if there’s nobody within a reasonable striking distance of Essex/Suffolk who could look at the problem - you could take a chance and replace the Dixell unit with a new one (about £70 online). Or would replacing the Dixell unit be a major task in itself?

[Charles]

Sounds like the controller could just need setting up. There's loads of settings on modern Comercial ones.

When you say you have to turn it right down to make it come on, that could be the "diff" setting too big. Needs to be about 3.

 

There's delay timers, locks and all sorts...

 

If you Google the controller model you should get the setup manual

[Charles]

Sometimes the diff setting (differential) is referred to as "hys' (hysteresis)

[Charles]

Got the pdf manual. :-)

 

Press aux for 3 seconds to get into programming mode. Scroll down to thr "HY" setting, default is 2 which will be ok.

 

The controller is designed as a service replacement for all others, it was probably selected because it can have a 12v power supply. It can work with 1,2 or 3 temperature probes. How many is on your fridge? There typically will either be just a room probe but maybe another one stuck to the fridge evaporator for defrost purposes.

[Davidhood999]

Hi, thanks everyone for your help so far.

 

I've managed to get the fridge freezer to work now however the display on the unit is blank. Initially it was displaying correctly but messing about with I noticed a few wires had become detached and I've no idea what order the wires went into the back of the unit.

 

The 12v power supply is connected and I've got terminal 4 &6 wired to the fridge. I've got two more wires that I don't know what theyre for, I'm not sure if they're 230v for look up or if they are why the display isn't working. I've got someone coming to look at it but that's not till mid July and I was hoping to get away in it very soon.

 

I'll include an image of the wiring diagram that I don't really understand so maybe someone knows where I correctly put the wires, I've 6 in total 2 of which I know are the 12v supply.

 

Dixell are absolutely useless, I've emailed them 4 times over the last 6 months but I get no answer ever.

 

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you

 

David.

 

PS I'm having trouble uploading this image, I will keep trying ??

 

 

[Keithl]

Davidhood999 - 2021-06-04 5:06 PM

 

PS I'm having trouble uploading this image, I will keep trying ??

 

OAL Moderator - 2006-08-22 11:31 AM

 

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[Davidhood999]

Hi

 

I think the image quality I'm trying to post is too high and am working on lowering it somehow.

 

Update; this is a copy of an email I sent to the chap I bought the van from last October;

 

Hi

 

Sorry to be bombarding you with messages. I've remedied the display screen, it is now on. I'd accidentally put one of the wires in a wrong terminal after they all has come out when pulled the unit out to look at it

 

Now I find that although everything works as it should, the temperature reads abnormally high even though the fridge/freezer is working as normal. The parameter for the 'room' probe (the only probe) is set for 2.7oC with the high and low parameters set for 4.0 and 2.0 respectively. Is there any other parameter that I need to change? I've set the probe type also.

 

Many thanks.

 

David.