I have a three way Electrolux fridge and when switched to gas the pilot
light works but the fridge does not get cold. Any advice on whether it can
be repaired and where I might fin details. Thanks

"Barney" [email protected](no spam)jbarnfield.freeserve.co.uk wrote in
:

I have a three way Electrolux fridge and when switched to gas the
pilot light works but the fridge does not get cold. Any advice on
whether it can be repaired and where I might fin details. Thanks

You are on the level aren't you? Spent ages messing with my Electrolux in
the past when someone said - is your spirit level really level....

Wonky fridge = warm beer/wine/etc.....

I had a problem with mine that it kept fusing when switched to hookup mains
- local caravan dealer helped me with a repair agent.

Helly.

"Helgina Koosmaen" wrote in message
...
"Barney" [email protected](no spam)jbarnfield.freeserve.co.uk wrote in
:

I have a three way Electrolux fridge and when switched to gas the
pilot light works but the fridge does not get cold. Any advice on
whether it can be repaired and where I might fin details. Thanks

pop over to the self build motorcaravaners club www.sbmcc.com on their forum
there's recently been a thread where someone had the same problem, i did
most of the replies, and apparantly it got sorted out,

Basicaly the burner was not functioning as it should, this was deducted by
one of my comments that the riser tube (one that goes vertical next to the
chimney) then bends 90 degrees to the left and goes horizontal through a
finned section) should be skin removingly hot,

the bloke who's fridge wasn't working on gas (worked fine on other power
sources, so the usual sit it upside down for 24 hours to re-absorb the
amonia crystals was of no use) found that although the flame looked good,
the riser tube only got luke warm,
he replaced parts of the burner (starting with the jet, then the actual
flame tube, and finaly the gauze flame spreader) and got his working again..
this was after i gave detailed instructions on how to sweep the chimney,
make sure the baffle is in place and so on.. all the stuff that gets done in
a service, but a caravan shop would charge you the best part of a hundered
quid note to do,

The thread on the forum in question is on the 2nd page, titeled 'Fridge
Servicing'
it actually starts out with another bloke asking how much a fridge service
costs, when when we tell him how to do it him self, someone else asks a Q
relating to it, so more info is given, onto getting them re-charged (not
possible), and finaly i think one of the comments spurs another person to
check something with his fridge that hasnt worked on gas since he got it,
and he finds out the flame isn't hot enough.
and it cost him next to nothing to fix in the end.

"Barney" [email protected](no spam)jbarnfield.freeserve.co.uk wrote in message
...
I have a three way Electrolux fridge and when switched to gas the pilot
light works but the fridge does not get cold.

They dont like standing for a long time. We had the same problem with our
old camper.

Make sure the gas is on and lit. Look through the view glass at the bottom
back inside the fridge. If you've got a nice steady ring of small jets you
should be level enough to be ok ( I've noticed our newer 10yr old version
is a lot less fussy).

Having found nothing obviously wrong or missing we switched it on for half
an hour, then switched off disconnected and found a local bumpy road and ran
it up and down for a while. Then tried it again at home. It took 2
attempts and then it ran like a dream even performing quite well on a
slope.

It seems as they get older and unused for some time the gas forms into
pockets??( not sure about the tech side of that) They can be regassed by a
fridge engineer if theres been a leak.

They can take up half an hour or more to get cold in the first place as
theres no moving parts. The system just relies on the flame expanding the
gas and pushing it round the system. Once they get going theyre quite
efficient.

)

"Dennis Vogel" wrote in message
ink.net...
I had one that worked, but not very well.

I talked to a factory rep here in the US who advised me to remove the
fridge
and turn it upside down for a few hours. It's called burping. I guess they
get some kind of a bubble trapped.

that's kinda what happens, as hilary said they don't like being left un
used, the technobabble bit is that the coolant in the tubes is made up of
amonia disolved in water and a few other chemicals, over time the top half
of the cooling system dry's out, and crystals form, this blocks the smaller
tubes, and the fridge don't cool,
leaving the unit upside down for 24 hours soaks the top half of the pipes in
the cooling fluid, and lets the crystals that were formed when the cooling
system dried out get re-disolved into the mixture,

most of the time it works, some times it dosent.
someone on the sbmcc bought a fridge that was advertised as not working, he
only wanted the heater elements from it, but he left it upside down over
night, and tried it out the next day.. just in case, and he now owns a
perfectly working fridge, bought for next to nothing because the origional
owners didn't know about the burping thing.

"CampinGazz" wrote in message
...

that's kinda what happens, as hilary said they don't like being left un
used, the technobabble bit is that the coolant in the tubes is made up of
amonia disolved in water and a few other chemicals, over time the top half
of the cooling system dry's out, and crystals form, this blocks the
smaller
tubes, and the fridge don't cool,
leaving the unit upside down for 24 hours soaks the top half of the pipes
in
the cooling fluid, and lets the crystals that were formed when the cooling
system dried out get re-disolved into the mixture,

Thanks for the explanation. I'd sort of got the gist of it but didnt really
understand what was happening.

