Refrigerator??

[steveh]

On our recently purchased boat we have a fridge that does not work and having no experience of them I wondered if anyone could spread some light on what type it is and how it works, and how or who could repair it.
It is a fridge with a freezer compartment below. There is a metal plate between the two which I cannot remove since it has gas pipes attached. There appears to be a pump of some sorts fitted to the main engine which has large pipes leading to a water cooler. The cooler is connected to a gas tank which in turn connects back to the fridge.
Due to limited space I cannot fit a stand alone unit so would like to get this one going.
Thanks in advance, Steve

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[Alex_Blackwood]

First of all don't try to remove the bits in the fridge/freezer. The pump thing on the engine is the compressor this will compress the refrigerant (gas) and in doing so will heat it up. The gas then goes through the cooler, to be cooled! and is then passed through an expansion valve, or device. the rapid expansion of the compressed, cooled, gas makes it very cold and this causes the fridge/freezer to operate at the correct temp. In doing it's job of cooling the fridge the gas warms up and is returned to the low pressure side of the compressor to start the cycle again. That is a very basic overveiw of how it works. I am not sure about your "Gas Tank" could be part of the expansion system (Expect one of the more expert of the readers will know). I would think that if the boat and the system have been lying for some time the fridge system may be short of gas. I would suggest your best bet is to contact a local fridge engineer, (Yellow Pages?) Fridge systems use different gasses, some are now frowned upon in the Montreal Protocol. You really need to know what you are dealing with. Sorry can't be of much more help.

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[Omatako]

I'm also not an expert but the steel plate is probably a eutectic holding plate which is filled with glycol or similar, this freezes as the gas passes through pipes within it and holds the temperature down for a time. Older units running on F12 (now banned in Montreal protocol countries) often used a capillary tube in place of an expansion valve. Same principle but nowhere near as accurate, gas pressurised from a large pipe into the capillary and then expanded into the eutectic plate (evaporator). The cooler described sounds like a simple heat exchanger serving the function of a condensor in the return line to the compressor. I have a similar setup to this on my boat which works a treat.
The only problem is that the ozone friendly gases of today are not as efficient as F12 and will not work with a capillary tube. My understanding is that they have to have a proper calibrated expansion valve. My unit in an hour of running the engine for battery charging, easily gets down to -15 which slowly degrades to about +5 in 24 hours.

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[Talbot]

I would recommend that you speak to the tecchies at Penguin refrigeration

Telephone +44 2380 779800
Fax +44 2380 528808

I have found them to be very helpful

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[jwaldin]

I have a fridge in my Airstream trailer. It runs on propane, or 120 Volt or 12 Volt.
Go to Airstream on Goggle and go to Airstream forums. same formatt as Wooden Boat and here. Those Airstream guys Really know there stuff re. fridges, 12 volt systems.

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[philip_stevens]

The gas tank is the receiver, and you are probably correct in saying it is short of gas. These type of compressor arrangements, with a separate compressor and drive unit quite often lose the gas from the lip-seal of the compressor at the drive end when it has not been used for a while, and dries out.

Again, as you say, it could and probably is R12 - which can still be obtained with difficulty.

An alternative to Penguin and suchlike, is to find a fridge company (Yellow Pages or Google) that deals with "integral fridge" containers, or refrigerated road transport. They are more likely to be able to diagnose the problem.

I used to work on integrals, in my containership days.

<hr width=100% size=1>regards,
Philip

 

[cracksman]

Take the fridge out, turn it upsidedown, leave it for 24hours put it back in. If it dosnt work, try it again 2 times If it still dosnt work seek advice from the home build camper forum, they seem to know a thing or two about fridges.

Chris

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[bendyone]

This only works foe the Electrolux caravan type fridge - you have a compressor driven unit don't try to turn your boat upsidesdown!!

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[Alex_Blackwood]

Phillip, Quite agree with your lip seal assesment. As an aside it is also why you should run your car aircon for at least half an hour a week even in winter, to stop the seals drying out.
I still think the only solution to the original question is to contact a fridge engineer.

Where would they be without "Leckies"!


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[philip_stevens]

I don't know what it is like on boxboats now, as they made all us leckies, RO's and frosties redundant, saying the engineers could do the job!! Three less people on the ship, but with no increase in engineers or salary for those still there.

At least the integrals got more reliable and automatic, and had good diagnostics.

Yes, I agree about car A/C being run during the winter to keep the lip seal lubricated. In fact mine is never off as it removes condensation on the windows even on the coldest and wettest days. A cooling unit in the summer, and a dehumidifier in the winter.

<hr width=100% size=1>regards,
Philip