Fridge

[Pete-B]

 

Hi, Our Three year old van has the usual 3-way Dometic fridge which, at the moment, is working fine but I read somewhere that they do occasionally need servicing.

 

Is this something I should get done or is it a case of, if it ain't broke don't mend it and what's it likely to cost if I do have it done?

[Bulletguy]

 

About the only fail points are the electronic igniter which eventually pack up and the jets which get clogged up from infrequent use, but as your van is only 3 years old you won't (or shouldn't!) experience any of these problems yet.

 

Not sure what the fridge service cost is but if your van does a lot of standing then it's a good idea to have it done every few years.

[Derek Uzzell]

This Practical Motorhome (PM) article relates to servicing a motorhome fridge

 

https://www.practicalmotorhome.com/advice/42280-how-to-service-your-motorhomes-fridge

 

A habitation-service should confirm that a 3-way fridge is operating properly, but it won’t normally include ‘precautionary’ work like cleaning the gas-burner assembly or sweeping the gas flue.

 

Carrying out both of those tasks is relatively straightforward in principle but (as the PM arrticle touches on) it all depends on how accessible the fridge’s burner and flue are.

 

To gain sufficient access it may prove necessary to pull the fridge forwards from the furniture-enclosure in which it is housed and, in extreme cases, to extract the fridge completely from the enclosure. I’ve no idea how difficult the cleaning tasks would be for your 2015 Bessacarr E462 motorhome and (as I’ve never had the gas side of my motorhomes’ fridge cleaned professionally) I don’t know what the cost might be.

 

If you can inspect the burner assembly yourself and give it a good blow with compressed air (or a good suck with a powerful vacuum cleaner) that certainly wouldn’t do any harm. Cleaning the flue properly really needs the baffle inside the flue to be removed and the whole length of the flue then swept. I‘m not too comfortable with Dave Newell’s suggestion in his PM article to ‘part-clean’ the flue from the bottom up, but, if the flue is really sooty, that should be better than nothing.

 

I recall being told by a motorhome dealer that tapping the exposed ends of the flue with a small hammer was effective in dislodging serious clinker build-up within the flue. If this ploy is attempted, the burner-assembly should be covered to prevent the sooty deposits from dropping on to it.