# 3 way fridges...how do they work?



## fofeg101 (May 28, 2011)

I must confess to knowing nothing about refrigeration and even less about how a 3 way fridge works but our Electrolux 4200 doesn't get cold on a long run via the vehicle electrics and starter battery. The salesman, a serial prevaricator, at the motorhome dealers where we bought it from said the 240v and 12v used the same element but due to the 12v being less powerful the fridges never worked very well. Although I'm a complete duffer on this subject I can't see putting 12v through a 240v element is going to work at all. Any advice please?


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## kimbowbill (May 28, 2011)

fofeg101 said:


> I must confess to knowing nothing about refrigeration and even less about how a 3 way fridge works but our Electrolux 4200 doesn't get cold on a long run via the vehicle electrics and starter battery. The salesman, a serial prevaricator, at the motorhome dealers where we bought it from said the 240v and 12v used the same element but due to the 12v being less powerful the fridges never worked very well. Although I'm a complete duffer on this subject I can't see putting 12v through a 240v element is going to work at all. Any advice please?


 
Hi

I'm not very good on these either but what i do know is that if your fridge is connected to the 12v and you turn your engine off you fridge just keeps on running and very quickly drain your battery :scared:, I have disconnected mine because the small amount of gas it uses is not worth the hassle and worry of a flat battery, i'm sure someone will put you right on here, some very knowledgable peeps here, this is just my choice, if I get on a site, which is very rare, i will put it on the hook up, if i put the jenny on i change it to 240, I think there is a relay switch that you can install but again its remembering to turn it off.

hope this helps
jen


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## fofeg101 (May 28, 2011)

kimbowbill said:


> Hi
> 
> I'm not very good on these either but what i do know is that if your fridge is connected to the 12v and you turn your engine off you fridge just keeps on running and very quickly drain your battery :scared:, I have disconnected mine because the small amount of gas it uses is not worth the hassle and worry of a flat battery, i'm sure someone will put you right on here, some very knowledgable peeps here, this is just my choice, if I get on a site, which is very rare, i will put it on the hook up, if i put the jenny on i change it to 240, I think there is a relay switch that you can install but again its remembering to turn it off.
> 
> ...


 
Thanks Jen, On my fridge the switch on the fridge which controls the 12v side lights up when I start the engine but goes out when I turn the engine off so I guess there's a gadget which stops the fridge draining the battery. BTW, the fridge works fine on mains hook up and on gas.
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## AndyC (May 28, 2011)

fofeg101 said:


> I must confess to knowing nothing about refrigeration and even less about how a 3 way fridge works but our Electrolux 4200 doesn't get cold on a long run via the vehicle electrics and starter battery. The salesman, a serial prevaricator, at the motorhome dealers where we bought it from said the 240v and 12v used the same element but due to the 12v being less powerful the fridges never worked very well. Although I'm a complete duffer on this subject I can't see putting 12v through a 240v element is going to work at all. Any advice please?



There are two elements, 12v and 240v.

The 12v elements are sometimes not very efficient, they will keep the fridge cold but may not be good enough to cool it down.

If your fridge is not staying cool on a long run, make sure that you have the 12v switch on the fridge switched on. If it still is not keeping cool go back to the dealer and get them to fix it. Assuming that you have recently bought the motorhome of course...

Fridge manual here: http://www.electrolux-ui.com:8080/1998/821/264802en.pdf

AndyC


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## Pollik (May 28, 2011)

On my van, the 12v fridge system will only work when the engine is running...no chance of running the battery down that way.

I leave both switches in the 'On' position permanently...only one will be working at any given time.


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## bedford1984 (May 28, 2011)

*12 volt fridge*

on my bedford the fridge only works on 12 volt when the engine is running too. i usually hook mine up to the house the night before then switch to 12 volt when i set off and it keeps cold until i get where i am going then its either gas or hookup


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## fofeg101 (May 28, 2011)

AndyC said:


> There are two elements, 12v and 240v.
> 
> The 12v elements are sometimes not very efficient, they will keep the fridge cold but may not be good enough to cool it down.
> 
> ...


 
Thanks Andy, Just as I thought that salesman is a first class prevaricator. On two 100 miles trips the fridge never got cold at all running on 12v so me thinks the element is kaput. Yes, we only recently purchased the van so in theory it is still under warranty, in fact, when I suspected there was a fault in the fridge I contacted the third party warranty company, and, after using up £10 worth of credit on my cell phone, they said the fault would be covered by their warranty but I had to get it fixed within 14 days or they wouldn't pay out. I rang a number of caravan fitters who were all too busy to fix it within the 14 days, so, I contacted the dealer and in between the torrent of the salesman's prevarication got them to have the van back for attention, there were 4 minor faults in the habitation side including the fridge fault. The dealer is located in Wem, Shropshire, some 40 miles from my home, it takes three buses to get there but thankfully we have our free bus passes so it costs nothing, we took the van up there and left it. After 3 days they called to say the van was ready. When we got up there the salesman gave us all the "old granny" about the fridge operation and we found they had only fixed one fault, a duff wire to the water pump. The annoying thing is we have lost the chance of getting the fridge fixed under the warranty now the 14 days have expired, I'll have to get it fixed at my own expense, there's no way I'm going back to that dealer again. When I had a go at the proprietor his attitude was "It's not a new van it's second hand, it's not perfect" and when I checked the purchase documents I signed I found the "fine print" which just about covers them to wriggle out of any eventuality. My advice is Buy Private.
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## AndyC (May 28, 2011)

fofeg101 said:


