Hi can anyone help us, we just brought a Conway tardis and were told by previous owners that the fridge worked, they always ran it off gas so they said, took us awhile to get pilot light lit but still can not get it to work off the gas or leisure battery any one got any manuals or instructions or can help, just found everything they told us has been a lie, told no rot and my husband has just had to replace the back end of camper completely only had it 2 weeks complete novices ourselves.
Thanks
I very much doubt if it's intended to be powered by the leisure battery, which, if it were possible, it would probably flatten in a very short time.
More likely it's designed to run off gas, when stationary and level, mains electricity (via the hook-up lead), or 12v from the towcar's alternator when the engine is running, and assuming it has a correctly wired second (often grey) "S" socket connection. (The black "N" socket only supplies the trailer's road lights).
That's true. What Bob says. These fridges are not designed to be run off a leisure battery. The 12V option is purely for powering the fridge, from the car battery, whilst travelling to and from your destination.
Again, I would agree that this is unlikely to be a 2 way fridge, but more likely a 3 way fridge, and, if you have an EHU (electric hook up) facility, that would be one way to test it. Another would be to connect the grey socket, and try it from there, but this will only work if your car tow bar is wired for the twin electrics.
I deal, primarily, in Pennine's, but I have an electronic copy of a Pennine manual, from around the 'Tardis' era, so the fridge section of the manual may be of some use to you. If you let me know your email, I will pop you the relevant pages across. If you like, you can message me through the contact page of my web site Blue Sky Contact Page and I'll get it sorted from there.
Ours has a 2 way fridge witch Is also abit of a pain to get lit
But once it's warmed up its fine
The 12v is only for traveling and is only to maintain the temprature
That gas side has produced!
We don't bother with it as you would have fire it up on gas few hours before you leave open up camper fill the fridge close it again switch of the gas and plug it in to the car
Abit of a scutter we use a cool box till we are away and set up and the fridge is on! if touring obviously you can't drive around with the gas lit but the fridge is like a big cool box and stays cool for hours when till your set up at the next site!
3 way fridge also won't fit where a 2 way has been as the 3 way is larger
Pete
We have a Cardinal, but our manual is in it and it won't be opened up again until next Thursday.
I can say that it does take some warming up (or should that be cooling down!), and sometimes on EHU we wonder whether it is any use at all. On gas though, it gets really cold - we had frozen lettuce the other day !
We don't have the grey connection on our towball, so I can't comment on that, but we make do with a cool bag until we get to destination.
------------- 2014 with Conway Cardinal FC
April/Easter : Bridlington
May : Newark, Cotswolds
July : Whitby
August : Mablethorpe, Norfolk
Hi thanks for your reply we can light the pilot light for this to work but it looks like it only works off gas there is a dial outside the camper where you light the gas with numbers on but we do not know whot this is for if it is for the gas or tempature control for the fridge, people we brought off just said light the gas then it takes about 10-15 mins to cool but this does not seem to be happening thanks.
This sounds different to ours - we have temp dials on the outside of the fridge but inside the camper.
Where do you light the pilot light ?
We have to lie on the floor, the light is right at the bottom of the fridge, the knobs are near the floor at the left side of the fridge.
I usually gauge whether it is working by looking if frost is forming inside the freezer compartment, sometimes I put a freezer block in to see if it firms up.
As I said, it never seems to get very cold on EHU, but it does on gas, although it can take hours to actually chill anything.
Ours is 1992 - I think our main manual is for Tardis as well, but I suspect the fridge will be a separate manual as I think it was an optional extra, so may be a completely different one to yours. I can have a look next week if you want ?
Just a thought - doesn't the fridge have to be dead even to work properly - I'm sure there has been a previous thread on here along those lines.
------------- 2014 with Conway Cardinal FC
April/Easter : Bridlington
May : Newark, Cotswolds
July : Whitby
August : Mablethorpe, Norfolk
Yes your correct about about the dual outside its for controlling the gas for the temprature just have it round at 9 max if I remember correctly it does take longer than 15 mins to cool or at least the old 2 way fridges seem to anyway after an hour or 2 touch the freezer in the corner and it should be cold to touch possibly even frosty the freezer seems to be where the cold comes from to cool the fridge on these
Pete
Check the fridge vent outside and if it has warm air coming from it then the fridge is working.
Also remember to remove the winter fridge grill covers if fitted.
John
Hi John Byrne, whot are the winter grill covers? all we have got are the two vents outside the camper one which you can see the gas connections in and the lower one underneath it is where the pilot light is there are no controls outside the fridge in the camper, we have tried everything today and still cannot get it to go cold even though the pilot is lit, feel like just giving up on it and just using our electric cool box.
Clean the burner and vent pipe when turned of condensation forms which causes rust which falls on to burner and reduces efficency. might have to buy new burner ,You have to have correct ratio of air and gas to heat up refrigerent gas in pipes this causes pressure in smaller bore pipes which open into bigger bore pipes this sudden expansion of gas cause the frosting which cools fridge. if you vent some gas from you propane bottle by disconnecting pipe and crack open valve frosting will form on connection this is how heat absorbtion fridges work ie caravan fridges plus silent domestic fridges in the home no motor compressor .You can use gas or electric for the heating
There is no "Pilot Light" in a fridge when it is on Gas.
The flame you are seeing is the only flame that is in a fridge. It's not a pilot light. IE, It does not light anything else.
As you turn the gas up or down, this one flame gets bigger or smaller.
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Topic: 2 way fridge
