12v Waeco Coolmatic fridge

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kareheat

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Hello

Can anyone help us. We have this fridge in our boat but it does not apear to be working. We have managed to get the light come on in the fridge, so there is power there, but it is not getting cold.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated. Its that or shell our £500 for another one!!!!


Karen
 
Re: We have managed to get the light come on in the fridge, so there is power there, but it is not getting cold.

I'm not quite sure what you mean.


'We have managed' implies that the light wasn't working and you've now managed to fix it.

' so there is power there' ... where?

'but it is not getting cold' implies that the compressor is running but not cooling.

So.

Is the compressor running but not cooling the fridge?

If so the most likely cause is that the compressor needs regassing ... not an unusual problem with Waecos.

Not sure where you are but I have the contact number of a guy who covers the Southampton/Portsmouth area.
 
kareheat said:
Hello

Can anyone help us. We have this fridge in our boat but it does not apear to be working. We have managed to get the light come on in the fridge, so there is power there, but it is not getting cold.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated. Its that or shell our £500 for another one!!!!


Karen
Click to expand...

Has your fridge been turned off for a long period.

Can you hear any humming noise from the fridge.

Is the thermostat turned on.

As stated it may need re gassing but I feel that would only be a choice after examination.

Dont spend on a new one until you have had it checked out by somebody in the know.

Tom
 
12v fridge does not work

thanks for the replies.
I don't think I explained myself very well.

The fridge wasn't getting cold even when we turned up the thermastat knob and there was no noise or vibration to say it was working, also no light, so we pulled it out to have a look at the back. Hubby (Ross) couldn't see anything wrong. Checked that there was power going to the back using a light bulb connected to the wires going to the fridge. There was power.

Put the fridge back and to our surprise we noticed that the light in the fridge was now working!!!!!! But still there was no noise, so we turned up the thermastat knob right up but still the fridge did not get cold after leaving the boat engine running for at least half an hour or more.

One thing hubby did notice was that the thermastat knob was turning very easily, there was no felt resistance. We then went round some chandlery stores to look at similar fridges and tried their thermastat knobs, which did seem to have a resistance there. Which makes us suspicious about that.

We really don't know where to go from here and we aren't that rich that we really want to spend £500 on a new one!!!!


Karen and Ross
(from Gosport)
 
mine needs re-gassing too.if anybody know a good repairer in s.yorks please let me no.

hope you get your fridge sorted without too much expence!!
 
Hi again Karen, it sounds as though we have different systems but I would have thought that the principles are the same.

We have a Waeco CU84 system

see http://www.marine-super-store.com/p...8&searchtext=&manf=WAECO&format=2&sortorder=1

which includes a fan assisted evaporator in the fridge.

When the temp gets up to 8 degrees we hear the fan in the evaporator plate kick in ... normally for 8 minutes an hour.

We knew we had a problem when it kept running because the fridge wasn't getting cold enough.

A simple re-gas solved it.

If you have an evaporator plate but the fan isn't kicking in then I guess it could be a dodgy thermostat or plate.

Sorry I can't help you more.
 
12 v Waeco fridge

okay, but thanks anyway. I guess we may have to buy a new one.

thank you for your advice anyhow


Karen
 
If you cant hear the compressor running it would suggest a thermostat problem but as a thought, If the light came on without doing anything except pulling the fridge out and putting it back then I would suspect a poor connection. the load from the light is considerably less than the compressor. It could be that not enough power can pass through the poor connection to run your fridge.
 
Do not buy a new one yet!

I had the same problem with mine when i tested it in Jan this year, thermostat turned light was on but no compressor running.

the problem was the outside temp.............it was too cold.

i turned on again in warm week and the compressor worked and firdge chilled the drinks etc, i did not leave it on long enough to test the ice box. tested many other times and all worked fine.

i was at the boat yeaterday...it was very cold again, and the compressor did not start again, i think if the outside temp is less than 10 degress it does this, that will be my next proper check to see what the real temp in the cabin is for compressor start or no start.

it has something to do with the cold temp and the thermostat.........wait till we have another warm day 16 degress plus and try it again.

if it still wont start, i may be the little control box that attaches to the compressor, i had a waeco engineer out when i couldnt get mine to work..............he told me the compressors hardly ever break down, its usually the control box or the thermostat.

He tested all 3 of mine and all worked fine.........like i said above was the outside temp being cold it affected the fridge comming on...........try waiting till its warm, mine works fine then, and it saved me £500

please post the outcome as well, there isnt alot of waeco trouble shooting info out there

John
 
12v Waeco fridge

Dear John and Ian

Thank you. You have given us both hope!!!!

We will wait for a warm day and see what happens before splashing out on a new one. We didn't really want to have to buy another fridge because the boat cost enough!!!! We have only had her 2 months and since that time we noticed the fridge not working, the fuel gauge suddenly seemed to be reading a full tank for some reason (we have since fixed this problem thanks to another person on this site) and my brother in law took her out a couple of weeks ago, was tying her up and managed to break off 3 or 4 of the white (I am not sure what they are called but they are the things that hold the elastic ties down on our bimimi???), not even sure if its called that, but anyhow we have just got that sorted. My husband had to re-new the fibreglass on the boat and we managed to find this great place in Clarence Yard Gosport where they make Bimimis for boats. They are so helpful in there. We are getting some covers made for the framework of our bimimi because there has been a reaction to the metalwork on the plastic which has made it rusty!!! It really looks horrible.

Anyhow those are our problems.

Thank you gentleman once again.

Karen
 
moonraker 36 said:
mine needs re-gassing too.if anybody know a good repairer in s.yorks please let me no.

hope you get your fridge sorted without too much expence!!
Click to expand...

Try a Google search for a mobile car air con person. Anyone who can re-gas air con can re-gas a fridge. Unlike car air con, domestic and boat fridges are not normally equipped with service ports, so you'll need to get one of these : http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/universal-bullet-line-tap-valve-re-gas-valve-/390166806170
 
had same problem

hi had same problem with our fridge it was the termostat £26 from penguin marine ,to test thermostat remove the two connections from inside and short across the listen ,if you hear fridge start up its thermostat.
 
Re: had same problem

Hello,
I am writting on behalf of my friend. He have waeco 12v fridge in his boat, and it stop with cooling. He checked compressor, it is fine, ventilator also, eaven he changed the gass, pressure is good.
Do you have any ideas what it could be? How he can check, try to fix?
Maybe termostat is problem?
 
kareheat said:
Hello

Can anyone help us. We have this fridge in our boat but it does not apear to be working. We have managed to get the light come on in the fridge, so there is power there, but it is not getting cold.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated. Its that or shell our £500 for another one!!!!


Karen
Click to expand...

Ive has the same problem in the past, I solved the problem by turning the fridge upside down for half an hour or so. You should hear a gurgling sound as the gas starts to run around the pipes again. Turn it the right way up and plug it in again seems to work every time! The problem is caused by leaving the fridge switched off for a long period, the gas all settles at the bottom and it stops working. Just turn it upside down :)
 
I would check the volts at the fridge and compare with the battery voltage.check all the connections including fuse holder. A lot of these fridges have a low voltage shutdown feature. Just under 11 volts they will switch to this mode. You will normally see a small blinking led in the fridge by the thermostat control, though.
 
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