Recently a Patrol sank in a swamp and while quick on the winch the mucky water rose high inside the car and covered most of the fridge compressor.
Unfortunately in the rush to get the car out no one switched off the CF-25 fridge.
Now these little fridges are pretty tough , espically the
well known BDF-35 compressors and the electronics are conformally coated but the nasty water got thru and the fridge would simply not start with an indicative $500 repair cost.
As the fridge is $749 new it was sort of hard for the owner to decide what to do.
These fridges have an electronic commutator which means that the motor unit sort of has two windings with a common earth and if you quickly touch 12vdc across each winding in turn the motor will kick over for a split second.
I did this to both windings and this validated the there is a fair chance you haven't stuffed the sealed compressor unit.
This probably meant the control unit that provides the pulsed power to the motor was stuffed.
OK, so the owner searched EBay and up came a control unit for approx $270.
Still a lot of cash and it wasn't considered worth the gamble.
There is a lot of good info out there on Danfoss stuff and we found something titled
Danfoss-Troubleshooting.pdf
Note - maybe someone else could add to this post - as I note that the document seems to refer to a company name of SECOP
(Sorry don't have a full link. I figured its worth carrying this document around just like
I carry manuals for everything I can)
Now reading this document it became apparent that there is another control unit for other similar fridges.
It isn't plug compatible but from the document I figured it could be and it appears to be an asian made item (SECOP ?) at only 1/3rd the price on EBAY.
A week and $75 later a baby sized control unit arrived (part 1010630).
It had different connectors etc but an hours work with a soldering iron and Lo and Behold the basic fridge worked again.
Taking advantage of the notes I hotted up the fridge a little and now it cools better than new.
The owner is now very happy, and the moral of this story is that like so many things a little knowledge, diagnosis and searching could save one a lot of expense, and the bush a lot more pleasant with a cold glass of chardonay in hand over summer.