Hot weather fridge failure

quatermass replied on 05/07/2022 12:55

quatermass

Posted on 05/07/2022 12:55

Our recent French holiday was marred by poor fridge performance which was made worse by a dismissive e-mail from Coachman when we asked for technical advice. I have spoken to Dometic's technical manager who made a number of very pertinent points and suggestions. It is well known that caravan fridge performance can decline markedly at ambient temperatures above 30C. This is exacerbated by the current trend of the caravan industry for siting the fridge on the nearside of the van which means that the fridge vents into a hot awning and worse that an open caravan door can cover the vents and reduce the efficiency of the air flow over cooling fins. Domestic recommend that owners should fit a fan kit before taking a van abroad to France, Spain or Italy; this greatly improves the cooling efficiency. I confirmed this by removing the fridge louvres and placing a small desktop fan in the upper aperture which greatly improved matters.

I am very angry that neither the manufacturers nor the dealers make any mention of this in their literature; cooling fans are not even mentioned in the optional extras lists for Swift and Coachman vans (I don't know about Bailey) despite being well aware of the problem. Dometic also tell me that they have had discussions with the industry regarding the nearside placement of caravan fridges.

Many people take their vans to the continent and with the climate changing here in the UK I would have thought that it would be in the industry's interest to do something about this problem.

2 people like this

18 replies

hitchglitch replied on 18/07/2022 19:31

Member

hitchglitch

Motorhomer from Buckinghamshire

Posted on 18/07/2022 19:31

The Thetford fridge in our previous Motorhome performed better than the Dometic.

Rufs replied on 19/07/2022 07:49

Member

Rufs

Caravanner from Hampshire

Posted on 18/07/2022 19:31 by hitchglitch

The Thetford fridge in our previous Motorhome performed better than the Dometic.

Posted on 19/07/2022 07:49

our Thetford in our 2008 caravan struggled at 43 degc C in the van, but it was woirking, and the temperature sensor failed while we were in Spain, but i contacted Thetford customer service Barcelona and they were brilliant, told me the nearest dealer that had the part in stock, 40 mins drive, sensor was €22 and then the engineer talked me thru fitting it, so all up and running within 24 hrs.

Tammygirl replied on 19/07/2022 14:01

Member

Tammygirl

Motorhomer from Perthshire

Posted on 19/07/2022 14:01

We didn't have any issues with our fridge while in 36c in France. We try and park the fridge side of the van (drivers side) in the shade if possible. However we have heard that lots of others who have the same van are having problems, some resorted to gas during the hottest part of the day.

OH has now setup a 12v fan in the lower vent, not permanently connected but it's there should we ever encounter an issue.

The caravan fridge is on the awning side, which is a pain as we like to sit at that side and tend to face the sun. We do have a canopy though so that does help a bit to shade the vents.

obbernockle replied on 19/07/2022 22:34

obbernockle

Posted on 19/07/2022 22:34

The Dometic fridge in our caravan was struggling to cope with the temperatures in France over the last few 36 deg days. We have a double 12v fan installed in the outlet vent. We reduced the mass of food and drink stuff, leaving a space around the cooling fins, and the reduced temperature was quite quickly about 5 deg. We now keep drinks in a separate 12v cooler box obtained from a supermarket. The fridge is coping OK.

commeyras replied on 22/07/2022 16:48

Member

commeyras

Caravanner from West Sussex

Posted on 22/07/2022 16:48

There is a useful article in the latest mag about fridges. Most of the suggestions mentioned here are covered but also it is suggested that you do not pack items tightly against the cooling fins.

Ukzero replied on 25/07/2022 16:58

Member

Ukzero

Posted on 25/07/2022 16:58

When we ordered our new caravan (collected Feb '22) we were given the option of choosing from a variety of fridges. Being familiar with the performance issues of absorption fridges having always had these before we took the gamble to go for a Thetford compressor fridge.

What a difference. Gets properly cold very quickly and stays that way (no matter how hot it gets outside). The large freezer drawer is very handy. The compressor is super quiet and power consumption not an issue (our battery box has space for two leisure batteries so was less worried about this than we might have been).

Compressor fridge every time now for us.

Rufs replied on 26/07/2022 09:05

Member

Rufs

Caravanner from Hampshire

Posted on 26/07/2022 09:05

"Most of the suggestions mentioned here are covered but also it is suggested that you do not pack items tightly against the cooling fins"

Yes indeed and our Thetford, which is now 13 years old, we had error code 13 showing on the front panel, this indicates that the temperature sensor has failed, this sensor is on fin 5 inside the fridge, it simply clips to the fin and is attached to the workings by a very thin cable, i was told it has to go on fin 5, i replaced this myself, so i guess if you pack stuff tightly against this sensor then things might not work how you would expect them to work.