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Circe

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This is probably a really stupid question, but hopefully someone will put me on the right track :)

 

We have a 12v fridge that seems to have died on us. The light's working inside, but it's not cooling anything any more. We've tried a couple of things, but it looks like the compressor has failed.

 

We've got 3 options, I think, although would welcome other ideas - either get the compressor fixed/replaced or buy a new fridge (not much difference in price between the two from what I can see)

 

OR (and this is what I need your advice on) - upgrade the boat's domestic battery bank and run a normal household fridge on the boat.

 

Ideally I want an as-cheap-as-possible solution that'll be practical for us. We do need some sort of fridge as we're planning on a 6 week cruise this summer, but I don't know if the battery/domestic fridge idea would work. I'm still a relative newbie as far as having my own boat goes, so may well be talking nonsense! We've currently got 3 batteries but there's space for 5 alongside each other.

 

What do you think? What would you recommend we do? (And thanks in advance for any help!)

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Unless you particularly want to go down the new route, i would keep an eye on fleabay, i have seen loads of 12volt engels etc go on there for around the 50 quid mark, i have one myself i was given 5 years ago by a guy upgrading to a new shoreline and it has served me faultlesly for summer cruising and still looks like new inside, just needed to change the front panel a couple of times to suit my galley units.

 

As for going domestic i cannot personally comment on that, as i havent ever done it, but it seems that those that have seem very happy with the arrangement, you just need to do some homework on the losses of your inverter over going back down the 12volt route.

 

Rick

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Will do - thanks for that :)

 

The old one is a Shoreline one and was perfect for us last summer (family of 5, so there's a fair bit of food!). They're between £400 and £500 new - which almost gave me a coronary when I saw that! There's one on eBay at the mo, so I'll keep watching and see if another bobs up a bit closer to home.

 

We're half-thinking of adding another battery and a bigger inverter anyway. I'm really not sure what the best thing to do here is at all, and I don't want to screw up a perfectly lovely boat with my meddling :lol:

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This is probably a really stupid question, but hopefully someone will put me on the right track :)

 

We have a 12v fridge that seems to have died on us. The light's working inside, but it's not cooling anything any more. We've tried a couple of things, but it looks like the compressor has failed.

 

We've got 3 options, I think, although would welcome other ideas - either get the compressor fixed/replaced or buy a new fridge (not much difference in price between the two from what I can see)

 

OR (and this is what I need your advice on) - upgrade the boat's domestic battery bank and run a normal household fridge on the boat.

 

Ideally I want an as-cheap-as-possible solution that'll be practical for us. We do need some sort of fridge as we're planning on a 6 week cruise this summer, but I don't know if the battery/domestic fridge idea would work. I'm still a relative newbie as far as having my own boat goes, so may well be talking nonsense! We've currently got 3 batteries but there's space for 5 alongside each other.

 

What do you think? What would you recommend we do? (And thanks in advance for any help!)

 

This boat has a 12v fridge which is ok but the internal space is not good though only draws 3.5 amps when running. My last boat was all mains running off only 3 110 amp hour batteries I never switched the fridge off so inverter was running all day every day. The plus points with mains is the fridge price is much cheaper and domestic fridges are better inside than 12v. So to sum up 3 batts is enough you dont need more and I am telling you this as a full time not plugged in liveaboard with the last boat. HOWEVER to do this you need a very good inverter not a cheapo sterling I had a mastervolt 2kw which was very efficient and used very little power on standby 0.6 amp.

I believe your cheapest option at present by far is as stated previously a new 12v fridge or good old fleabay.

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Hello, I guess my advice when you were last up here of a switching it off/on didn't work! :)

 

From what I can remember it was giving 5 flashes? Which is...

 

Thermal cut-out of electronic unit

(If the refrigeration system has been too heavily loaded, or if the ambient temperature is high, the electronic unit will run too hot).

 

Im guessing its neither of those issues due to it been working fine before and your still having the issue. It may be a faulty electronic unit. I would call/email Danfloss tech department too see what they say.

 

If you end up replacing the fridge, if when you use the boat you run cruise in it often a 240v fridge is perfectly fine. (a 12v fridge is more beneficial to liveaboards who need to generate they own electric).

