No wonder three way fridges dont work

A Caravan Park owner we knew used to take the caravan fridges out of the vans when they started to get sluggish and roll them around on the grass, end to end and side to side. His theory was that they were designed to be bounced around by sitting in the park in onsite vans the gas settled in one spot and the rolling got the gas moving again.

Worked every time.

Mrs S

Skulldug - we all know 3 way fridges have limitations (but they have advantages too) you just need to understand the limitations and operate within those parameters.

Mike Harding

Hi Skulldug

When we had a camper with a gas only fridge we never lit it (big bang theory paranoia). Just used it like an esky - open in the cool of night and closed during day. They work on the same principal as the old kerosene fridges we had when i was a nipper, which were very efficient, even if they did catch the floor on fire occasionally.

We bought an old small wind up van with a three way which the guy assured us was OK even if slow to cool on electricity but he never tried it on gas. It didn't work at all (assessed by fridge repair man). We got a beaut Engel front opening 12/240 volt fridge to fit into the same spot; has small internal freezer compartment. Works really well. Around same size as the 130 litre Vitrifrigo in our present caravan.

For around $2g i recall, we got the Engel, a solar panel, deep cycle battery, power level monitor, and 12 volt lights. That was 4 or 5 years ago.

We don't have that caravan now, but my daughter and her family are using it.

If you can afford to change over, go for it.

Problem with 3 ways is uneven temp, my old 3 way would freeze the salads, and when traveling on 12v didnt run to well.then on hot days 36+ temp. it was crap.
Now have a engel SRE-90 cost $1000. & runs A1, with two AGM batteries in the van will run for 4-6 days - charge up while touring or if stopping at caravan park for supplies or run geni for a few hours with large battery charger.running geni works out cheaper than gas for the old 3-way. Do a lot of bush camping on uneven ground not to fussy about being dead level now.

WWAB

Skulldug.

Yep we pulled the Dometic out of the camper & sold it, bought a Vitrifrigo front opening fridge (Danfoss 35 compressor) & couldn't be happier!!

Only problem was the Vitrifrigo is about 30mm too tall, now have a raised cutting board above the fridge!! 8 )>

Love to read these sort of posts it makes me feel as though I didn't waste my 8 years of hell with them then finally giving in and buying what works, a 12v compressor fridge. Some people sware by 3 way fridges but I need what ever they are smoking as I just don't agree.
Wazzaaaaa

I was expecting your reply Mike, I know you are happy with yours and I hope it keeps working for you mate. it just didn't for me but I respect your opinion.
Wazzaaaaa

Another thing to check is the wiring for adequate size. My fridge was very poor on 12VDC as well and checking the voltage at the fridge showed 9.2VDC - that was voltage drop from 12.8VDC at the front of the van to the fridge. Worked much better with the appropriate cable fitted, despite the van dealer telling me it would make no difference. The voltage with the new cable was 12.2VDC. Also filling the empty space around the fridge with insulation made more improvements - when using gas - as battery power was not used to run the little bitty fan. The 240VAC side of things was always OK.

A bit of work for a huge difference.

I have a Chestcold Mark 2 (damn old, was mums). I will say for me I need to get it cold a day out from my trip more if i can that way when its on 12 volt it will be fine at my night stop to which I hook up the gas and run it on gas for the night.

For me it works bit of mucking around and I would like an Explore or tailblazer but at the moment $2000 is not a option I can go down.

As I don't open it during my drive my food is very cold as is the beer and thats all i can ask :) ............... just got to watch it on gas overnight and turn it down otherwise it will all be frozen in the morning.

The other issue I do have with it, it draws heaps from the battery 12 amp and hour I beleive, it is hooked to a 130 amp deep cycle.

If set up for any period it stays on gas. I am happy enough (cost me nothing).

I will have it for the meet up in SA so it better keep going lol.

Brian

Doug – you said “It is inside the caravan so when it gets hot, the heat generated circulates inside around the fridge.”

This seems to me like you have an installation problem. This is common problem as caravan builders do not in the main use their own products. Remove your fridge again and replace it together with fibreglass bats at the sides and top of the fridge so that the hot air does not circulate around the sides and top of the fridge.

“Next, bend some aluminium to direct the hot air out of the vent.” There should have been a heat deflector from the fridge case at the top of the heat exchanger that was connected to the top of the vent in the side of the van. Whilst at the show did you look to see how many manufacturers have not fitted this. If you have fitted this when you installed the fan then this will have accounted for a fair bit of your increased efficiency.

The third thing to look at is the spacing of the fins from the wall. If there id a large gap then the air will flow around the fins instead of through them. Pack the gap so there is only 5mm clearance behind the fins for the whole of their dimensions.

I once had a van that had that heat shield but the top vent was mounted so low that the shield was bent down to meet it. I had another vent installed above the original top one and the heat deflector was replaced with one that reached the top of that vent. I did not have to fit a fan – worked OK without it. There was never a problem with the fridge after that – it just needed a few bits to fix the van constructors stuff up..

It is surprising how many spit the dummy and do not try the installation improvement first. With a little bit of effort they could have saved themselves $2-3K for a new fridge and solar installation.

PeterD

I'll jump on the 1180 lovers band wagon :-)

No trouble at all opening and closing all day even in 40c heat... In fact I was having to throw in warm beer to stop it freezing the salad all the time.

Huge thanks to pixie for the information he provided earlier that gave me the confidence to buy the thing after so many 3 way horror stories.

Really sad that Dometic won't provide that data.... oh well...

Matt