Fridge advice needed

Drover

Drover

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So our dometic 8555 aes fridge is on the wonk again.only a few lights on the LCD screen working and it wont start on anything . No fault light on either.just the blue one.
Whilst away in windy Scotland it gave off a terrible smell for a few days and after getting out of the wind in a few days started working again though wasn't cooling very good.now stopped.
Now giving up on it and need advice on a compressor fridge to replace it...
Ideally a 90 cl one.. can anyone recommend one .
I can alter the units in height by dropping the oven down.
I know the vents (2) and gas need capping off . I guess a new twin core cable from the leisure battery is needed , is 6mm twin core enough.
There are 2x 12 volt cables and a 240 volt in back now but I think (guess) these can't be use due to coming from alternator. The 8555 one also works off solar but I dont think that has ever been connected.
I know they do a 3 way straight swap replacement, though a different model. but not sure I want another one. Or is this the best option?
Sorry for rambling but I cant get my head around it. ☹️
 
Drover said:
So our dometic 8555 aes fridge is on the wonk again.only a few lights on the LCD screen working and it wont start on anything . No fault light on either.just the blue one.
Whilst away in windy Scotland it gave off a terrible smell for a few days and after getting out of the wind in a few days started working again though wasn't cooling very good.now stopped.
Now giving up on it and need advice on a compressor fridge to replace it...
Ideally a 90 cl one.. can anyone recommend one .
I can alter the units in height by dropping the oven down.
I know the vents (2) and gas need capping off . I guess a new twin core cable from the leisure battery is needed , is 6mm twin core enough.
There are 2x 12 volt cables and a 240 volt in back now but I think (guess) these can't be use due to coming from alternator. The 8555 one also works off solar but I dont think that has ever been connected.
I know they do a 3 way straight swap replacement, though a different model. but not sure I want another one. Or is this the best option?
Sorry for rambling but I cant get my head around it. ☹️
Click to expand...
Hi Drover - sorry to hear you are having such problems with your Dometic Unit. We are also having the same problems and cannot get a new pcb from Dometic at all. A bit cheeky but if you do scrap your old unit I would be very interested in seeing and possibly buying your pcbs. Many thanks.
 
Best thing I ever did was junk the pfaffy inefficient and frankly temperamental 3 way dometic
And replace it with a domestic 240v one ...
Already had battery capacity and solar so added a Victron inverter (rejigged the electrics to have the inverter in the wardrobe with the rest of the electrics to power all the 240v sockets in the van )
Managed to plug the mains supply for the fridge into the mains socket that ran the 240v ring on the hob under the cooker ....

Managed to find a domestic fridge that fitted almost perfectly in the hole left by the 3 way ...

Been great .
 
Channelcrosser, I think it's the PCB on mine that is faulty as if I remove and refit the wires to it the LCD screen comes back to life . The lcd screen also goes wonky if the gas jet gets dirty.
But iif I go for a new compressor one you are welcome to have a look at the 8555.
I also cant find a new board
 
Drover said:
So our dometic 8555 aes fridge is on the wonk again.only a few lights on the LCD screen working and it wont start on anything . No fault light on either.just the blue one.
Whilst away in windy Scotland it gave off a terrible smell for a few days and after getting out of the wind in a few days started working again though wasn't cooling very good.now stopped.
Now giving up on it and need advice on a compressor fridge to replace it...
Ideally a 90 cl one.. can anyone recommend one .
I can alter the units in height by dropping the oven down.
I know the vents (2) and gas need capping off . I guess a new twin core cable from the leisure battery is needed , is 6mm twin core enough.
There are 2x 12 volt cables and a 240 volt in back now but I think (guess) these can't be use due to coming from alternator. The 8555 one also works off solar but I dont think that has ever been connected.
I know they do a 3 way straight swap replacement, though a different model. but not sure I want another one. Or is this the best option?
Sorry for rambling but I cant get my head around it. ☹️
Click to expand...
Options:
Straight-swap new 3-way. This is the simplest option. But for many, considered the worst.

