Bill Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 A few days ago I drove from Faro, Portugal to Granada, Spain. It was really, really hot. Because the journey was from West to East the right side of the van (i.e. UK off-side) was facing south – and my fridge is on the right. It couldn’t keep up, and net result some food went off and had to be thrown away. It is a normal Electrolux 3-way, and was serviced about four months ago. There is one wrinkle: because the base-vehicle is 24v I cannot run the fridge on 12v when moving; instead I have a 24v inverter feeding 300w into the hookup circuit, and then run the fridge on “mains”. However, I can’t see that this should make any difference. Presumably others must have hit this problem. What, if anything, can be done about it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin r c Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Any fridge will struggle in very hot conditions.As for the 24v base cab.you can obtain converters from 24v to 12v as used in some commercial trucks.to power coolboxs and 12v tv sets. but your inverter should work ok anyway. Martin r c Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Maybe granny / suck / eggs etc, but did you have the winter fridge guards installed and unaware they have to be removed in hot weather ? Apologies if its obvious *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug_cumiskey Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 I too spend a lot of time around the Algarve, so I have a digital thermomometer fitted to read the temp of the fridge. What I have found is the the fridge when on gas will drop the temp by 18 deg. from the ambiant but when on battery will only drop the temp by 10 deg. so I dont use the battery but leave it running on gas while we are motoring. I have also found that it helps to keep the fridge side of the van in the shade when the weather is hot. Doug... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted July 28, 2007 Author Share Posted July 28, 2007 martin r c - 2007-07-28 3:32 PM Any fridge will struggle in very hot conditions.As for the 24v base cab.you can obtain converters from 24v to 12v as used in some commercial trucks.to power coolboxs and 12v tv sets. but your inverter should work ok anyway. Martin r c I’m now on a nice shady pitch on a campsite and the fridge is working normally, so it must have been as you said, struggling in very hot conditions. I did look at "droppers" but they were about the same price as the inverter, and the inverter dealt with a few other issues, so that’s the way I went. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted July 28, 2007 Author Share Posted July 28, 2007 tonyishuk - 2007-07-28 3:56 PM Maybe granny / suck / eggs etc, but did you have the winter fridge guards installed and unaware they have to be removed in hot weather ? Apologies if its obvious *-) I’m embarrassed to admit I didn’t even know there were such things as winter fridge guards. But I’ve had a bit of a nose round and I can’t see anything that looks as though it might be a winter fridge guard. Thanks for the tip anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flicka Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 doug_cumiskey - 2007-07-28 4:05 PM What I have found is the the fridge when on gas will drop the temp by 18 deg. from the ambiant but when on battery will only drop the temp by 10 deg. so I dont use the battery but leave it running on gas while we are motoring. Doug... Sorry Doug, but I have to question your position regarding running the fridge on Gas whilst motoring. Surely this is potentially disasterous if you were involved in a shunt. Also, as I understand it, it is illegal to have gas appliances operating when refuel. I suspect your Insurance may be invalidated, if anything where to happen. Can anyone clarify the legal position regarding this ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted July 28, 2007 Author Share Posted July 28, 2007 doug_cumiskey - 2007-07-28 4:05 PM I too spend a lot of time around the Algarve, so I have a digital thermomometer fitted to read the temp of the fridge. What I have found is the the fridge when on gas will drop the temp by 18 deg. from the ambiant but when on battery will only drop the temp by 10 deg. so I dont use the battery but leave it running on gas while we are motoring. I have also found that it helps to keep the fridge side of the van in the shade when the weather is hot. Doug... My understanding is that a fridge works about equally well on mains or gas, but not quite so well on 12v. (That was part of my reason for using an inverter rather than a dropper.) Am I correct? The fellow I bought it from also used to run on gas while motoring, and I know a lot of RV-ers in the States do so too, but I don’t like the idea. Seems to me if you were in an accident and the gas pipe got torn open things could turn very nasty very quickly. When parked I do try to keep the fridge side in the shade, or at least faced away from the sun if no shade is available – but when you’re motoring you just have to point the way the road is going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin r c Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Running with the fridge on gas when driving is not a good idea as the draught across the flue tends to upset the flame causing possible sooting problems and flame outage. and possible source of ign in a filling station, or in a accident, as some one already said. not only that, but the cylinder would have to be on.if something went wrong (!) (!) (!) Mobile