Electrolux RM4270 and installation by Avondale

[mikej101]

Sorry about this post being a bit long but I'm absolutely furious about Avondale and it's shoddy workmanship. After having to remove our fridge when the mains element failed (Dealer quoted £150.00) - element cost £29.50. I was appalled by the way Avondale fitted the unit when new. Reading through the literature supplied with the caravan - an Leda Antrim which we purchased new in 1998 - I notice that it is not fitted 'as per manufacturers instructions'. There has always been a problem with drafts coming into the living space from around the fridge area, which our dealer was supposed to have fixed just after the van was bought. Still had drafts after 'fix'. I was told by the dealer that the fridge had to have ventilation and we had to put up with some drafts. When I removed the fridge I find that all they did was stuff some fibre-glass wading into the gaps around the unit. Is this standard practise? The installation instructions in the Electrolux handbook clearly show a sealing kit - not fitted to our van by Avondale. The fridge itself was only held in by 4 x threequarter inch screws into cheap MFD board and balanced on the edge of a single piece of half inch MDF - which would explain why the fridge has a habit of coming adrift. Dealer appears to have fixed it by stuffing match sticks into the oversize MDF holes. The cheap and nasty aluminium heat shield plate above the unit was not fixed correctly and has pushed up when the fridge was installed - due to this there are signs of soot residue on the internal MDF housing - I wonder if this explains why there has always been a weird burning smell when we use the fridge on gas? There is no gas isolation tap fitted - as there should be - according to Electrolux. I wonder if all fridges are fitted in this shoddy way. Now I come to my questions - 1/ Does anyone know if I can obtain the correct sealing kit for my fridge? or do I have to manufacture my own? 2/ Should I fit a gas tap in the fridge line? 3/ For future reference - Does the upside trick work on this model of fridge? Any information or even comments would be greatly appreciated.

[Derek Uzzell]

I suspect Avondale's installation of your fridge is on the shoddy side of normal! Theoretically a fridge installation should be such that draughts and/or burnt-gas fumes don't enter the leisure vehicle; in practice it can be a helluva job achieving this ideal situation. Padding with plastic foam or glass-fibre wadding is commonplace and, frankly, you should count yourself quite lucky to have a heat shield at all. Your questions... 1. The sealing kit is no longer available. Dometic (Electrolux) once told me it had been discontinued due to lack of demand. (Draw your own conclusions!!!) 2. I'm rather surprised there's no gas isolation-tap for your fridge and, obviously, it's up to you whether you have one fitted. A tap would allow your caravan's gas system to remain conveniently operative if the fridge developed a fault - on the other hand you've been happily using the thing for the last 8 years without an isolation tap. 3. There's no guarantee the 'inversion' ploy will work with any Electrolux fridge let alone a RM4270, but, if your fridge suddenly decides to no longer cool on any of the 3 fuel sources, what have you got to lose?

[mikej101]

Thanks for the comments.

[JohnP]

Suggest that you put in another strip of MDF on the base at the back. With this in position it will provide extra support for the fridge at the back. You may have to wriggle the fridge back in place to get in onto the back support. You could also put strips from front to pack (these will act as slides) to facilitate replacement of fridge. Once done this will remove most of the loading from the fixing screws.

[arc systems]

Reading through it seems yours is more fitted than thrown in so as Derek says luckier than many! The biggest problem I find to fridge ventilation is the gap at the back of the fridge to the wall. It seems to me fridge depth has not kept up with the increase in cabinet depth, this leaves a wide gap thereby greatly effecting the speed of air change and hence the cooling effect it affords. So filling the gaps at the sides and top with fibreglass is OK (but certainly not polystyrene!) to prevent draughts coming into the van but it also stops air coming the other way and slowing the cooling air flow still further. To greatly increase the air flow, the gap at the back needs to be reduced to the point the fins at the top are no more than an inch away from the wall, or as others have said install a fan. The air flow would be further improved if the source of cooler air was sourced from the coolest place and this would be better provided for with vents in the floor of the van rather than only slightly lower than the exit point. Of course with a wheel arch often in the way this is not always possible. "The cheap and nasty aluminium heat shield plate above the unit was not fixed correctly and has pushed up when the fridge was installed - due to this there are signs of soot residue on the internal MDF housing - I wonder if this explains why there has always been a weird burning smell when we use the fridge on gas?" Picking up on this point, well no not really as this should have nothing to do with the gas flue arrangement, after all the air required for the burner is from around the burner lower down and the source of this problem I would expect to be found there or within the flue tube itself. I would most certainly have the source found and rectified before further use on gas. Finally yes inverting works and makes a difference with all these type fridges, what makes no difference at all is leaving inverted more than the time is takes for the fluid to drain each way...about 15 seconds.