)

"Gazz" wrote in :

"Helgina Koosmaen" wrote in message
...
"Barney" [email protected](no spam)jbarnfield.freeserve.co.uk wrote in
:

I have a three way Electrolux fridge and when switched to gas the
pilot light works but the fridge does not get cold. Any advice on
whether it can be repaired and where I might fin details. Thanks

pop over to the self build motorcaravaners club www.sbmcc.com on their
forum there's recently been a thread where someone had the same
problem, i did most of the replies, and apparantly it got sorted out,

Interesting info - hope that Barney/John got his fridge fixed - I've
actually found now, tried over summer, that a combination of 3-way fridge
and also the new picnic-style coolbox with the Peltier fan assisted chill
device built into the lid to be an ideal combination.

I travel solo in my VW T3 and the coolbox is bungee strapped to the
passenger seat and runs from the leisure battery below. Ideal for sites
when I can't get a level and also good to drop the fresh/frozen shopping
into until I get to the next site and can put it away properly.

Seems all of these boxes do a good job - I got from a car boot sale
trader. The fan is fairly quiet to leave it running at night though I'm
wary of it draining the battery.

Notice more and more of these being used in motorhomes nowadays or by the
tenting community for which I suppose they are an ideal solution and
better to keep the milk cool than in a bucket of water.....

What are other people's experiences with them?

Helly.

Here's more repeated from another US thread:

"Damage due to tilting can occur regardless of the heat source. Sealed
ammonia systems are made entirely of steel tubing and vessels, because
ammonia is highly reactive to all affordable non-ferrous metals such as
copper and aluminum. The refrigerant contains three to five percent of
chromium dioxide by weight to retard internal corrosion of the steel.

When the boiler is tilted, the refrigerant at the resulting shallow edges is
completely boiled away, resulting in formation of chromium dioxide crystals.
The crystals can become numerous and large enough to plug internal passages.

That's why a dead refrigerator sometimes comes to life after being upside
down for a day or so. The crystals are dislodged from their obstruction
points, then re-dissolved when the boiler is heated and the refrigerant
starts flowing again."


Dennis




I had one that worked, but not very well.

I talked to a factory rep here in the US who advised me to remove the
fridge
and turn it upside down for a few hours. It's called burping. I guess they
get some kind of a bubble trapped.

Dennis



They dont like standing for a long time. We had the same problem with
our
old camper.

Make sure the gas is on and lit. Look through the view glass at the
bottom
back inside the fridge. If you've got a nice steady ring of small jets
you
should be level enough to be ok ( I've noticed our newer 10yr old
version
is a lot less fussy).

Having found nothing obviously wrong or missing we switched it on for
half
an hour, then switched off disconnected and found a local bumpy road and
ran
it up and down for a while. Then tried it again at home. It took 2
attempts and then it ran like a dream even performing quite well on a
slope.

It seems as they get older and unused for some time the gas forms into
pockets??( not sure about the tech side of that) They can be regassed
by
a
fridge engineer if theres been a leak.

They can take up half an hour or more to get cold in the first place as
theres no moving parts. The system just relies on the flame expanding
the
gas and pushing it round the system. Once they get going theyre quite
efficient.

)

On 2 Sep 2003 22:11:56 GMT, Helgina Koosmaen
wrote:

I travel solo in my VW T3 and the coolbox is bungee strapped to the
passenger seat and runs from the leisure battery below. Ideal for sites
when I can't get a level and also good to drop the fresh/frozen shopping
into until I get to the next site and can put it away properly.

Seems all of these boxes do a good job - I got from a car boot sale
trader. The fan is fairly quiet to leave it running at night though I'm
wary of it draining the battery.

Notice more and more of these being used in motorhomes nowadays or by the
tenting community for which I suppose they are an ideal solution and
better to keep the milk cool than in a bucket of water.....

What are other people's experiences with them?

There's only two real problems:
- most are only capable of cooling to (something like) 20 degrees
below ambient, which is fine most of the time but can be a problem if
you have a summer like this year when it reached 38 degrees in the
shade;
- they commonly draw about four amps, which will flatten even a big
leisure battery in a day.

So long as you take these limitations into consideration, they're
perfectly good bits of kit.

--
QrizB

I sound like I know what I'm talking about, but don't
be fooled.

(QrizB) wrote in
:

On 2 Sep 2003 22:11:56 GMT, Helgina Koosmaen
wrote:

I travel solo in my VW T3 and the coolbox is bungee strapped to the
passenger seat and runs from the leisure battery below.....

What are other people's experiences with them?

There's only two real problems:
- most are only capable of cooling to (something like) 20 degrees
below ambient, which is fine most of the time but can be a problem if
you have a summer like this year when it reached 38 degrees in the
shade;

True - like I said - I tend to use mine as a stop gap between home and
the van fridge or when not level - rest of the time I'm on gas or mains
and the fridge is running properly complete with freezer.

Nothing worse than warm wine!

- they commonly draw about four amps, which will flatten even a big
leisure battery in a day.

True - this is a major drawback. Thank god for hookup.

(Though I'm looking at adding a solar panel next year to trickle charge
the leisure battery while driving on good sunny days though I know it
doesn't give a huge charge current compared to my Zig.)

So long as you take these limitations into consideration, they're
perfectly good bits of kit.

.....and I think Coleman got a good review of them in one of the recent
Motorhome magazines - maybe Which Motorhome, I think.

Helly.