I want to blow up my Thetford fridge.

izwozral

izwozral

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My Thetford three way fridge is showing a code 3 error when I manually select gas, however, when I select AUTO it automatically selects gas [when off grid] & it works fine.
I have just looked on the Thetford website & under the Code 3 section it says 'AC Heater is on when it should be off. Replace power board'.
I am now totally confused & getting mightily frustrated as the power board was replaced last October when it was then less than a year old.
It hardly inspires me with confidence that the fridge wont just pack up when we are abroad on our extended travels.

I always thought Thetford was name to be trusted but it appears to me that they are buying in cheap Chinese parts & appliances that are just not up to the job.

Has anyone had a similar problem?
 
Not with Thetford but with bloody Dometic. Our motorhome (Hymer) is now two years old and the fridge/freezer has never worked properly. We have had the engineer out to it several times and the last time (in April) he said that there was so much wrong with it he recommended a complete replacement. To cut a very long story short, we have been tearing our hair out trying to get someone to do the job (despite the warranty company promptly agreeing to pay for it). Dometic themselves were worse than useless. I eventually got sense out of Lowdham's and they have a new fridge on order. It is due to arrive mid-August! We never had this trouble with the much more basic fridges in our previous two vans. My rule is to never buy anything that has more than two control knobs - I broke that rule and have had a lot of trouble. None of this helps you but at least it shows you are not alone. :)
 
whereas many Electrolux fridges 20 or more years old just keep cooling away ! i wonder how hard it would be to bypass all the clever stuff and just get a modern fridge back to a 3-way that you have to control manually
 
n brown said:
whereas many Electrolux fridges 20 or more years old just keep cooling away ! i wonder how hard it would be to bypass all the clever stuff and just get a modern fridge back to a 3-way that you have to control manually
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If you find out, please let me know! :)
 
fridge power

My 2 way fridge comes from 80s and all I done is, take it out turn upside down .

But a least yours looks good when not working !

when I took it out I made sure that the short wire had a fuses for both + - at side with easy access close to fridge
I could bench test electrics in situ and gas connected. Just fitted kettle lead to power supply and fused switch 12v

I've now made mine 3 way.
 

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We have just left the aire at Montville about 45kms from Dieppe where we stayed last night. The aire proper was rammed full, mostly because the French had got their tables and chairs out all over the place, reducing a 20 space aire to 14. So we parked up in the adjacent car park, reversing up against the fence with 2 others. This left the MH at a bit of a slope to the rear, and although it was at an acceptable angle inside the camper I was already convinced that the bloody useless Thetford fridge was not going to work at this angle. We walked into the village for a meal at the bistro and by the time we got back, about 3/4 of an hour later the Thetford was aready starting to defrost. Got the ramps out and under the rear wheels and the problem was solved. Once again my question is who in their right mind would design a fridge for a camper/ caravan that does not function at anything other than level?! These new fridges, from Dometic, Electrolux, Thetford should be banned from use as they are not fit for purpose, and even when they are working they are pretty useless, not being able to cope with anthing much over 15C.
 
El Veterano said:
We have just left the aire at Montville about 45kms from Dieppe where we stayed last night. The aire proper was rammed full, mostly because the French had got their tables and chairs out all over the place, reducing a 20 space aire to 14. So we parked up in the adjacent car park, reversing up against the fence with 2 others. This left the MH at a bit of a slope to the rear, and although it was at an acceptable angle inside the camper I was already convinced that the bloody useless Thetford fridge was not going to work at this angle. We walked into the village for a meal at the bistro and by the time we got back, about 3/4 of an hour later the Thetford was aready starting to defrost. Got the ramps out and under the rear wheels and the problem was solved. Once again my question is who in their right mind would design a fridge for a camper/ caravan that does not function at anything other than level?! These new fridges, from Dometic, Electrolux, Thetford should be banned from use as they are not fit for purpose, and even when they are working they are pretty useless, not being able to cope with anthing much over 15C.
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I have had two fridges in my 'vans so far.

A Dometic/Electrolux and now a Thetford.

The Dometic worked perfectly when the 'van was parked on a steep hill outside my house. The fridge was installed across the 'van at the rear so the slope on the fridge was fore and aft.

The Thetford I now have in the newer van is installed at the side so any slope is crossways. This I have used with the 'van parked facing slightly downhill and uphill, and it works perfectly. I haven't tried it on a more extreme slope.

So my experiences don't echo yours ...

PS I was bit concerned about the Thetford when I got the 'van, but so far it has worked really well - touch wood - and better than expected.
 
izwozral said:
I always thought Thetford was name to be trusted but it appears to me that they are buying in cheap Chinese parts & appliances that are just not up to the job.
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I think you'll find that a very large percentage of products sold throughout the world, including the big name brands, are either made in China or have Chinese parts inside. If this wasn't the case, most things would cost a lot more.
 