> Thanks Andy, Just as I thought that salesman is a first class prevaricator. On two 100 miles trips the fridge never got cold at all running on 12v so me thinks the element is kaput. Yes, we only recently purchased the van so in theory it is still under warranty, in fact, when I suspected there was a fault in the fridge I contacted the third party warranty company, and, after using up £10 worth of credit on my cell phone, they said the fault would be covered by their warranty but I had to get it fixed within 14 days or they wouldn't pay out. I rang a number of caravan fitters who were all too busy to fix it within the 14 days, so, I contacted the dealer and in between the torrent of the salesman's prevarication got them to have the van back for attention, there were 4 minor faults in the habitation side including the fridge fault. The dealer is located in Wem, Shropshire, some 40 miles from my home, it takes three buses to get there but thankfully we have our free bus passes so it costs nothing, we took the van up there and left it. After 3 days they called to say the van was ready. When we got up there the salesman gave us all the "old granny" about the fridge operation and we found they had only fixed one fault, a duff wire to the water pump. The annoying thing is we have lost the chance of getting the fridge fixed under the warranty now the 14 days have expired, I'll have to get it fixed at my own expense, there's no way I'm going back to that dealer again. When I had a go at the proprietor his attitude was "It's not a new van it's second hand, it's not perfect" and when I checked the purchase documents I signed I found the "fine print" which just about covers them to wriggle out of any eventuality. My advice is Buy Private.
> -



Forget the 3rd party 'warranty', your contract is with the dealer.

Unless the faults were pointed out to you at the time of sale, and you accepted the motorhome knowing about them, you have the right to have them repaired 'at no expense to you'.

Of course you may not want the hassle, and in fact it's probably quite a simple fix, as the 12v indicator in the fridge is illuminating with the engine running it probably just needs the 12v element replacing. Half hour job at the most, so long as you can get to the back of the fridge easily.

AndyC


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## fofeg101 (May 28, 2011)

AndyC said:


> Forget the 3rd party 'warranty', your contract is with the dealer.
> 
> Unless the faults were pointed out to you at the time of sale, and you accepted the motorhome knowing about them, you have the right to have them repaired 'at no expense to you'.
> 
> ...


 
When I get a "round-to-it" I'll have a go at fixing it myself. To be honest I ran the fridge on gas after I found the 12v wasn't working and it worked fine, I just had to remember to turn it off when I went into a filling station. I had another problem with there being a lot of play in the barrel of the caravan door lock causing us to pither around trying to get into the van, we felt passers-by thought we were trying to break into it, that didn't get fixed either. Anyway, we found a great caravan breakers in Halesowen in the West Mids. they sorted it out, see another thread I've started elsewhere on the forums.
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## Pollik (May 28, 2011)

There is a perceived wisdom that suggests driving with gas appliances lit is not clever thing to do.  If you should happen to have an accident, gas + flame = kerboom.

Having said that, I don't always remember to turn mine off. :ninja:



Polly


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## fofeg101 (May 28, 2011)

Pollik said:


> There is a perceived wisdom that suggests driving with gas appliances lit is not clever thing to do.  If you should happen to have an accident, gas + flame = kerboom.
> 
> Having said that, I don't always remember to turn mine off. :ninja:
> 
> ...


 
Thanks Polly, point taken, come to think about it there's lots of folks driving around in vehicles with gallons of petrol on board... petrol + battery + spark = It happens nearly ever day on our roads, one reason I always chose diesel engines these days. A friend of mine was one of the first persons on the scene of an accident which happened near here in Hagley, Worcestershire,  some 20+ years ago a number of cars were hit from behind by a run away lorry and burst into flames...my friend says he can still hear the screams of the trapped car occupants now.

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## kimbowbill (May 28, 2011)

Pollik said:


> There is a perceived wisdom that suggests driving with gas appliances lit is not clever thing to do.  If you should happen to have an accident, gas + flame = kerboom.
> 
> Having said that, I don't always remember to turn mine off. :ninja:
> 
> ...


 
live dangerously, lets blow the world up with our campervans


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## Deleted member 207 (May 31, 2011)

fofeg101 said:


> I must confess to knowing nothing about refrigeration and even less about how a 3 way fridge works but our Electrolux 4200 doesn't get cold on a long run via the vehicle electrics and starter battery. The salesman, a serial prevaricator, at the motorhome dealers where we bought it from said the 240v and 12v used the same element but due to the 12v being less powerful the fridges never worked very well. Although I'm a complete duffer on this subject I can't see putting 12v through a 240v element is going to work at all. Any advice please?



Goto http://gasrefrigeration.net/dom_techdata/MAN_SM.PDF on page 10 is an explanation on how the Electrolux/Dometic fridges work. Goto page 28 to get an overview on what is required for electrical system to work. The manual is from the USA and refers to 110V but just replace that with 240V.


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## Firefox (May 31, 2011)

I don't use the 12v on my fridge.

On a long run I just plug it into the 1000w inverter. There's more than enough delivered by the alternator to charge the batteries and run the fridge.

On a short run I don't bother - the fridge stays cool enough in the short term, and  charging the batteries quickly is the priority.


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## mclacr02 (May 31, 2011)

What they all said plus I freeze what I can and then load up the fridge with frozen stuff. It all helps. By the way did you get your door handle fixed?


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## fofeg101 (May 31, 2011)

mclacr02 said:


> What they all said plus I freeze what I can and then load up the fridge with frozen stuff. It all helps. By the way did you get your door handle fixed?


Yep, I fixed the door handle by buying a new one from Halesown Caravan Centre , £19.99. 

Actually we've camped for years without a fridge, we used to use a bowl with a couple of wet dish clothes....the absorption method, the hotter it got the better it worked, that along with powdered milk and warm beer sufficed.
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