On Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:01:01 +0000, puffernutter
wrote:

Is it worth trying to invert it again? You've got nothing to lose!

Cheers

Peter

Thanks again Peter - Yes it was!

I did some more research on the operation of these units, and I am
much more knowledgeable about them now. I figured that with the very
high pressure inside the refrigerant circuit, if there had been a
leak, everything would have been lost fairly rapidly! But there was
fluid still in there - I could hear it!

So, after several further inversions, this time rotating it through 90
degrees(side - upright - other side - upside down) every few hours,
along with some serious rocking(and shaking) back and forth, the fluid
was easily heard gurgling round the pipework. And now after two days
of continuous operation on mains electric, with thermostat turned
right up and a temperature probe inside the ice box, the ice box has
held a reasonably steady -18 degrees C.

The unit is switched off now for a full 2 days to settle, and will be
switched on again to make sure it starts up again before I put the
unit back in the housing. Fingers crossed, and my thanks to all for
their advice and encouragment.

Neil

P.S. I've just got to replace the cracked shower tray now, as we do
make regular use of the shower in the 'van.

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