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Fridge repairs in SE England/Greater London

Posted: 27 Sep 2011, 12:05
by Ralf85
I looked on the wiki but could not find any recommendations for a fridge repair service. My mate's fridge has packed up and unfortunately Pete the fridge man has retired. Can anybody help? Cheers.
:)
Patrick

Re: Fridge repairs in SE England/Greater London

Posted: 27 Sep 2011, 14:00
by The Bishop
From what I have discovered they are fairly straight forward. What isn't working- 12v/240v/gas.

Each of these heats an element or burns a flame which heats the gases. Slide the fridge out and have a look. If it's the gas not lighting, maybe a gas fitter can help. carefully put your hand next to the electrical element and you will see if these are heating up when switched on. If not, you can get a new one on e-bay.

If you've got heat but the fridge isn't working you could try the turning is upswide down for 24 hours trick to distribute the gases.

Hope this gets you started.

Re: Fridge repairs in SE England/Greater London

Posted: 27 Sep 2011, 14:28
by davmar
Sometimes the flow of ammonia can become "vapor locked", and turning it off will allow the pressures to equalize (the old method was called "burping", and consisted of taking the refrigerator out and turning it upside down for a couple of hours and trying again. :ok

Re: Fridge repairs in SE England/Greater London

Posted: 27 Sep 2011, 15:04
by Ralf85
Cheers for your input. My mate has gone through all the usual things as you suggest. It worked briefly but then stopped again, which is why he wants a fridge fixer to have a look at it as he hasn't got the time to keep taking it out. He is happy to pay for it to be fixed.
:)
Patrick

Re: Fridge repairs in SE England/Greater London

Posted: 27 Sep 2011, 16:24
by pedro
I struggled to find anyone around here. The best I could do was send mine up with a mate to Rock Services in Northampton.

Re: Fridge repairs in SE England/Greater London

Posted: 27 Sep 2011, 16:38
by lloydy
I had a look at maybe starting to fix these. Problem is, it's not really viable. The product is at least 20 years old, parts need to be ordered. Fridge needs removing/refitting. Some times they are an easy fix, just looked at my uncles who's fridge was written off by a fridge repairer as pilot assembly broken and no longer available. I removed outside vent and found ignitor cable shorting out on back of fridge, put some insulating tape on it and all is good.
Other times you will have to order parts which could have a weeks wait to arrive, so I would have to keep the fridge until the part arrived.
It's one of those things that don't make you a lot of money unless you do loads of them. But you might catch me in a generous mood if you pm me :lol:

Re: Fridge repairs in SE England/Greater London

Posted: 27 Sep 2011, 17:09
by kentishvanman
Hi,
You could try Caravan Tech Services who are in Hurst Green, Sussex.
They have a mobile service that covers Kent and I'm in Kent so if the fridge was here they could fix it.
Their tel is 01580 860260. Have a look at their web site or phone them and if I can help.............
A lot of the larger caravan dealers have engineers.Is there not a dealer somewhere around you?
Don

Re: Fridge repairs in SE England/Greater London

Posted: 28 Sep 2011, 11:50
by Ralf85
Cheers guys. I will pass the info on. I recommended contacting caravan dealers but he wants a recommendation. If there is anybody closer that is recommended that would be good but I guess it is unlikely. Thanks again.
:)
Patrick