Edited by Robbo
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This is probably a really stupid question, but hopefully someone will put me on the right track :)

 

We have a 12v fridge that seems to have died on us. The light's working inside, but it's not cooling anything any more. We've tried a couple of things, but it looks like the compressor has failed.

 

We've got 3 options, I think, although would welcome other ideas - either get the compressor fixed/replaced or buy a new fridge (not much difference in price between the two from what I can see)

 

OR (and this is what I need your advice on) - upgrade the boat's domestic battery bank and run a normal household fridge on the boat.

 

Ideally I want an as-cheap-as-possible solution that'll be practical for us. We do need some sort of fridge as we're planning on a 6 week cruise this summer, but I don't know if the battery/domestic fridge idea would work. I'm still a relative newbie as far as having my own boat goes, so may well be talking nonsense! We've currently got 3 batteries but there's space for 5 alongside each other.

 

What do you think? What would you recommend we do? (And thanks in advance for any help!

 

re gas is the first option dependent on how old the fridge is.

 

This is probably a really stupid question, but hopefully someone will put me on the right track :)

 

We have a 12v fridge that seems to have died on us. The light's working inside, but it's not cooling anything any more. We've tried a couple of things, but it looks like the compressor has failed.

 

We've got 3 options, I think, although would welcome other ideas - either get the compressor fixed/replaced or buy a new fridge (not much difference in price between the two from what I can see)

 

OR (and this is what I need your advice on) - upgrade the boat's domestic battery bank and run a normal household fridge on the boat.

 

Ideally I want an as-cheap-as-possible solution that'll be practical for us. We do need some sort of fridge as we're planning on a 6 week cruise this summer, but I don't know if the battery/domestic fridge idea would work. I'm still a relative newbie as far as having my own boat goes, so may well be talking nonsense! We've currently got 3 batteries but there's space for 5 alongside each other.

 

What do you think? What would you recommend we do? (And thanks in advance for any help!

 

re gas is the first option dependent on how old the fridge is.

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re gas is the first option dependent on how old the fridge is.

 

If it does need re gassing, then perhaps it would work overtime causing the electronic unit to overheat - can you hear the motor always running?

 

I read on here that turning the fridge upside down was an option to do something with the gas. empty it first thou!

Edited by Robbo
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We tried the on/off thing, but to no avail (it was a cunning plan nonetheless! :lol: )It's still giving 5 flashes and we can't fathom out what on earth is going on with it. Then again, I'm an English teacher, so I'd be very good at helping it to write poetry, but not so good on the technical side!

 

I'm not sure how old the fridge is. It came with the boat we bought almost a year ago now. It worked fine all last year. We switched it off when we winterised the boat, and haven't managed to get it going again this season.

 

We tend to move most days when we're on board, but don't want to kill the batteries. From what Mrsmelly is saying, it sounds like the existing battery bank may be ok (although can't afford one of his amazing inverters!)

 

Will investigate the gas thing (How do you re-gas a fridge?). Hubby says the motor doesn't run in the fridge at all now.

 

Thanks very much for all the help. Really appreciate it.

Edited by Circe
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I believe its only the nice quiet absorbtion type fridges and not compressor fridges that respond to inverting them.

Personally i wouldn't dream of any electric fridge if i wasn't on a land line,as i wouldn't want to be forced to run the engine frequently or generator,sitting on my boat with it droning away,''awful''in my opinion or forced to cruise every day if i didn't want to just for the sake of a fridge,for its not good to run your batteries down to less than 50% of charge

You can of course turn an electric fridge off over night and just get away with it,which helps.

Most folk do a shop every couple of days or so so there's not really any need for a fridge at all. Milk and butter can be placed on the boats base plate through a hatch which most boats usually have at the stern end,preferably on a slab of marble to keep them cool.

Gas absorbtion fridges are the only way to go if you need a fridge and you want peace and quiet and you will only need a very moderate and reasonably inexpensive electrical system. The electric fridge is the main battery killer.

