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Electrician in Worcester area required


nbBox12

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So is there any way to conclusively rule out the fridge itself as being the culprit rather than the wiring? Given that it's 8 years old and has worked perfectly fine up until last week, could it not be something wrong with the fridge itself? I don't want to go to all the trouble of taking out the bulkhead at the back of the kitchen, the bathroom and bedroom to replace a couple of wires, only to find out that it still hasn't solved the problem.

 

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11 minutes ago, nbBox12 said:

So is there any way to conclusively rule out the fridge itself as being the culprit rather than the wiring? Given that it's 8 years old and has worked perfectly fine up until last week, could it not be something wrong with the fridge itself? I don't want to go to all the trouble of taking out the bulkhead at the back of the kitchen, the bathroom and bedroom to replace a couple of wires, only to find out that it still hasn't solved the problem.

 

If you can find one get a refrigeration engineer to take a look. It may just need re-gassing but who knows. The fact it starts with such a high voltdrop suggest to me the load on the motor is lower than normal and that in turn implies a loss of gas. However if you do get it re-gassed or buy a new fridge you are still likely to run into voltdrop problems if the cables are undersized.

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OK, thanks. So while I'm trying to get it fixed is there any way I can get it back up and running temporarily? As its only 12 volts, could I not run it directly off a car/leisure battery or something similar - and maybe test it with some more suitable wiring to test if that's really the problem?

 

 

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24 minutes ago, nbBox12 said:

As its only 12 volts, could I not run it directly off a car/leisure battery or something similar

Yes you could but after a few hours the battery would be depleted so you'd end up with low voltage problems again.

How are you going to charge this 'standing in the kitchen' battery ?

 

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The point is that Danfoss, the manufacturers of the 12V compressor, state 1mm2 per metre run from the battery. They don’t dictate that for fun, they dictate it for reliable operation of the fridge.  So if it’s 6 metres of convoluted run from batteries to fridge then it should use at least 6mm2 cable. 
 

Running it on under-sized cables will shorten the life of the compressor (higher current), which could be the cause or part cause of all of your current troubles. 

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4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Yes you could but after a few hours the battery would be depleted so you'd end up with low voltage problems again.

How are you going to charge this 'standing in the kitchen' battery ?

 

It's more just to test it, really. I would just seem like a very cheap and easy way to test if it's really a problem with the wires and voltage drop, or there's something else amiss. It might give me an idea of what to expect cost-wise before I get the engineer in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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37 minutes ago, nbBox12 said:

As its only 12 volts, could I not run it directly off a car/leisure battery or something similar - and maybe test it with some more suitable wiring to test if that's really the problem?

Yes, and this is the best way to test it, because you rule out dodgy connections or switches.  Fuse the test leads though, just in case!

 

Just check first that the cables you have shown us are actually that thin all the way along.  I have seen boats that have easily thick enough cable (10 sq mm+) running along the boat then join onto a thin bit for the last couple of feet, and this can be OK - not ideal but does work, and you say yours has been fine for years.

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