does a MH have to be on level ground for the fridge to work on 240v?

[Steve_an_Nik]

Can someone please tell me if the MH has to be on flat level ground in order for the fridge to work on 240v hook up. Fires up on gas and lights up on 12v, just that our drive dips down and was out there today running it EHU and noticed that the fridge's green light was on...
If it does any idea why its not working, as it did have a flat battery but we took it out for a drive to charge it last night and everything else works fine.. Checked all fuses apart from back of the fridge (mainly as I dont know how to access the rear)

Cheers

 

[yodeli]

I don't see why. I've always been careful when on gas but not on 12v or 240v. Now I have a compressor fridge and I don't care at all whether it's levelled or not!

 

[Alsatian]

I've no chance of the fridge working on either gas or 240v when parked on my (steep) drive.

 

[Stroppy Bird]

I've no chance of the fridge working on either gas or 240v when parked on my (steep) drive.

Same with my old van that had a three way fridge.
I ended up making some massive ramps out of scaffold boards.

Have a compressor fridge in the current van which doesn’t have the same issues.

 

[sedge]

Horses for courses - we're rarely on EHU or at least spend so many weeks not having it even available that it would be utterly unwise for us to rely on it with a compressor fridge. Nice when it is and sufficient to have constant hot water available in situ, but absolutely not a disaster when it ain't. When it's just 2amp we usually don't bother. especially when the one place we go that only has 2amp now charges an extra £5 a night for the dubious privelege. Another charges £27 pn with or without EHU which is 16A - so we do! At home it's 'fairly' flat hence we can bung the fridge on elec the day before we set off so it's all well cold to offload fresh and frozen into before we set off.

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[TinaLes]

The 3 way Dometic tall Fridge/Freezer will not work on gas or electric if we park it on our steep drive without big ramps to get it near level.
When new, I took it back to our dealer to repair it, the Dometic engineer assumed as we did that it had a coolant gas leak & needed replacement under warranty. He returned a week later to the dealership to strip out the old one and fit the new, only to find that the FF was working as it should, infact better than normal.
Despite driving 120 miles down to the dealership, It still took a few days parked on the flat for the cooling liquid to settle, so that it could be pumped arround the cooling circuit as it should.
Well that was a live & learn moment for us.
I think Dometic mention parking on a slope of no more than 3 degrees of slope for the fridge to work properly, but thats probably to be onthe safe side.
LES

 

[scotjimland]

Yes
level, irrespective of power source ,

 

[Jake Royd]

I have an old Dometic tall fridge freezer.
Works on gas or 240v with the front on wedges to run rain off its back end.

 

[Steve_an_Nik]

going to sound really daft here but would the green light still come on if it wasn't level or does it just illuminate when its working?

 

[tonka]

make and model of the fridge will help. have you a manual to check what the green light is ?
Maybe its just to show EHU is the power source.

Ref leveling, true all 3 way absorption fridge need to be fairly level to work but no to the point you have to check with an spirt level. Just not a really bad slope, guess there is a degrees figure somewhere.

Test using gas and if fridge is ok then switch to EHU. If it fails to cool the 230v element may have failed.
The green light will almost certainly NOT be re leveling, never heard of that one.

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[peterc10]

The problem may be the habitation battery. If it was flat, driving around for a an hour or two will not do much unless you have a powerful B2B fitted. You will need many hours of driving to get it past the recommended 50% level. And letting it run down too often will irreparably damage the battery.

 

[Steve_an_Nik]

The green light will almost certainly NOT be re leveling, never heard of that one.

Miss understanding here I think.. I wasn't asking if the green light was for "leveling" I was asking, if it wasn't level would it still illuminate to show that the fridge is on/working like it does when its on gas (orange light appears)...

 

[Steve_an_Nik]

The problem may be the habitation battery. If it was flat, driving around for a an hour or two will not do much unless you have a powerful B2B fitted. You will need many hours of driving to get it past the recommended 50% level. And letting it run down too often will irreparably damage the battery.

Charged it up with a battery charger... The run out was mainly for the vehicle battery...

 

[Steve_an_Nik]

How do you test the 230v element to see if that's failed and how would I see if its getting any power to it, as have checked all fuses etc.. Would the latter be thru the side vents?

Its a Dometic RM7361(L) fridge

 

[tonka]

How do you test the 230v element to see if that's failed and how would I see if its getting any power to it, as have checked all fuses etc.. Would the latter be thru the side vents?

Its a Dometic RM7361(L) fridge

YouTube. Videos on there show how to do it. Search "caravan or RV fridge" as you get more hits.

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[Steve_an_Nik]

it seems that the freezer works fine and starts to cool & freeze but nothing with the fridge.....

 

[Steve_an_Nik]

Sorted...... I turned off all switches that had plugs in them to prevent any run down of the batteries, so just checked to see the plug under the cupboard that said "Fridge" flicked it on and hey presto fridge now works... That'll teach me thanks to all who replied...

 

[zac]

I always turn our fridge on a couple days before we go away and at the side of our house is def not level as the E&P won't even level automatically. I never level it before we go and the dometic fridge works perfectly. I can't recall ever having an issue with the fridge not working due to not being level. This is on EHU when at the home for info but it does switch over to gas when we leave of course.
Maybe I've been lucky but we've had this motorhome over 6 years from new.

 

[CAB96]

The fridge won't be running from the batteries on 240v.

Also the 240v sockets won't be running off the batteries, unless you have an Inverter fitted.

But some fridges are more prone to levelling issues than others.

 

[Deepingvet]

I don’t see why, as they work in Australia and they’re upside down!!

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[MrTVR]

Our fridge doesn’t work effectively on our (slightly slopy) drive unless we put it on the ramps to get it nearer to being level. This has been true of all our previous motor homes so it must be a common issue.

 

[Rick Axon]

Can someone please tell me if the MH has to be on flat level ground in order for the fridge to work on 240v hook up. Fires up on gas and lights up on 12v, just that our drive dips down and was out there today running it EHU and noticed that the fridge's green light was on...
If it does any idea why its not working, as it did have a flat battery but we took it out for a drive to charge it last night and everything else works fine.. Checked all fuses apart from back of the fridge (mainly as I dont know how to access the rear)

Cheers

We have a 2003 Swift Sundance, fridge works on a slope on 240V EHU but not on gas (very picky it is too)

 

[JaG]

We have a 2003 Swift Sundance, fridge works on a slope on 240V EHU but not on gas (very picky it is too)

Can someone please tell me if the MH has to be on flat level ground in order for the fridge to work on 240v hook up. Fires up on gas and lights up on 12v, just that our drive dips down and was out there today running it EHU and noticed that the fridge's green light was on...
If it does any idea why its not working, as it did have a flat battery but we took it out for a drive to charge it last night and everything else works fine.. Checked all fuses apart from back of the fridge (mainly as I dont know how to access the rear)

Cheers

Ours is parked on a 20 degree slope and the Thetford fridge works fine on both gas and electric.