If you're already in possession of a floating power station and you like the sound of engines and generators and don't mind the big expense and aggravation that goes with it all then an electric fridge is the thing for you. Keep cool folks.

My favorite subject this dum de dum. :unsure:

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Thanks, Bizzard :) We tend to move every day anyway when we're on the boat, so it shouldn't be a problem. At most we have 2 nights in a spot.

 

Fridges are handy with a whole family on board. Keeps life simpler (when they don't break down!) and works better for us.

 

Not looked into gas fridges yet. Something else to consider :)

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Thanks, Bizzard :) We tend to move every day anyway when we're on the boat, so it shouldn't be a problem. At most we have 2 nights in a spot.

 

Fridges are handy with a whole family on board. Keeps life simpler (when they don't break down!) and works better for us.

 

Not looked into gas fridges yet. Something else to consider :)

With a gas instantaneous hot water heater and gas fridge you should go be able to go for a week or more without starting anything up if you wanted,as long as your frugal with other electrical devices. lovely.

Have a good cruise Circa.

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If you change to using a 240v fridge, you will almost certainly find that you use somewhere between 1.5 to 2.5 times as much power from the battery as you would with a 12v fridge, depending upon the quality (and price) of the fridge and of the inverter.

 

This translates into needing to charge the batteries more frequently and/or for longer. It is not unreasonable to count a 12v fridge as needing half a battery's worth of energy per day, and a 240v one as taking one battery's worth of energy per day. This translates into more fuel cost and more battery cost (buying more batteries or buying them more often). Add in the cost of the inverter - most fridges need a big inverter to get them started - and the 12v option is overall usually better and cheaper despite the cost of the fridge.

 

Do Shoreline offer any sort of repair service themselves, or have any franchised repairers?

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We have a cheap A rated mains fridge running of a 800W sterling modified sine inverter with 400 Ah of batteries running off a 70A alternator. Works ok for us, but we don't live aboard. The inverter draws about 0.4A continuously and we tend to turn it off at night and back on in the morning partly to save power but also to stop the fridge keeping everyone awake.

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If you have no mains landline and an electric fridge your whole lifestyle will be governed and altered by ''IT''and revolve around''IT''that power hungry beastie under the worktop,like owning a pet.Although i'd much rather own a living animal as indeed i do. :mellow:

Edited by bizzard
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Will investigate the gas thing (How do you re-gas a fridge?). Hubby says the motor doesn't run in the fridge at all now.

 

Thanks very much for all the help. Really appreciate it.

I'd give it a rest, pull it out then switch on. See if it hums, if so check if the grid at the back warms up, also whether the compressor or control unit warm up. Check for any error codes too.

 

If it was defrosted it before winter, was a knife used to chip the ice off the ice box?

 

I read on here that turning the fridge upside down was an option to do something with the gas. empty it first thou!

No, that'll screw up a compressor fridge.

 

cheers,

Pete.

Edited by smileypete
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We're going to have another look at it this afternoon. It's been completely off for 3 weeks, so if anything's going to re-set it, that will!

 

The ice-box hadn't frosted up - we were never on the boat for more than a 2 week stretch last year, so there wasn't any build up at all. When we're off the boat it's turned off, with the door propped open.

 

Hopefully we can fix this one - haven't given up on that yet! We are thinking about a bigger inverter and an extra battery anyway, although we can manage with the set up we've got (and even found a 500w hoover!)

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We're going to have another look at it this afternoon. It's been completely off for 3 weeks, so if anything's going to re-set it, that will!

 

The ice-box hadn't frosted up - we were never on the boat for more than a 2 week stretch last year, so there wasn't any build up at all. When we're off the boat it's turned off, with the door propped open.

 

Hopefully we can fix this one - haven't given up on that yet! We are thinking about a bigger inverter and an extra battery anyway, although we can manage with the set up we've got (and even found a 500w hoover!)

 

Several possibilities. Power is getting to the fridge, otherwise there would be no red light flashing.

Question is whether there's enough power. Are your batteries very low? Try again after you've run the engine for several hours.

 

Second, could be a faulty (open circuit) thermostat. Have you tried rotating the thermostat knob a few times? If that doesn't help, you should be able to remove the thermostat and connect the two wires together. If it then runs the compressor, then you know the thermostat needs replacing.

