2 days on our 4 months tour and already a costly problem

yodeli said:
Maria41

Je ne peux rien pour toi quant à ton souci de frigo, ceci dit, il m'est agréable de voir que nous avons eu sensiblement les mêmes lectures. j 'ai même fait un mémoire sur Edgar Rice Burroughs complété d'une étude de ses dessins dans ses albums de Tarzan of The Apes.:smiley:
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Eh?????
 
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Even a compressor fridge needs to let the heat out from the condenser.
As yours has no ventilation the compressor will be running just about all the time trying to cool the condenser but as its trying to cool it with got air it's losing the battle.
Until you get it sorted remove the drawer to let the heat out if the cabinet doesn't have a bottom below the drawer.
 
They will need new batteries if their lead acid’s are goosed....?
 
I am truly saddened that you have had such unfortunate experiences and hope the constructors will be able to compensate for their shortcomings on your return.
That two batteries should fail, this is not normal. That Gel batteries will solve your problem, well they will relieve you of money as they cost a lot more than wet batteries but will not spill if you turn you van upside down which is good news. Adjustments to the power supply may be needed if they are fitted.
Whatever the outcome, enjoy your van and have lots of better adventures.
 
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Gel batteries have a different charging regime to wet acid batteries. You will need to check.They also take longer to charge. You might be better off with a good acid battery?
 
If you get some ventilation added then you will see lots of MH have a rectangular top vent and a lower one - hot out the top and cooler air in the bottom. However, if you don't want two slots punching in your vehicle you may be able to have a vent in the floor behind the fridge and only one vent to allow hot air out higher up (mine is 19 years old and has two round ports in the floor beneath the fridge).

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I hope you are not going to charge the new gel batteries off of the alternator directly without a specific charger for Gels or you will shortly be crying over those failing too..
GEL Batteries must be recharged correctly or the battery will suffer premature failure. The battery charger being used to recharge the battery(s) must be designed or adjustable for GEL Batteries. If you are using an alternator to recharge a true Gel Battery a special regulator must be installed. (which you cannot do in this instance as it also has to charge the vans engine (lead acid battery))
So to repeat DO NOT BUY GEL BATTERIES at this stage..

As for the fridge it WILL need some sort of ability to vent, whether this is a duct up to a roof vent or circulating the heat back into the van, either will work and only you can decide which is going to best for you.. (i.e if you are taking it abroad to a hot country, the last thing you want is a HOTTER van, so you'd want to vent it to the outside, either through a roof vent as mentioned, or a side vent in the panelwork of the van, if however you were mostly UK based, I'd say having it vent some heat back into the van would be less of an issue due to our more temperate climate)
Either way.. It DOES need some sort of vent.
 
Hi guys sorry for late reply I don’t have much access to WiFi.

We decided to replace acid batteries for sealed gel ones as well as a more powerful solar conversion box ( or whatever the name) . The husband will do it as it is much cheaper to buy online. France is stupidly expensive!
The new box will allow us to plug in a bigger solar panel as current one is 150 watts ( or volts?) sorry the husband is the engineer and mechanic in our couple.
Reason for new batteries is they are more efficients. Over our years of travel on our motorcycles we had extreme problems with acid batteries and never looked back with sealed gel ones. We are down few quids but we will pick up the old ones from my brother’s house and use them for some power in our garage. So it is not wasted.
The fridge is only electric , our LPG is only for cooking and heating.
We are going to get inside vents installed from upper and lower cupboards, on the two shelves and the doors so Air circulates and we might even get extra heat this winter down the Balkans or Greece.

We are newbies at campervans, we will see how that goes! God I miss my motorbike!

We will be back in the UK in January and hopefully the van will be fine until then. We will see how it goes with the fridge. Now of course it is much colder than few days ago so no overheating in the upper cupboard! :rolleyes:

Thanks for the input everyone !
 
Handyandy they are not exactly gel batteries. Husband saw that and phoned the manufacturers to make sure which one will work without issues from the alternator. They are the same that the caravan shop advised to use.
 
yodeli said:
Maria41

Je ne peux rien pour toi quant à ton souci de frigo, ceci dit, il m'est agréable de voir que nous avons eu sensiblement les mêmes lectures. j 'ai même fait un mémoire sur Edgar Rice Burroughs complété d'une étude de ses dessins dans ses albums de Tarzan of The Apes.:smiley:
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Impressionnant Yodeli! Je lisais aussi les BDs de Tarzan quand j'étais Gamine vu que mes frangins adoraient. Tous les romans de SF de mondes perdus ça m’a toujours fascinée :giggle:
 
Maria41 said:
Hi guys sorry for late reply I don’t have much access to WiFi.

