Fridge engineer wanted

Ianqv

Ianqv

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Essex / sail out of Bradwell
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Greetings All,

Well it had to happen.... fridge run out of puff on the hottest day of the year!!!
Does anyone know of a fridge engineer who can come out to Bradwell? I'm guessing it just needs a re-gas.

I did call Paul (v nice chap) from Haven at Ipswich, but it's not worth his time to come out to Bradwell.

Any leads appreciated

Many thanks

Ian

P.S Paul at Haven said if there were other boats down this way needing work he would come down.
 
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If you can get Paul to do it then it will be worth it. He sorted out both of our fridges properly after several unsuccessful attempts at fixes by others previously.
 
wingdiver said:
If you can get Paul to do it then it will be worth it. He sorted out both of our fridges properly after several unsuccessful attempts at fixes by others previously.
Click to expand...

I don't know if this of any use but it may be worth a try. The guy at http://www.intocool.co.uk/ is superb. I have no idea whether he provides a mobile service but I would try a 'phone call if I were you.

He is based in Burnham, he has been a refrigeration engineer for years and is very fair with his pricing.
 
East Coast Fridge Specialists

The best marine fridge and gas engineer you will find is Will Hayward of Saxmundham:

http://www.whayward.com/

He is the designer (and patent owner) of the Gasboat regulators and fittings, the only ones made fom matrerials suited to a marine environment. Although it's a long way from Sax to Bradwell, he has been known to travel to West France to work on Moodys!

If Will is too difficult to get hold of, you might try Into Cool

http://www.intocool.co.uk/contact.asp

who are a car and domestic aircon business on the Springfield industrial estate in Burnham. He's not a marine specialist, but closer to hand and should have no problem regassing a fridge. I have found them very helpful in fixing aircon problems on cars.

Incidentally, if your fridge needs regassing, you first should seek to establish where it's leaking. Aircon systems on cars are driven by a belt off the engine, so require a shaft seal where the drive goes into the compressor - this is always a source of small leakage, so regassing is needed every few years. Marine (and domestic) fridges have a canned electric motor to drive them (i.e. the motor is inside the pump) so only have a static seal where the wires enter the pump - they should not leak at all. So, if your system has lost any gas, there must be a leak somewhere, which needs fixing. It's an engineering fact that leaks only get worse! If this dosn't make sense, try to remember when you had to have the fridge at home regassed - almost certainly never. The most common cause of leaks on marine systems is the pipe couplings where the pipes from the evaporator and condenser are joined on installation. If the fitter did not ensure these were scrupulously clean, they can leak slightly.

Hope this helps.

Peter Wright

p.s, I see Philip beat me with the InterCool suggestion. PW
 
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philiphurst said:
I don't know if this of any use but it may be worth a try. The guy at http://www.intocool.co.uk/ is superb. I have no idea whether he provides a mobile service but I would try a 'phone call if I were you.

He is based in Burnham, he has been a refrigeration engineer for years and is very fair with his pricing.
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Hi
Many thanks for the suggestion, sadly he isn't interested in doing work on boats.
Regards

Ian
 
PeterWright said:
The best marine fridge and gas engineer you will find is Will Hayward of Saxmundham:

http://www.whayward.com/

He is the designer (and patent owner) of the Gasboat regulators and fittings, the only ones made fom matrerials suited to a marine environment. Although it's a long way from Sax to Bradwell, he has been known to travel to West France to work on Moodys!

If Will is too difficult to get hold of, you might try Into Cool

http://www.intocool.co.uk/contact.asp

who are a car and domestic aircon business on the Springfield industrial estate in Burnham. He's not a marine specialist, but closer to hand and should have no problem regassing a fridge. I have found them very helpful in fixing aircon problems on cars.

Incidentally, if your fridge needs regassing, you first should seek to establish where it's leaking. Aircon systems on cars are driven by a belt off the engine, so require a shaft seal where the drive goes into the compressor - this is always a source of small leakage, so regassing is needed every few years. Marine (and domestic) fridges have a canned electric motor to drive them (i.e. the motor is inside the pump) so only have a static seal where the wires enter the pump - they should not leak at all. So, if your system has lost any gas, there must be a leak somewhere, which needs fixing. It's an engineering fact that leaks only get worse! If this dosn't make sense, try to remember when you had to have the fridge at home regassed - almost certainly never. The most common cause of leaks on marine systems is the pipe couplings where the pipes from the evaporator and condenser are joined on installation. If the fitter did not ensure these were scrupulously clean, they can leak slightly.

Hope this helps.

Peter Wright

p.s, I see Philip beat me with the InterCool suggestion. PW
Click to expand...


Thanks Peter for the info.

Regards

Ian
 
About 3 - 4 months after I fitted my Waeco fridge unit last year it stopped working, I hadn't got the couplings tight enough and I discovered an oily residue around them. After struggling to find someone to come out and recharge it, and reading various post on PBO I decided to have a go my self using a car air-con recharge kit from Halfords. I needed to convert the port on the compressor using an adaptor from ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/R134a-Port-Converter-Low-side-1-4-N022135L-/390412573500?hash=item5ae6671b3c#ht_135wt_1328 You have to remove the shraeder valve from the existing valve before fitting the adapter or you bend the valve in the adapter. I found out the hard way!! With the valve removed the adapter simply screws on to the existing connector. There is some excellent information on a forum members (vyv_cox) website http://coxengineering.sharepoint.com...igeration.aspx . Once I had tightened up the couplings and sorted out the adapter I soon had the fridge up and running at a fraction of the cost of getting someone to the boat. And I now have the kit to top up the car air-con when it stops working!!
 
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Ianqv said:
Greetings All,

Well it had to happen.... fridge run out of puff on the hottest day of the year!!!
Does anyone know of a fridge engineer who can come out to Bradwell? I'm guessing it just needs a re-gas.

I did call Paul (v nice chap) from Haven at Ipswich, but it's not worth his time to come out to Bradwell.

Any leads appreciated

Many thanks

Ian

P.S Paul at Haven said if there were other boats down this way needing work he would come down.
Click to expand...

This thread has reminded me that I really need to get mine sorted, do you have the contact details for Paul?
 
That's shame but I guess he's too busy doing work on cars. He deserves to be busy as he is very good at what he does and very fair.

No connection or commercial interest. Just one very happy customer.
 
Well an update
Paul the Fridge arrived at the allotted time ( crack-o-sparras 08.30) its the oldest Weaco he has seen & untouched in 34 yrs, and low on gas.
he de-gassed it & refilled. it took ages to get down to temp, but did work.the plate got down to -11 after about 1/2 hr & the fridge holding around 5 > 6 deg.
after Paul left with a very modest cheque, the fridge cycled 5mins on 7 off set to hold 6 deg in the fridge. when i turned the fridge off to clear it prior to coming home the condenser was the coldest i have ever known it in our 16 yrs of ownership, so a very promising start. Cold beers this w/e :cool:.
 
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