What's wrong with my fridge?

[Aeolus]

This morning I turned on the fridge and it malfunctioned. The compressor started up and the power draw which would normally be around 5amps started increasing to more than 10A at which point the voltage from the domestic battery dropped below 10.5v and the compressor stopped. I realised what was happening because as the voltage dropped, the radio display screen went blank and the radio stopped playing. After a few seconds, the radio restarted and the power draw was the normal small amount and the voltage recovered to 12.7V. Then the compressor started again and the whole cycle repeated itself.
The compressor is an Isotherm BD35F. Any ideas what could be causing this? Is the compressor buggered?

 

[Caladh]

Electrical problem. Check connections from fridge to batteries. Possible battery failure if the battery went down to 10 amps. Plenty of other threads on here re. this sort of fridge "failure".

 

[GHA]

Where are you getting the current draw figures from? 5A sounds an awful lot for a BD35F. You could try a temporary cable direct from battery to fridge to check wiring faults.

 

[jiris]

Compressor fridges have the bad habit of starting to pump liquid when power gets momentarily interrupted - hence the high current draw. You may have a lose connection somewhere causing the interruption. You'd better to fix it fast. The fridge usually don't pack up right away, but after a few episodes like this it will go tits up eventually.
I found out the hard way, as I ignored this problem when my power supply was switching automatically from inverter to generator or vice versa. With a new fridge, I am always switching it off before the change-over and switch it on again after 2-3 minutes.

 

[Aeolus]

The figures are from my Victron BMV602S battery monitor.

 

[GHA]

The figures are from my Victron BMV602S battery monitor.

Something sounds amiss there, just put a dc clamp meter on mine, 2.4A @ 13.65V at the battery, can't get in to check volts at the fridge.

 

[Richard10002]

You could try a temporary cable direct from battery to fridge to check wiring faults.[/COLOR]

That was my first thought. It eliminates, or identifies, wiring and connection problems. make sure the wire is thick enough, to avoid too much voltage drop.

 

[Aeolus]

Many thanks for the suggestions. As suggested, I bypassed the wiring and connected the fridge directly to the battery - problem gone away. Will replace the wiring next week. Thanks again.

 

[QBhoy]

Sounds like either the compressor is seized....or more likely, it’s hydraulic locked by trying to compress liquid rather than liquid. Usually caused by an expansion valve malfunction...from memory.

 

[Aeolus]

Update:
Replacing the wiring did not, in fact solve the problem. It seemed to work because, I think, the battery got a chance to rest and recharge by the time I replaced the wiring. In fact, the problem was solved by replacing the batteries - they were 5 or 6 years old Elecsol batteries so not unreasonable for them to need replacement. Interestingly, at first with the new batteries, power consumption was high, 7 - 8 amps but after an hour, the consumption reduced to around 3 amps. I wonder whether the pump took that time to clear the liquid.

Anyhow, it now seems that my fridge is working and I have nice new shiny batteries (2 x Trojan T105).

Sailing is a never ending learning experience.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Not sure where you are but it seems once the weather start to get hot , the fridges start to play up , we met no end of people this year with fridge problems ours included .
Good you found your problem ,

 

[Aeolus]

I guess they have to work harder which exposes any latent problems. I'm based in Chichester Harbour - it's pretty warm here at the moment!