We decided to replace acid batteries for sealed gel ones as well as a more powerful solar conversion box ( or whatever the name) . The husband will do it as it is much cheaper to buy online. France is stupidly expensive!
The new box will allow us to plug in a bigger solar panel as current one is 150 watts ( or volts?) sorry the husband is the engineer and mechanic in our couple.
Reason for new batteries is they are more efficients. Over our years of travel on our motorcycles we had extreme problems with acid batteries and never looked back with sealed gel ones. We are down few quids but we will pick up the old ones from my brother’s house and use them for some power in our garage. So it is not wasted.
The fridge is only electric , our LPG is only for cooking and heating.
We are going to get inside vents installed from upper and lower cupboards, on the two shelves and the doors so Air circulates and we might even get extra heat this winter down the Balkans or Greece.

We are newbies at campervans, we will see how that goes! God I miss my motorbike!

We will be back in the UK in January and hopefully the van will be fine until then. We will see how it goes with the fridge. Now of course it is much colder than few days ago so no overheating in the upper cupboard! :rolleyes:

Thanks for the input everyone !
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You cannot have too much solar. If you have room on the roof 250w panels are the cheapest option per watt (around £120 per panel at the moment). One or more installed with an MPPT regulator will help your situation even if it means discarding the existing panel.

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Maria41 said:
Impressionnant Yodeli! Je lisais aussi les BDs de Tarzan quand j'étais Gamine vu que mes frangins adoraient. Tous les romans de SF de mondes perdus ça m’a toujours fascinée :giggle:
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Au moins ton Français est nickel chrome niveau orthographe ... ça fait du bien ... les nouvelles générations parlent en abrégé pour tout, et à 60 balais ça me gave un tantinet! :D
 
Maria41 said:
Hi, thanks for the Input! :)

Well we spoke to the technician in a big motorhome shop.
Apparently, vents are not essential for small campervans on that fridge, but he suggested to fit two vents through the cupboards, above the fridge.
Also the reason our batteries are flat is because they are acid low quality ones. He suggested to fit gel batteries and we will do that. The solar regulator is low quality and again he said we needed to upgrade to a better one.
So the husband will change the batteries and regulator tomorrow and we will get the tech to drill some vents next week ( not available before that).
He seems to think that gel batteries should allow us to be off grid for up to a week. Hmmm.... We shall see. We will spend a week in noirmoutier island and test the new batteries.

I am still not 100% convinced we do it need external vents ( as all of you guys said too, hot air needs to go somewhere ) but if we can keep going until we are back in the UK in January, it would be nice.
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I think you will find that most of us are using lead/acid batteries and with two solar panels you should be able to keep them charged enough for all normal use, including a few hours of tv each day. Apart from that, when on the move your alternator should be charging both engine and habitation batteries - ready for use when you park up.
It does rather seem that you have been running your fridge off batteries all the time - gobbling up the power available. Modern motorhome fridges will run on gas when you are parked up, 12v alternator/battery when on the move or 220v power if connected to the mains on site. When on gas, you will most certainly need a vent to disperse the exhaust as well as heat.
 
They don't have have gas and a three way fridge, its a 12 volt compressor fridge.
They need to make sure they have the b2b electronics to make sure leisure battery is charged when driving
 
Hi

My van is a home conversion Citreon L3H2.

I have a Dometic/ Waeco CRX80 fridge, 300W of Solar panels and 2 x T105 Trojan (6V) LB batteries in series. Had no problems so far, spent 3 days at Lincoln no external power, the fridge is wired directly to the LB.

But My fridge definitely requires ventilation (see below), may cabinet has around 3" above the fridge with a vent, and I've recently added a second fan on the side of the cabinet which I can control manually.

fridge.JPG

IMG_4671.JPG
 
Maria41 if you don't sort out a better charging regime for your new Gel batteries you will eventually end up in the exact same position again if having flat batteries.

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