Fridge/freezer 12 volt relay holder melting

[enodreven]

Hi,

 

I have and Electrolux Fridge/freezer in my 2004/5 Bessacarr and it stopped working on 12 volt while we were in Germany last week, and I found the problem was the 12 volt 30 amp relay holder had started to melt so much so that it had stuck the bottom of the relay itself to the holder.

 

i managed to get the relay out of the holder and clean them both up and get it back together and start working again, albeit we stopped every hour or so to check it was OK when it was running on 12 volt with no further problems.

 

But I would like to know why this happened in the first place and I would also like to replace the holder and relay but should I go for a larger ampage relay.

 

The fuses were all OK and I checked and they are the correct size

 

any advice or suggestions would be welcome

 

Brian

[WildBill]

I have had a similar problem on my last van. The connections were loose and caused arking which melted the moulinex plug, could have caused a fire.

[Guest Tracker]

Electrical resistance causes heat - that's the way an electric fire works - and any loose or corroded terminals will cause resistance and thus heat.

 

Clean tight joints that are adequate for the current they conduct do not overheat and do not melt the plastic in which they are mounted.

 

Now that you have cleaned tightened and replaced the offending parts there is no reason why it would happen again - nevertheless if it were mine I would hand test it for heat from time to time for a week or two.

[enodreven]

Hi,

 

Thanks everyone, I did noticed when cleaning it up that the main connection next to where the melting had taken place was very lose and I did close it down a bit before putting it back together, I will replace the Relay and holder and make sure all the connections are tight.

 

Thanks

 

Brian