Hot tips on home servicing of caravan 3 way fridge.

Hi Andrea
Have a look at these sites, they may help:
http://www.campertrailers.org/3-way_fridge.htm
http://www.manins.net/motorhome/sitemap.html
http://www.rvmobile.com/
http://www.rvmobile.com/Tech/Trouble/gassys.htm

Cheers
Neil

For something as important as a fridge why not get someone to do it for you? Put it this way, would you do your own fridge at home? I wouldn't.

I understand it costs. But . . . .

Phil

Thanks for your replies. The links were helpfull so thanks for those. I have found a company that will do the servicing for us next week. So thanks again.....

Andrea

G'day Andrea,
1st off I would be testing the fridge overnight . If you can plug it in to 240v and put a thermometer in the cool side and the freezer side.
If this gives - 15 ish and +4 it is ok on 240 and will probably not be short of ammonia.
Then try it on gas. if both of these tests are ok, now for the 12 volt test. it should hold the temp when travelling, if it doesn't it could be due to your wiring, and too much volt drop.
The history of the unit would be useful, did it work ok previously?
The unit works by heating the ammonia and separating it to Hydrogen. As you have 3 heating methods you can diagnose if one is faulty. if all 3 are no good it could need a recharge, which is very expensive unlike a compressor refrigerator.
If you have used these fridges before you will know it will perform better if chilled down overnight before loading it.
The more diagnostic you can do yourself the better.


Hope this helps,

Bill

My experience is with kero fridges which are the same thing. I found the biggest issue reqired as a service is to clean all the back fins etc. If the gas and electric gets it down to temp then all there is to do is cleaning.

Neil

Hi Andrea,

I had a problem last year with our 3 way frig in the van and it turned out to be mud wasp nests in the flue pipe.

This usually only occurs if you live in or near a rural area.

The solution is to clean out the flue with a piece of wire, albeit very carefully as you may damage something if you go at it a bit rough.

Otherwise the previous posters would be on the money.

As has been said, if all these tests fail then it is a trip to the fridge Mechanic.

Cheers, Bruce.

Hello to you all,

I just wanted to update you on our fridge. We took it out and had it serviced proffessionally. Today we got it back with a very good result from the testing which was on gas on a 34 deg day yesterday the fridge cooled too 4 degs fridge and freezer -15.5...So we are happy with that. On electricity the fridge was 1.7 deg and freezer -18.5 again we are happy with that.

Thanks again for all the wonderful advice you took the time to give. We really appreciate it.

Have a terrific weekend

Andrea