3 way fridge - 12v not working - HELP!

Hey Marko,

I am not familar with these units but have a basic understanding of how a 3 way works. So here is my two bobs worth.

I would assume that on 240volt and gas the thermostat works and on 12volt it doesn't. Make sure that the selection of 12volt via the appropriate switch is indeed in the right position. Remember that on 12volt the fridge will probably be not that efficent. Remember that these fridges use a heat source to boil a liquid and a 12volt element running off a battery with out charge is not going to last long at all.
You may well find that the element was warm but not hot enough to bring the liquid to the boil therefore not turning to gas and rising through the fridge tubes and not going through the whole heat exchange process but rather giving the appearance of doing so.

Regards

Stuart M

Try it without the fans in case they are disrupting the airflow sufficiently that the ammonia is not recondensing in the right part of the system. They should be set up to suck air from the top so that the original path is followed as closely as possible.

Another test may be to run it on 240 but with the fans going (may need re-wiring to do this?)

Adrian

If the thing runs well on 240 and gas, it runs ! If the flue is hot on 12 volt, the element is good. This should mean you simply have to have the fridge level, and get the gas circulating - see prior posts on tipping the thing sideways to stir up the gas flow. Mine has been running well on 12 volts while mobile- I have a small 12 volt 'puter fan at the rear for circulation - guess you should ensure that you only have minor flow at the back - no wind tunnels !

What was the battery voltage when u finished, If it is a 3way, it won't run for very long at all. Probably 10 minutes. Could this be why it didn't work?

Mine is on 12v only while engine running, works fine if it is already cold and full of cold stuff.

Marko,

I could almost guarentee that if your fans are blowing air backwards across the normal airpath that the fridge creates via normal convection then the fridge is not going to cool very efficently or not at all.

Swap the fans around so they drag cool air across the coils in the right direction or take them out.

As i said in my previou posts it is also dependant on the amps drawn by the 12 volt element as to how long your battery will last when not be charged whilst driving. This is why most people fit a safety relay on the 12 volt ciruit connected to the iginition switch to ensure that don't forget to isolate the 12volt element when they stop there car and come back to a dead battery an 1hr later.

Regards,

Stuart.

Not sure how similar these units are to the Chescold Fridge, but if they are, on 12 volt they will do little more than hold the temp for a few hours.

I have an older Chescold, and we had to run ice blocks in the bottom of the fridge and each night they would freeze on gas. I also ended up shorting out the thermostat so that I had the fridge running flat out all the time.

On 12volt the fridge would do little more than kill the battery and barely hold the temp. From memory it would pull constant 8 amps. (not sure the specs on your fridge. ) It was (and still is) an excellent fridge for sitting in the one place running on gas. I moved to a compressor type fridge because I was sick of pulling the fridge out of the car each day, lighting the pilot and getting it going. I also got sick of having to store all our food in tuperware containers to stop it from getting wet each day as the ice would melt (only on 12 volt).

Sorry if this is bad news. I hope your fridge is a whole lot better than my old one !

One last thing, not mentioned yet, I don't think.

When you switch from 240 or gas to 12v, make sure you reset the thermostat. That is, turn it to OFF and then turn it up to where it was before.

I have been doing this for a while now and it does make a small amount of difference.

Also, on my 3way in the camper, it stopped working on 12v, it turned out to be the switch itself was was not selecting 12v properley (the 3way switch), and I had to have a seperate switch wired in, which is positioned next to the fridge.

As mentioned above, I'll put money on it being the fans.

I got the car re-wired with an 8mm cable to the back and connected with a caravan 2 pin plug. This plus the addition of 2 fans 1 blowing air up across the absorber coils and another through the condenser coils makes this finch fridge run fantastic on every source and just as good on 12v as 240v. If you do this the argument that these fridges don' t perform on 12v goes out the back window .......sorry I can't solve your problem Marko . Once sorted it will run great on 12v.

Greetings,

Well went home last night and turned the fans upside down. The deep cycle battery which I run it off had full charge so I plugged her in. It had been sitting in the car all day so internally it was 30deg. Within 2hrs the fridge had dropped 10deg. The deep cycle battery still had grunt left in it.

So my problem has been solved!!! A heartfelt thankyou goes out to all within this thread. All I really wanted it to do was hold it's temp, but now it is actually dropping the temp!

I'll do some further tests over the next few days just to see what performance I'll get from it whilst away but I know that I can now leave it in the car for at least 2 hours and it will continue to keep my Boags cold!!! (and isn't that what really matters)

Cheers,

Marko