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Post by newjack66 on Jun 3, 2011 16:32:41 GMT 10
Hi Interior work is coming along swimmingly so our minds our starting to turn to putting everything back into our little Modern. We have plugged in the original Electrolux fridge and it works great on power. However the outside coil ( I am sure there is a technical term for it but I have no idea what that is) at the back is getting extremely hot. Now I know that fridges do get warm but how hot is too hot? After about an hour of running our coil is almost too hot to put your hand on. We have asked our local fridge repairer but he doesn't even want to look at anything that old. Any advice from someone in the know about whether this amount of heat is normal for three way fridges would be appreciated thanks Jenny
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Post by Franklin1 on Jun 7, 2011 14:16:00 GMT 10
G'day Jenny, I'm not really "someone in the know" in terms of being qualified, so I can only give you my personal experience. I bench-tested the fridge out of my van during the restoration, and during the test I too found the top of the pipework to be very hot when placing the palm of my hand on it. This photograph shows how I would rate the level of heat from the burner (right hand side) to the end of the cooling fins (obviously, red is hot, and yellow is warm )... My bench-test told me that if you set your thermostat on 'medium' and get a temperature, inside the fridge at the bottom, of 6 degrees or less after operating the fridge for, say, six hours, then it apparently doesn't matter how hot the pipework gets at the back. As long as the fridge is getting down to temp on the mid-point setting, then things must be working ok. If you need to set the thermostat down to the "Coldest" setting to achieve six degrees inside at the bottom, then something is "not quite right" and the absorption unit at the back will be working too hard (and maybe getting excessively hot). These absorption fridges are more efficient on gas than 240V elect, with 12V (if you have that option) being the worst by far. For the same thermostat setting, a gas-operated fridge will be 1-2 degrees colder than if operated on 240V. The other thing to keep in mind about these absorption fridges is that they are fussy about being level. The 'experts' advise you to never have the fridge more than 3 degrees out of level (in both directions) otherwise it won't work properly. I've found from experience with ours in the van, that if I haven't got it fairly level when we set the van up, it does seem to struggle to get cold. I carry a little spirit level in the van to help with getting the jockey wheel at the right height. If you want to give yourself a headache, and read a lot of techno-babble about how these fridges work, and how to improve the cooling, we have an interesting thread on our Classic Caravans forum here. cheers, Al.
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Post by newjack66 on Jun 9, 2011 18:47:36 GMT 10
Thanks Al, we went down to plug the fridge in this afternoon armed with your very helpful info and discovered the kid's rabbit had half way chewed through the cord! So getting the cord replaced has been added to our very long and growing to do list. As soon as we have I will do a temp test. The only good thing about the rabbit incident is that Darren was so p'd off he is taking it out on the paint on the exterior of the van with the sander! thanks again Jenny
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Post by Franklin1 on Jun 10, 2011 11:45:42 GMT 10
G'day again, Jenny, Good heavens! Lucky the fridge wasn't plugged in and turned on when Mr. Floppsy decided to chomp on the cable! Could have ended up with friccaseed rabbit on the menu that night!! It would have been one of the rare times the child would eat their vegetables instead of their meat! ( "Mum, I am NOT eating Mr. Floppsy!!! Pass me some more of that spinach and broccoli!" ) But I digress... Harking back to the requirement for these fridges to be "level" for optimum operation, I thought I might add a bit more info into this thread to help people with the question, "How level is level?" By my calculations, 3 degrees is equal to a height of 6mm over a length of 100mm. Therefore, a fridge of 500mm width can be out of whack by up to 30mm from side to side, and still be within the 3 degree limit. A van of 6ft 6" width (2000mm) can have one side out of whack to the other by up to 120mm (or about 5 inches). How do you tell 3 degrees using a spirit level? I use one of those spirit levels that bricklayers use on builders' string. If the bubble moves just outside the line marks, that's a one degree change, as shown in the following photographs... That suggests to me that you can't actually measure a 3 degree tilt using a typical bubble level. The best they will give you is a 1 degree reading. But, that's ok, because if your spirit level is showing the bubble to be floating freely anywhere within the length of the bubble glass, then you should be well within the 3 degree limit. (That's my interpretation of it, anyway. ) Where do you find these spirit levels? There are a few different types listed on ebay (...search for " caravan level")... ...but the prices are more than I've noticed in local Discount Stores. No postage from your local store either. Hope this is of interest. cheers, Al.
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