Time for a new fridge

[pirate-pete]

Well done - the electrics should be easy in comparison to the gas to troubleshoot. Just get a meter and put it across the elements and if you get no reading you need a new element.

Probably the wrong time of year to check if the fridge is getting cold by feel as in this weather it is probably warmer inside the fridge than out.

[nobbyfox]

Well done - the electrics should be easy in comparison to the gas to troubleshoot. Just get a meter and put it across the elements and if you get no reading you need a new element.

Probably the wrong time of year to check if the fridge is getting cold by feel as in this weather it is probably warmer inside the fridge than out.

Thanks Pirate-Pete. I only tend to use my fridge on gas anyway as it is so good. And yes it is very cold, well it was this morning on the way to work even with my thermals under my bike jacket and trousers!

[AdrianC]

Well done - the electrics should be easy in comparison to the gas to troubleshoot. Just get a meter and put it across the elements and if you get no reading you need a new element.

Just to clarify that a bit - with the fridge out, you can see where the two elements are connected to the rest of the circuitry. Disconnect them, remembering which one went were - it doesn't matter which way round they go, but it does matter which one's connected to which. Put your multimeter on a resistance setting across the two wires for the element. If it's open-circuit, the element's dead. Then plug the fridge in to both mains and 12v, and put it on the mains setting, full cold. Put the meter on an AC voltage setting across the two terminals the element was disconnected from. Check you've got 240v. Start the van, and put it onto 12v setting. Check you've got 12v across the terminals for that element.

If all of that pans out, you only need two elements. Since the actual refrigerant circuit works (we know it does, because the same refrigerant does the cooling on all three power sources, it's only the heat source that varies), we know that a working element will make the fridge work on those settings.

If you aren't seeing the right voltage in the right places, then it's time to dig further.

When our mains element died just over a year ago, we got replacements for both mains and 12v from this guy on eBay.

[nobbyfox]

Thanks Adrian,
I will sort out the fridge this year (promise) but in no hurry as its working on gas. And I do have my portable Dometic Fridge aswell.
You can also get all the fridge parts from Guzle.