12V Compressor. Depending on what you have, there could be a straight-swap in terms of all physical fittings available (I know when I was looking at Replacing my Thetford AES fridge, Thetford made an identically sized 12V Compressor model.
Installation would be very simple, but as you have identified, you would need to run a new 12V Cable from Leisure Battery to Fridge. 6mm2 should be good for that, but if it is a bit of a convoluted extended run, you could consider 10mm2.

240V Compressor. You should be able to find a 240V compressor fridge to generally fit in the hole, but would need to make a frame to fill the gaps (the same would be true of a 12V fridge that was not a match in size)
going 240V option, you would need to devise a way to secure it from moving around and also some kind of door lock to secure when travelling.
To run a 240V fridge you would need an inverter of around 700W and adapt the 240V lead to the fridge so it is fed by the inverter.


The 240V option is the cheapest up-front by quite a margin, even if you have to buy an inverter.
When I replaced my Thetford Fridge, I nearly went for the matching-size 12V one (£1200) but decided in the end to go for an LEC Domestic Fridge/Freezer for around £350.

PS. Yes to capping the gas, but you don't need to blank off the vents. The extra ventilation could be a benefit in the summertime still.
 
My dometic fridge played up last summer but was then ok!
Did some research and this was the likely replacement as it was a good fit
Take a look.
Yes I had decided to change if needed.
www.jacksonsleisure.com

Thetford T2175 12V Compressor Fridge Freezer for Campers & Motorhomes

Thetford T2175 12V Compressor fridge for campers, caravans & motorhomes. Massive 12v fridge freezer for larger vehicles, 174L volume.
www.jacksonsleisure.com www.jacksonsleisure.com
 
jagmanx said:
My dometic fridge played up last summer but was then ok!
Did some research and this was the likely replacement as it was a good fit
Take a look.
Yes I had decided to change if needed.
www.jacksonsleisure.com

Thetford T2175 12V Compressor Fridge Freezer for Campers & Motorhomes

Thetford T2175 12V Compressor fridge for campers, caravans & motorhomes. Massive 12v fridge freezer for larger vehicles, 174L volume.
www.jacksonsleisure.com www.jacksonsleisure.com
Click to expand...
That was the unit I nearly got before deciding to got 240V again due to the significant cost saving. The T2175 looks a very nice fridge/freezer though.
 
jagmanx said:
My dometic fridge played up last summer but was then ok!
Did some research and this was the likely replacement as it was a good fit
Take a look.
Yes I had decided to change if needed.
www.jacksonsleisure.com

Thetford T2175 12V Compressor Fridge Freezer for Campers & Motorhomes

Thetford T2175 12V Compressor fridge for campers, caravans & motorhomes. Massive 12v fridge freezer for larger vehicles, 174L volume.
www.jacksonsleisure.com www.jacksonsleisure.com
Click to expand...
Many thanks.i looked at Jackson's and with some prices they have it was the decision I thought of replacing it.. it is 10 years old.
 
Sally has been thinking that perhaps we could just get a fridge and forget the freezer part of it.....
Though ours is a large fridge/freezer.
 
Channelcrosser said:
Hi Drover,

my PCBs are being looked at at the moment. Try this company - they are working alongside Dometic to try and sort out all of their problems. Speak to Paul in the Technical Department.
www.apuljackelectronics.co.uk
01278 588922
Click to expand...
Cheers, ours had a new pcb fitted around 6 or 7 years ago , it was done free by dometic.. at least I think it was free as I can only find paperwork for supply/fit and test with no bill.
My concern is the electrics are right next to the vent with a ill fitting plastic cover over them.. water ingress is a certainty.
A compressor fridge has nothing exposed and my problem is I was a mechanical engineer in my youth who knows very little of electronic stuff.
Edit.. just seen they are below bristol so not far from us.
 
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230v fridge here fitted after wildebus long test on here, low power but smallish and runs on a soft smart 600w inverter.
A few clips to hold it in, a door lock fitted to the second door swing mount hole, easy peasy job.
fridge a.jpg
inv a.jpg
 
Now when opening the door it's working again, just no idea what it's doing but the water is frozen. It wasn't working yesterday... it's on gas as no ehu. Bloody thing is doing my head in. Can't risk using it
20230125_114722.jpg
 
Have you tried redoing all the connections in the 2 connector blocks as I know they can be troublesome, they also look to be a bit on the exposed side.
 
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