# Urgent advice sought - Thetford Fridge



## jd_boss_hogg (Aug 26, 2009)

Hi All - i'm in the middle of spain (well, Huesca actually) and our fridge has packed up ! 

The LED control panel works, gives no warning messages (there are lots of warning codes in the manual, but we get none), and switches happily between diferent power sources. But, all 12v, 220v, gas do nothing at all - no cooling whatsover. I tried unplugging the thermistor and re-connecting - same problem.

We lost our top air vent the other day, and we then had a pour down of rain during the night. The rain appeared to come straight down, and if we take the bottom vent off, didn;t seem to have done any damage.

The pipes (copper?) at the bottom of the "compressor"? get quite warm, but no cooling affect at all. We have now bodged up a top vent to stop any further rain ingress.

I can't hear the compressor doing any of that normal chugging away that your household fridge would - no gurgling, no noises whatsoever, the fridge is VERY quite. 

What's the verdict? Do you think we may have lost gas, or compressor broke or any other advice?

The firdge is quite new - only 3 years old...

Thanks - living out of a coolbox at the moment, which doesn;t quite work for my G&T's !


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## Landyman (Apr 3, 2010)

Sorry, can't help on diagnosis of the fault but you will not hear a compressor running as you would on a domestic fridge because the Thetford is an absorbsham fridge ie. no moving parts.
About the only noise, apart from the odd gurgle, is the sound of the gas burner.

Best of luck getting it fixed.

Landyman.


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## rupert1 (Feb 13, 2009)

You should not get any noise from the Thetford Fridge. One thing are you parked up fairly level, side to side that is, ours will not work if we tilt the van to much.


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## baldybazza (Feb 21, 2007)

Your best bet would be to contact Thetford and they will tell you your nearest Thetford agent in Spain.

We had lots of problems last year with ours and Thetford advised us who to go to.

Jan


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## greendiesel (Nov 5, 2009)

sorry can not offer any help my fridge has also stopped as well,
at least a week before they can look at it,
hope some can offer you some help


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## oilslick (Oct 3, 2007)

*temperature sensor?*

I can only think if you are not getting any errors then the fridge thinks everything is ok.

The fact that you can select all power modes also bolsters this.

Maybe there is some moisture on the connections on/in the temperature sensor, (lowering its resistance) making it appear the fridge is colder than it is, so it does not think it needs to turn on.

Quite where it is I am not sure, but I would try and make sure any connections are dry.

Additionally absorbtion fridges need the right fluids in the right places to work. There are two fluids. Sometimes if they have been shacken up or tipped they take a while for the two fluid / vapour streams to re-establish.

Grant


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## stewartwebr (May 27, 2005)

We had problems with ours in high temperatures in Austria. Having read the manual it automatically defrosts every 48hours to prevent frost build up on the fins. I think ours went into this mode and did not have the power, due to high outside temperatures to cool it back down.

I pulled the thermistor to force the fridge into manual mode and it seemed to get back to normal within 12 hours.

If you disconnect the thermistor connections (located on the cooling fins) you will get error code 13 on the control panel and the small blue LED will flash. This means the fridge is no longer being controlled by temperature within the fridge via the thermistor. It is working on time based mode. The control panel has six bars which control the temp of the fridge. When fault 13 is displayed the bars change from temperature to time. Each bar indicates 10minutes/hour. Therefore if you set all six bars on the fridge it will cool for 6 x 10 minutes = 60 minutes/hour which of course means it is on constantly.

Give it at least 12 hours and don't be tempted to keep opening the fridge to see how it's getting on

I found this to work and resolved my issue. Give it a try and I hope it helps.

Rememeber to reconnect the thermistor once the temperature has dropped and you will retrun to temp control mode

Good luck 

Stewart


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## jd_boss_hogg (Aug 26, 2009)

We tried 3 agents in Spain - all of whom where service agents, all of whom just wanted to sell us a new fridge.

Back across the pyranees today into france... might have better luck here?


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## stewartwebr (May 27, 2005)

Have you tried it with the thermistor pulled and all 6 bars selected on the control panel.

I'm sure this should help

Stewart


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