 

If batteries and thermostat faults are eliminated, there remain other less likely possibilities.

1. The compressor has seized up.

2. The start relay/overload protector attached to the compressor is knackered.

3. If you have ill-advisedly turned the fridge upside down, this can block the capillary tube with oil and cause a

wax blockage.

Sometimes this can clear itself when left the right way up for a day or two. Other times it can't.

 

I would discount loss of refrigerant gas as this would not stop the compressor from running.

 

All these things can be repaired economically, except a compressor change.

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Several possibilities. Power is getting to the fridge, otherwise there would be no red light flashing.

Question is whether there's enough power. Are your batteries very low? Try again after you've run the engine for several hours.

 

Second, could be a faulty (open circuit) thermostat. Have you tried rotating the thermostat knob a few times? If that doesn't help, you should be able to remove the thermostat and connect the two wires together. If it then runs the compressor, then you know the thermostat needs replacing.

 

If batteries and thermostat faults are eliminated, there remain other less likely possibilities.

1. The compressor has seized up.

2. The start relay/overload protector attached to the compressor is knackered.

3. If you have ill-advisedly turned the fridge upside down, this can block the capillary tube with oil and cause a

wax blockage.

Sometimes this can clear itself when left the right way up for a day or two. Other times it can't.

 

I would discount loss of refrigerant gas as this would not stop the compressor from running.

 

All these things can be repaired economically, except a compressor change.

 

Definitely not the top one. We cruised to Leeds and back a few weeks ago and left the engine running until the batteries were fully charged. We restarted the fridge after that but the problem persisted.

 

We've tried turning the thermostat knob a few times but haven't fiddled any further with it than that. We'll try that and report back!

 

Haven't looked at the start relay yet either. I believe they're cheap to replace, so we'll find out what type we've got and give that a whirl too.

 

Thank you very much for the advice :)

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If you change to using a 240v fridge, you will almost certainly find that you use somewhere between 1.5 to 2.5 times as much power from the battery as you would with a 12v fridge, depending upon the quality (and price) of the fridge and of the inverter.

 

This translates into needing to charge the batteries more frequently and/or for longer. It is not unreasonable to count a 12v fridge as needing half a battery's worth of energy per day, and a 240v one as taking one battery's worth of energy per day. This translates into more fuel cost and more battery cost (buying more batteries or buying them more often). Add in the cost of the inverter - most fridges need a big inverter to get them started - and the 12v option is overall usually better and cheaper despite the cost of the fridge.

 

Do Shoreline offer any sort of repair service themselves, or have any franchised repairers?

 

What he says. We have just replaced our 12v 20year old fridge . Even though we are on mains hook up during the summer there is no way I would get a 240v fridge. The 12v one use less power overall. It might cost more to buy but it will cost less to run.

 

 

 

Most 12v fridges were built with Danfoss compressors. The guts of our 20 yr old fridge is almost identical to the guts on our new one. must say something for how good they Danfoss guts are. If the rest of the fridge is in good nick I would get it repaired. ours had gone a bit rusty in 20yrs use so we replaced it.

 

 

 

Keith

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This boat has a 12v fridge which is ok but the internal space is not good though only draws 3.5 amps when running. My last boat was all mains running off only 3 110 amp hour batteries I never switched the fridge off so inverter was running all day every day. The plus points with mains is the fridge price is much cheaper and domestic fridges are better inside than 12v. So to sum up 3 batts is enough you dont need more and I am telling you this as a full time not plugged in liveaboard with the last boat. HOWEVER to do this you need a very good inverter not a cheapo sterling I had a mastervolt 2kw which was very efficient and used very little power on standby 0.6 amp.

I believe your cheapest option at present by far is as stated previously a new 12v fridge or good old fleabay.

 

Agreed that 12v is the best way to go but take issue with the comment about the inside of 12v fridges. My Shoreline is a L.E.C cabinet and only differs from a 240v model by the fact that the original compessor has been changed for a Danfos 12v one.

