Bought a van 18 months ago and have had a problem with the fridge 6 months ago,wouldnt work on electric had 2 caravan companies have a look,and both have said the element has gone.They have tried to remove the element to replace it but its that badly corroded on they are now saying we may have to buy another fridge.Surely when sold the van the caravan company should have spotted this....Anyway if anyone out there is looking to sell a 3 way fridge,please contact me as We would be very interested.Until then our half term hols is going to be put on hold !!
thanks for that,will have a look at whats selling.Yes we thought the same,spoke to thetford who said that it must be in a bad way to have the problem of removing it.
You will find repairers don't like messing around with fridges as described, they might have to do 2 hrs work to find fridge is beyond repair & customers don't like paying for stuff not to be repaired. Putting new elements in fridges is a diy job, repair shops charging by the hour just want to replace fridge.
Is caravan permanently sited with ehu? The best idea might be to use an ordinary domestic fridge, much cheaper & better fridge.
We always use a tenters 3 way fridge on electric as well as our caravans fridge because for 4 people there is not enough space for my beer and the familys food in the one fridge! As already posted, your vans fridge should work on gas even if electric is kaput. Maybe consider buying a free standing 3 way fridge if yours is unrepairable as it will be an easy solution for use on ehu, but you will need to put it somewhere when on site of course. The advantage of one of these compared to a normal household fridge is they are silent in operation plus they are designed to be mobile so tend to keep on working after being bumped about in a caravan or car during transport. I swear by mine - it was money well spent!
------------- Why am i doing this instead of camping??!!
brilliant advice by all you guys..best caravan website around,always some good advice out there.Doit when you say a free standing fridge,dao you mean a caravn free standing fridge or normal household.Excuse me for being a bit simple...buts its andys wife here,and not the man himself !
It depends whether you are using gas or ehu. You can buy a 3 way free standing box fridge. Works the same way as your caravan fridge, ie gas/electric/12v in car. Cost about £160 or more.
If you are running off ehu, for about £70 you could buy a table top household fridge or if permanently sited you could get a bigger one. Certainly household fridges are not really designed to be moved about, but plenty use table top household fridges in camping situations successfully.
Not easy to get out a corroded element but neither is it that difficult?! Two ways of doing it or at least start with method one and move up to the second method.
First remove the insulation to fully expose the element and the tube it fits inside, now you need two hammers, one, preferably a little heavier, you hold tightly against the tube at the back of where you hit with the other. This 'backing hammer' prevents your hammer blows with the lighter hammer doing any damage but also concentrates the blows, the idea is for the blows to vibrate the tube and loosen the grip of the rust, not knock the tube off!
So start fairly lightly and work up, while the rust is solid it will prevent the tube being distorted so you can be quite aggressive, but many lighter blows works better than a few heavy ones.
Last one I did did not respond to this, so fail safe second method is to heat the tube, For this you need oxy-propane or acetylene, not much use getting everything too hot using less heat, you need a lot in small area in a short space of time.
andy68 - i mean a free standing 3 way camping fridge - thay are made to be transported with no moving parts they are reliable and silent in operation. Only downside is they cost more than houshold compressor type fridge. The free standing version can be connected to gas, mains or 12v to keep your beer cold so no excuse for warm frothy beverages! They can be put in your van or in an awning or in a utility tent. Up till this year mine lived in a 'toilet' / utility tent, Now we have a 3.9m porch awning (a sunncamp ultima 390 from memory), and now the fridge lives in there! Ours mainly runs on 240v but it is great on gas too. Like all 3 way fridges, the 12v is only recommended for travelling and not for permanent camping as it is a bit weak compared to the gas/240v options.
------------- Why am i doing this instead of camping??!!
Or you could just get one of those new 5/7 day freezer boxes that use ice to keep everything cold. They are discussed in the equipment section on here. Wish I'd gone for one instead of having a fridge fitted, it would have been much better space-wise - and cheaper to install!.
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Topic: faulty fridge
