Gas/12v/240v Fridge now ONLY works on 240v

nickoff replied:

Gas.
1. Poor flame. Dirty burner. Only takes a little but of dust to cause flame pattern disruption.
2. Gas. Too much heat. Try turning down the flame to low.
3. Gas. Blocked chimney, not allowing heat past the boiler tube.

12 Volt.
1. Power wires “too light” causing voltage drop at high amps draw. Replace with heavy duty wiring, and keep the run as short as possible. These fridges draw about 15 amps at 12 Volts.
2. Recharging the battery of solar. Unless you have over 1000 watts of solar panels ( 6 hours of charging per 24 hours) and 700 A/Hr of battery storage ( @ 50% load cycle) you will find it diffucult to run an absorption fridge on 12 volts solar power.

Cheers.
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Member - KenD replied:

Hi Dave&Haley
I've been running a Finch 3 way fridge for quite a few years now. In the back of the car it runs on 240v from an inverter powered from the second battery (cranking). I cover the lid of the fridge with something insulating and run an elastic strap over it to make sure it doesn't bounce open and lose heat. I can also leave it on the inverter for a couple of hours when we are parked and all seems OK though I'm not dependant on that battery for starting.
But it sounds like you aren't getting enough 12v juice so you probably wouldn't have enough to run an inverter.
On gas it has only stopped working once and it proved to be a blocked gas line. Try some compressed air.
Also, I understand it is fruitful to invert the fridge and shake it. I do this every so often as "maintenance".
Hope this is vaguely useful.
Good luck
KenD
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Member - Boobook replied:

They are not really designed to run off 12V without the alternator going.

If you have really good wiring and the voltage at the fridge is 12V, then you have 144Watts of cooling capacity. If it is 13.8V then you have over 190Watts, 40% more. That is the difference between a warm fridge and freezing inside.

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blueteddy replied:

Hi all,

Thanks for the feedback! We're going to take an air compressor to the back of the fridge and blow some dust out to see if that helps the gas mode work again.

Any other ideas on why the GAS mode is no longer working? The pilot light starts and heat comes out the back, but it doesn't cool the fridge.

Thanks!
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