{"id":2826,"date":"2018-02-27T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T21:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travellingk.com\/?p=2826"},"modified":"2018-07-06T12:33:31","modified_gmt":"2018-07-06T00:33:31","slug":"caravan-fridge-errors-batteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/travellingk.com\/caravan-fridge-errors-batteries\/","title":{"rendered":"Caravan Fridge Errors & New Batteries"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a hot summer in New Zealand this year and I\u2019ve learnt it\u2019s challenging living in a UK caravan in this heat. <\/span><\/p>\n

My fridge has decided to play up. It’s the worst time of year for this to happen as food goes off quickly and it sounds like the heat has affected a lot of other mobile home fridges.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fridge Problems<\/span><\/h3>\n

My 10 years old caravan fridge has always been a little temperamental for me when running on gas. This type of fridge is called a 3-way fridge because it runs on power, gas or battery (if set-up). <\/span><\/p>\n

Since getting a solar panel<\/a>, I\u2019ve been trying to run off-grid<\/a> and not be plugged in as much. Partly to save money and partly because that is the type of camping I want to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

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This summer, the fridge started playing up.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Errors started regularly appearing on the fridge panel that were mainly gas related. Then the screen would go blank from about 11am to 3pm. I started doing tiny food shops as I could no longer trust the fridge.<\/span><\/p>\n

I tracked down a gas man in the area who specialised in motorhome and caravan appliances, but he was out of town for the week. He sounded like the best option so I waited for his return.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because the screen was going blank for just those set times, a theory formed that this issue was heat related. The sun was heating that side of the caravan in the mornings. I took off the outside vent covers and even tried an elaborate shade to try cooling it down\u2026 and it seemed to help that<\/i> problem. <\/span><\/p>\n

I started researching where I could buy a new fridge just incase this one gave up. A self containment officer had recommended getting a compressor fridge. I hadn\u2019t heard of them before. They run on power but are very power efficient. Overall though, getting a new fridge looked like it would cost $2k and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark from Action LGP Services came out the next week to have a look. I listed all the odd errors with the fridge and he was pretty sure he already knew what it was. He took out a part that tends to get rusty in New Zealand… possibly the burner? Mine was stuck, so he gave it a good clean. The fridge worked\u2026 for half a day. Then another error started appearing all the time. Mark looked it up and said it was power related. The next step was to get the battery checked. <\/span><\/p>\n

As it was a Saturday afternoon the battery shop was closed. I took the battery in early Monday morning. They charged it all day and learnt it wasn\u2019t holding it\u2019s charge. Time to get a new battery.<\/span><\/p>\n

While this was going on, the fridge wasn’t cold when it was running (in-between all its other problems).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t