 

Phil

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Agreed that 12v is the best way to go but take issue with the comment about the inside of 12v fridges. My Shoreline is a L.E.C cabinet and only differs from a 240v model by the fact that the original compessor has been changed for a Danfos 12v one.

 

Phil

 

Hi Phil

 

Our is a frigidaire and is smaller than my last fridge though doesnt look it. It has a freezer box in the top which I would rather it didnt as it takes up space and we never buy any frozen products.......does make a usefull quick chiller for beer though. Just as an addendum it only uses 3.5 amps BUT my last boat with mastervolt inverter and mains fridge only used 4.2 amps and mains fridges are so much easier and cheaper to source. :cheers:

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We tried the on/off thing, but to no avail (it was a cunning plan nonetheless! :lol: )It's still giving 5 flashes and we can't fathom out what on earth is going on with it. Then again, I'm an English teacher, so I'd be very good at helping it to write poetry, but not so good on the technical side!

 

I'm not sure how old the fridge is. It came with the boat we bought almost a year ago now. It worked fine all last year. We switched it off when we winterised the boat, and haven't managed to get it going again this season.

 

We tend to move most days when we're on board, but don't want to kill the batteries. From what Mrsmelly is saying, it sounds like the existing battery bank may be ok (although can't afford one of his amazing inverters!)

 

Will investigate the gas thing (How do you re-gas a fridge?). Hubby says the motor doesn't run in the fridge at all now.

 

Thanks very much for all the help. Really appreciate it.

Here's the blurb from the paperwork that came with our Shoreline larder fridge last year (three flashes on our fridge; no mention of five flashes):

 

Fault: Compressor does not run - LED flashes three times every few seconds > This is a safety motor protection feature and should automatically re-set itself after 15 minutes

 

Possible reason: System pressures unequal as fridge tries to re-start. Possible cause: Suspect thermostat, or loose power connection to fridge. Possible suspect electronic unit.

 

Corrective action: If problem persists: Switch off power for 15 minutes, and then switch back on. Re-check all connections from battery to fridge. Or, Replacement Electronic Unit or Thermostat needed --> contact Shoreline

 

 

So, as these are usually hard-wired in, have you actually fully turned it off ... by throwing a breaker at the electric panel (or disconnecting the wiring at the back) for 15 minutes?

 

Or have a search online for "user instructions" + "Danfoss XXXX" - replacing xxxx with the code number of your Danfoss compressor. This might turn up a PDF for your model.

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Here's the blurb from the paperwork that came with our Shoreline larder fridge last year (three flashes on our fridge; no mention of five flashes):

 

Fault: Compressor does not run - LED flashes three times every few seconds > This is a safety motor protection feature and should automatically re-set itself after 15 minutes

 

Possible reason: System pressures unequal as fridge tries to re-start. Possible cause: Suspect thermostat, or loose power connection to fridge. Possible suspect electronic unit.

 

Corrective action: If problem persists: Switch off power for 15 minutes, and then switch back on. Re-check all connections from battery to fridge. Or, Replacement Electronic Unit or Thermostat needed --> contact Shoreline

 

 

So, as these are usually hard-wired in, have you actually fully turned it off ... by throwing a breaker at the electric panel (or disconnecting the wiring at the back) for 15 minutes?

 

Or have a search online for "user instructions" + "Danfoss XXXX" - replacing xxxx with the code number of your Danfoss compressor. This might turn up a PDF for your model.

 

 

 

From the Danfoss data sheets

 

5 flashes = Thermal cut-out of electronic unit.

 

If the refrigeration system has been too heavily loaded, or if the ambient temperature (around the back - my insertion) is too high the electronic unit will run hot.

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I think it was Batts that began the 12v compressor fridge lark by converting mains domestic cabinets by stuffing the Danfoss unit in them.

Right. And my replacement by Inlander is the same. Thats what their tech support bloke said

 

From the Danfoss data sheets

 

5 flashes = Thermal cut-out of electronic unit.

 

If the refrigeration system has been too heavily loaded, or if the ambient temperature (around the back - my insertion) is too high the electronic unit will run hot.

Tony really

Around the back - my insertion - please this is a family site

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