POI Admin said:
I have had two fridges in my 'vans so far.

A Dometic/Electrolux and now a Thetford.

The Dometic worked perfectly when the 'van was parked on a steep hill outside my house. The fridge was installed across the 'van at the rear so the slope on the fridge was fore and aft.

The Thetford I now have in the newer van is installed at the side so any slope is crossways. This I have used with the 'van parked facing slightly downhill and uphill, and it works perfectly. I haven't tried it on a more extreme slope.

So my experiences don't echo yours ...

PS I was bit concerned about the Thetford when I got the 'van, but so far it has worked really well - touch wood - and better than expected.
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Yes, I think it is very much the luck of the draw, as with most things. This one is mounted on the side of the MH as is yours, so I think I will probably take the fridge out again and turn it upside down a few times (I already did this a couple of years ago), and then put an old computer fan on the external grill to try and get the hot air out. It of course also depends where you and your MH spend most of your time - if you were to spend it mostly in the UK then I think these fridges would be fine, but we spend most of our time in the MH around central France and beyond. Where we have just come from was 33C and the fridge could barley cope with that even on the max setting, and on mains elec some of the time.
 
Yes, thanks for your observations David. I also never had any problems with my old Electrolux fridge in my old 1983 Autotrail. In fact you had to turn the thing down in anything but the hottest weather as it would even freeze the milk if you weren't careful!
 
as i've said before, we went for years in hot places without one, and now we have one ,we don't use it much. i put it on 240v before we go, then have it on 12v when we drive, but when we stop we rarely bother putting the gas on . any perishable food is eaten,cold beers are drunk, milk is longlife, marg goes a bit runny-don't care.

life without a fridge is possible !
 
n brown said:
as i've said before, we went for years in hot places without one, and now we have one ,we don't use it much. i put it on 240v before we go, then have it on 12v when we drive, but when we stop we rarely bother putting the gas on . any perishable food is eaten,cold beers are drunk, milk is longlife, marg goes a bit runny-don't care.

life without a fridge is possible !
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Perhaps for some but not for me.
Bought my motorhome to have all the luxuries of home no roughing it for me.
Nothing worse than soft Lurpak on my morning toast lol ! I also take frozen home made chineses, spag bolls, fish etc so need the freezer.
Joking aside my Dometic fridge freezer works regardless of Any slope. Back to front, side to side makes no difference.
Haven't been over the channel as yet so fridge hasn't been used in high ambient temperatures.
 
n brown said:
as i've said before, we went for years in hot places without one, and now we have one ,we don't use it much. i put it on 240v before we go, then have it on 12v when we drive, but when we stop we rarely bother putting the gas on . any perishable food is eaten,cold beers are drunk, milk is longlife, marg goes a bit runny-don't care.

life without a fridge is possible !
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Yes - but slightly more difficult than it needs to be, especially when you are in 30C + for most of the time. We all managed without fridges or air-con in cars as well back in the 50's and 60's, but I wouldn't even consider a vehicle without air-con these days - unless of course it was a motorcycle!
I suppose the point really is that if you have got a fridge, then you expect it to do what fridges do, ie work!
 
I agree with El Capitano, my fridge would cost £1,195.00 to replace which is hardly cheap, so imo it isn't too much to ask for when expecting it to work properly at less than 18 months old. Ok, I can get it fixed under the warranty but I really shouldn't have to given it's age, it is a very poor show for Thetford.
 
I note in the Thetford manual that for an ambient temperature of 25C the thermostat should be set at 3 (out of 5).

I tried this the week before last when the outside temperature was above this, and the fridge temperature was 6C and the freezer -12C.

The standard Thetford vents in my Auto-Trail seem to vent the heat from the fridge very well. I seem to recall that with absorption fridges the cooling is typically 20 degrees below ambient. So in temperatures of 35C it's going to struggle.

Best answer is to make sure it gets good and cold overnight and open the door as little as possible during the day.
 
n brown said:
perhaps now solar panels are so cheap we should all be looking at compressor fridges and stop messing around with these 3 way fridges

Waeco Fridges Coolmatic Caravan and Boat Camping Fridge Range UK
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Waeco CR80 compressor fridge looks the part tbh. only runs off 240 v though which means you would need an inverter how feasible that is no idea ...inverters not my thing tbh ....A few weeks ago O reilly were selling new dometics for £700 which is cheap designed for the Australian market. They are in effect 3 years old from the serials bu tsold brand new with warranty

Channa
 
My apologies David you are quite correct , 12 /24v only. has anyone used one , if so I would be interested in their review re how much they hammer the batteries etc

Channa
 
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