TC Refrigerator issues....

Wishbone51 wrote:
Silly me.. Just took much longer than usual, possibly because of the outside temperature. It was really disconcerting to have it on for 2 hours and the cooling fins were room temperature.

The way these things chill is first the freezer absorbs ALL the chill potential from the refrigerant till it gets cold then the refrigerant chill potential starts to be leftover for the chill box to absorb so then it begins cooling the fins.

(A damp rag can freeze to the freezer floor and the fins in the chill box can still be near room temp.)

Silly me.. Just took much longer than usual, possibly because of the outside temperature. It was really disconcerting to have it on for 2 hours and the cooling fins were room temperature.

I'm having a strange situation where the freezer is getting really cold, but the fridge is room temperature. Usually the metal 'fins' in the inside of the fridge get cold quickly. It's been on for a couple of hours, and still room temp in the fridge. Brand new cooling unit in an old fridge.

Usually it gets really cold within a few hours. Maybe because it was a really hot day, it's taking awhile to kick in. I'll check back in the morning.

JamesJudasPriest wrote:
Glad to help.

You can place food in the fridge no problem when its trying to cool, but it will just take longer to reach its temperature, unless your groceries happen to be very cold. Also ya I guess some super food safe people might not think that's a good idea, but I've never had spoilt food from it.

Ya if you want to leave for your trip at short notice by all means use propane. Most of the time I just turn on the fridge and put it to 120v mode overnight, then load the food before I leave and then switch to 12v for driving

12 volt mode is NEVER to be used to cool down a 3 way refer. It is only used while in transit to keep the existing temp for a few hours. Doug

Glad to help.

You can place food in the fridge no problem when its trying to cool, but it will just take longer to reach its temperature, unless your groceries happen to be very cold. Also ya I guess some super food safe people might not think that's a good idea, but I've never had spoilt food from it.

Ya if you want to leave for your trip at short notice by all means use propane. Most of the time I just turn on the fridge and put it to 120v mode overnight, then load the food before I leave and then switch to 12v for driving

James,

Thank you very much.....This is what I love about this forum!

So it seems to me, the best way to get that refrigerator down to operating temps is to start it on gas and then switch over to electricity once food is placed inside...??

A 3 way refrigerator does not have a compressor for cooling action on AC like a residential traditional fridge has. I don't know the full science but all it is a heating element that causes the ammonia and sodium gas mixture or something like that, rise into an evaporator system which cools the fridge. should be essentially silent on all modes, aside from an occasional click for the control relay on and off, no hum like a regular fridge.

On propane it works really quickly because the small flame can put out a decent amount of heat compared to say a 275 watt AC heating element.

12 volt mode is even slower because the heating element may be even smaller, and the heat output is highly sensitive to whatever the system voltage is. Could be 11.5 v with a low battery, could be as much as 14.4v with the converter's full output.

Expect on 120 mode it will take at least 8 hours to cool, and that means no food in fridge.

12 volt mode needs 24h I would say.

Gas? 6 hours.

Finally, sometimes the process takes longer if the fridge has been sitting for a while unused.

Really....Totally silent when on 120V.......?? Maybe I was hearing the inverter fan which is near the refrigerator.....In fact, everything is near everything in a TC!

(I'm not sure, but I think it was humming the Battle Hymn of the Republic!)

Rbertalotto wrote:
Thanks...But the refrigerator would at least "hum" while it was cooling down, wouldn't it. I seem to remember it humming the last time I used it on 120V.

It shouldn't hum.

Hum is caused be sticky relays with AC coils, loose laminations in transformers and in extreme cases not knowing the lyrics. :)

Rbertalotto wrote:
Thanks...But the refrigerator would at least "hum" while it was cooling down, wouldn't it. I seem to remember it humming the last time I used it on 120V.

It cooled down real fast on propane. I was shocked how fast it was ice cold in the freezer compartment. I went to wipe it out with a damp rag and it stuck to the cold surface.....

RV absorbsion refers have NO noise at all. The only noise would be the sound the LP flame makes. It takes at least 8 to 24 hours for a RV absorbsion refer to reach set temp. The freezer will feel cold within the first hour, but it takes 24 hours for full temp to be reached. Doug`