bomb. martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 BillThey do struggle in exceptionally high temperatures. Also, air above roads gets very hot, because the roads themselves heat up, adding to the problem. Unlikely the inverter feed is a problem provided it is working, and you get the advantage of thermostatic control. There are two simple things that may help, one is to turn the fridge to max the night before, so that it chills down overnight when the air is cooler, and the other is to stick water or wine bottles in the door overnight, before you travel, to give it a bit of ballast. A couple of litres of nice cold water do help to slow any rise in temperature, though they won't stop it.The less simple thing is to check the fridge installation itself. Many are not correctly installed with gaps in the baffles between fridge and habitation area and an incorrect gap between the gear at the back of the fridge and the van wall. Have a look at the fridge manual for details of how it should be done, Dometic's are very detailed. Then look for ways to bring it up to spec. If the gap at the rear of the fridge is greater than Dometic reccomend, don't assume this is good. The airflow over the fins is crtiical for cooling, and this airflow depends on the stack effect of the space. If it is too wide the stack collapses and the airflow is reduced. However, adding a bit more insulation to the inside of the van wall will fix that problem, and reduce solar gains into the space into the bargain.Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianR Posted July 30, 2007 Share Posted July 30, 2007 The big difference between running the fridge on 12V versus gas or mains is that on 12 V there is no thermostat to control the temperature - presumably because of the high current involved would cause arcing and damage to the contacts in the thermostat. The 12V operation must, therefore, be designed so that it would never freeze the contents, even though it is on all the time, even in a low ambient temperature. In a high ambient temperature as you were experiencing, it would therefore be pretty useless. Your use of the inverter is therefore the best solution - even if it did not work in this particular instance. Try mesuring the voltage you are getting at the fridge, and if it is not over 12V work backwards to find where you are loosing it. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianR Posted July 30, 2007 Share Posted July 30, 2007 I should have added that the winter guards refered to in the earlier post are plastic plates that fit over the external vents (top and bottom) and vitually close them off, thus reducung the air flow in winter. If your vents have a series of parrellel horizontal openings, you have no winter plates. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAS Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 Hi Bill I have 3 blocks that I freeze in the freezer compartment overnight, then put them in the fridge during the day. It works for me, but I only travel in the UK. Maybe worth a try though? *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miami Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 We have the same problem with our fridge whenever we put it on 12 volt. Works well on gas and 240volts but seems to defrost when on 12volts. It is always wet inside when we have been travelling. I have checked the power and that is O.K. so think we will try freezing some blocks and then putting them in the fridge itself. Sounds like a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crinklystarfish Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 Bill,Some inverters have thermostatic cut-outs and so if it was very hot, the fridge, and therefore the inverter will have been working very hard. If the inverter doesn't have a very good flow of cool air it may well have cut out, then reset when things cooled off a bit, hence appearing to be working OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g4oip Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 I have been modifying my fridge wiring for many years with each new caravan/van and I have never come across one with enough clout in the wiring to be effective as an alternative supply without modifying. Anytime with the engine running and fridge on the voltage was poor in every case. My fridge over 3 months in France always stayed cold enough so that meat bought in supermarkets froze solid while driving around.I found on one fridge it was pulling 12 amps and the normal earthing arrangements on the wiring and the supply from the relay were poor and wiring thickness ungenerous.Put these to as good a state as you can manage and there should be no trouble.Also change the crap fuse carriers for 30 Amp ones as these can get hot enough to burn fingers. I have proved endless times on sites when people have asked for help. Heat equals lost voltage to the bit at the end of the wiring run you want to run -the fridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 For what its worth on my Rapido is fitted a switch which aids the cooling of the fridge. I have not used it yet, but seems to have an Off, Automatic and full on. It runs a fan that presumably forces the air through the coils ( if these fridges are similar to a domestic fridge) Maybe a look at the Maplin site would assist i.e a 12 volt computer fan or similar ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 Yes, a small brushless DC (Papst) fan drawing the hot air through the top vent will give your fridge more of a fighting chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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