Went away 2 weeks ago in our Compass 362. Temperature was 20 deg+. Switched Truma Fridge on at home for around 3 hours running on gas to cool down fridge before commencing our journey of around 2 hours. Switched to 12v for the journey. On arrival set up caravan fridge to run on gas as no EHU available. Next morning OH complained fridge was not cold. Gas indicator in the green section and I could feel heat coming out of external Fridge vents. We had a 2.2 kw generator running in the day so switched to 240v from gas but still fridge not cold. My guess is that internal temperature of fridge was around +2-5 deg. On returning home connected to 240v mains and fridge was cold in around 30 mins. Switched off waited a fe hours atested with the gas and again cold in around 30 mins. Was the outside temperature too great for fridge to cool to cold?
Van is not due for service until September. Any suggestions to the problem
yes i think it was too hot outside for the fridge to cope.we were at blackpool and it was so unbelievably hot towards the weekend.our fridge was working overtime on 7 setting to keep up.so much so the rear of the worktop at the back of the sink was hot.there must be a cut off limit to which they can go too.
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
the fridge in a lesiure vehicle is a GAS appliance with 12v and 240v added as a bonus, the fridge will work at its most efficient when left on gas. When travelling the fridge is on 12v, it will only cool to around 11 degrees below ambient. If the temp was 21 degrees while you were travelling your fridge would have been warming up. Even when set up on site on 240v it is still an electric element heating the gas in the back of the fridge and takes a long time to get the fridge cold, the very same thing happened to me last year, for a whole weekend i switched my fridge between gas and 240 genni power and the fridge did not get cool, a couple of hours on gas and a couple of hours on 240 would have undone the cooling of the gas before the electric element got the fridge going again. Espeicially when hot outside. No EHU on site, put fridge on gas and leave on gas. It is the best option. When you got home, what sort of temp was it around your caravan, i'm guessing it was a bit cooler then when you were away. I think your fridge is fine, just like mine was. When you have your caravan serviced, ask for a fridge service, your engineer should clean the gas flue at the back of the fridge and change the gas jet. Hope this puts your mind at rest.
the fridge in a lesiure vehicle is a GAS appliance with 12v and 240v added as a bonus, the fridge will work at its most efficient when left on gas. When travelling the fridge is on 12v, it will only cool to around 11 degrees below ambient. If the temp was 21 degrees while you were travelling your fridge would have been warming up. Even when set up on site on 240v it is still an electric element heating the gas in the back of the fridge and takes a long time to get the fridge cold, the very same thing happened to me last year, for a whole weekend i switched my fridge between gas and 240 genni power and the fridge did not get cool, a couple of hours on gas and a couple of hours on 240 would have undone the cooling of the gas before the electric element got the fridge going again. Espeicially when hot outside. No EHU on site, put fridge on gas and leave on gas. It is the best option. When you got home, what sort of temp was it around your caravan, i'm guessing it was a bit cooler then when you were away. I think your fridge is fine, just like mine was. When you have your caravan serviced, ask for a fridge service, your engineer should clean the gas flue at the back of the fridge and change the gas jet. Hope this puts your mind at rest.
regards,
Ian
Thanks for your reply Ian
Yes outside temperature had cooled around 5+ deg when I tested at home
My dealer always includes the fridge in their service
I can't agree with the above, today there is no significant difference between gas and electric, however, it must be said very old fridges used low wattage elements that slowed the cooling down, since the late 80's you should not notice the difference to the gas output.
On electric or gas an empty fridge should be under 0C in the freezer in one hour, if not there is something wrong?
If though you fill the fridge with 'warm' food, it will take many hours to cool the lot down.
It is also important the fridge is more or less level, at least side to side, in general though you would not want to live in a van so out of level the fridge won't work!
These fridges are designed to take 30C maybe 32C from the outside temperature, so plus 21C outside should equal minus 10C in the freezer compartment.
12v is also capable of performing the same as the other two, infact better as it's uncontrolled? however, voltage drop due to under sized wires means 12v is often below 10v at the element and no good at all for effective cooling
There are many possible reasons for poor performance, apart from actual faults and lack of service, poor installation is quite often the cause.
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Topic: Truma Fridge
