3 Way Fridges On Ebay Opinions?

Pretty sure these don't have an exhaust to outside. Not a very good idea!

Check though 👍
 
I put one that I bought off Amazon into my Daughters build, the exhaust I made up from diesel heater exhaust and fitted dometic fridge vents and it's working beautifully. These cheap Chinese fridges have the same exhaust as the more well known big brands but are a lot lower down due to the physical size of the fridge, so you either elevate the fridge or lengthen the exhaust as I did. Phil, simples.

P.s.
So long as the fridge is in a sealed off compartment with an exhaust that emits to the atmosphere, with vents top and bottom of the compartment there should be no danger of monoxide fumes entering the living space. If the flame is burning correctly there should not be any monoxide in any case, but correctly fitting the fridge and exhaust would prevent any monoxide from entering.

I fitted one from Ebay in my sister in laws van and that was 3 years ago, it's still doing sterling work and without fault.
 
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Purchased a small ebay item, Im fitting a flue pipe, how hot does the pipe get after about 50cm? its going straight up to the roof & Im thinking about insulation requirements,thanks
 
Be aware that an exhaust that long could cause problems with the heater exchanger, in so much as if the heat by the exchanger is too much the fridge might be so efficient that it becomes a freezer more than a fridge, it's not the air circulation around the fins I'm talking about it's the exchange of heat to refrigerant at the burner end, I had to remove the .metal spiral plate on my daughters to let the heat disperse more easily up the exhaust because the exhaust was about 30cm longer than it should have been. Don't mix the two heat settings a) The heat that is cooled by the vents top and bottom and b) The heat that is generated in the exhaust at the burner. Phil.

P.s. Though I have in the past seen some pretty long exhausts on commercial builds at motorhome shows but unfortunately you can't find out much about the construction as inevitably the chaps on site are basically sales men and are not involved in building them.
 
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Oh, thanks for the info' , so leave the out let as is & vent the rear space of the fridge to the outside? thank you
 
farang said:
Oh, thanks for the info' , so leave the out let as is & vent the rear space of the fridge to the outside? thank you
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Usually the commercial exhaust that you can purchase from the likes of Dometic, increase the exhaust length by not much more than about 15cm from the top of the fridge exhaust to where it would vent to the atmosphere. Phil.
 
If a vent pipe was added just above the fridge outlet and vented to the outside with a tap on it it could be throttled to get the venting correct.
 
farang said:
If a vent pipe was added just above the fridge outlet and vented to the outside with a tap on it it could be throttled to get the venting correct.
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Evening Farang,
To be honest if it's only just above the top fridge vents it wouldn't need throttling as it would only be an extra few cm in any case. One of the most important add ons with any fridge is a fan system to give a boost to the cooling air driven past the rear of the fridge. I've got two computer fans mounted behind the top fridge vent driven by the spare pump supply of my 12volt sargent ec328 consumer unit, and where loads of people were complaining the their fridges were not coping over this hot weather, our fridge has been keeping our ice cream frozen, folks couldn't believe that we were able to store ice lollies, so fans moving cooling air up through the fridge compartment really does make a difference.
But as I was suggesting the best way would be to vent these small fridges in a conventional way with Dometic style vents with the fridge raised or lowered to enable missing bodywork main supports etc. Phil
 
What I meant to say is on the vent pipe just as it leaves the burner T off a connection so that you can bleed off some of the draw from the exhaust pipe that goes up & out of the roof, ( I can not vent through the side.)
 
farang said:
Oh, thanks for the info' , so leave the out let as is & vent the rear space of the fridge to the outside? thank you
Click to expand...
Only just noticed this post, no ideally the fridge exhaust should always be vented to outside. In theory if the fridge cabinet is sealed totally from the living space and vented top and bottom then the fridge exhaust could be allowed to directly empty into the cabinet space though in practice this would be very dangerous and could allow carbon monoxide fumes into the living space if the cabinet was not completely sealed. I personally would not go down that root.
If your talking of putting vents in the side of the van top and bottom of the fridge cabinet what is the reason you can not vent the fridge exhaust through the side aswell?
Why must you vent the exhaust through the roof. Phil
 
3 way old gas fridges are old hat, go small electric if you have solar and 200ah battery bank, mine works easy over 24 hrs without sunlight, never flattened a battery bank all year round, except lowish nov/dec and early jan.
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I now have one of those three way fridges, when switched to 12v it does nothing. The gas feed I was hoping to use the same bottle that does the cooker, the pressure needs to be very low. Ive looked for an inline regulator but no luck so far. Do I have to use two bottles + reg's etc?
 
Hi,
Surely if you have a gas cooker you already are using a regulator? if you are using gas straight from the bottle without a regulator it is very dangerous or would be impossible to control the pressure.
The same regulator as used on the bottle will also feed the 3 way fridge on gas, how that would be done would depend on how your present setup is constructed. For instance are you feeding the cooker directly from the regulator by flexi hose? Or have you got a bottle to regulator then copper pipe to cooker. All this really makes a difference as to the advise that can be given. Phil
 
As for the 12volt side of things, when setting up correctly via a relay from the cab battery triggered by the alternator, a 12volt supply is fed to the 12volt heater coil in the fridge, this heater is very energy hungry hence only kicking in when the engine is running and the alternator is charging the cab battery and so also the fridge 12volt heater.
This method is only used whilst travelling and it only keeps the fridge at tempreture during travelling time, when you arrive the 12volts is automatically disconnected from the fridge so as not to flatten the cab battery, you must then either light it on gas or turn it to mains power to continue while stopped at camp.
The 12volt heater is very inefficient and takes some time to cool the fridge down, the chances are if you connect a 12v 100ah lead acid battery to it it would flatten the battery almost before the fridge showed signs of cooling down, though some makes of 3 way fridges are more efficient than others on 12volts but suffice to say it takes a long time to show itself cooling on 12volts alone.

P.s
Don't forget that there is also two sections to the 12v supply on most fridges, there is the 12volts for the fridge door lights / and or if it's a top end fridge the computer control module and the other 12v supply heavy duty for the heater so when connecting up the 12v supply from the cab battery make sure it's connected to the heater terminals and not just the interior light terminals.
 
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Thanks for that, the gas at the psi for the fridge to work is so low the cooker burners are only at 60% of the full flame when at the higher pressure
I might try a restrictor in the gas pipe to the fridge.

It only has one lead for 12v, with it connected I have lights, but it does not draw any noticable current when the controls call for 12v cooling. I only intend to use the 12v when the van is running.
 
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