New campervan. 400+ k's from civilization. We have a dometic crx140acdc fridge. The fridge won't run on the lowest setting. Will run on the middle setting but won't turn off. It runs fulltime on the highest setting. Day temps are 20. Night temps are 3. Should I be using the winter mode. I'm concerned about battery use. Have a single 210 battery. No solar. Any clues on why it's fussy about turn ing on and off?
Whenarewethere said
05:45 PM Jun 7, 2020
Can't help on the technicalities of the fridge, but before we had an auxiliary battery in the car we ran out fridge as a freezer when driving, with plenty of thermal mass around the evaporator & covered the fridge with a sleeping bag when not running. Worked really well, even in very hot weather.
Run the fridge for a few hours in the morning & afternoon, & leave it off at night, until you solve the problem. Keep up the thermal mass!
After having read the owners manual & night temps are around 3 deg, you will proberly have to use winter mode. This has been a failing on these types of upright fridge. Waeco/Dometic. I have a CR80 that used to do that in the winter. Certainly would not buy another one (Danfoss compressors are good) but actual fridge design leaves a lot to be desired, especialy foamed in evaporators.
bgt said
07:14 PM Jun 9, 2020
Can anyone confirm if the winter mode uses more power?
DeBe said
09:55 PM Jun 9, 2020
Yes in the owners manual it is 5Watts extra.
bgt said
09:23 AM Jun 10, 2020
Thanks. I read that it was higher but a dealer said no.
The Travelling Dillberries said
10:15 AM Jun 10, 2020
Being a compressor fridge it will use less power in winter. I would think that the extra 5 watts is used by the heater only when the temp of the fridge drops to below 0 deg in extremely cold weather. This would stop products freezing. The heater would therefore only come into play when you select the winter mode.
Monica W said
10:55 AM Jun 20, 2020
Best option is to fit a digital temperature controller for $20
Digital temperature controller will maintain correct temperature of the refrigerator at all times.
bgt said
11:34 AM Jun 20, 2020
First off this thread should be called Dometic not Domestic!!! My bad. The Domestic is when the wife finds out the ice-cream has thawed!!!!!!
I guess the issue really boils down to the fact that the freezer section is not much more than a sectioned off part of the fridge. The winter mode has me stumped though. We have been in central Qld where night temps were near 0. But day temps were over 20. So given that Dometic says for temps under 16 turn on winter mode. So what happens to winter mode if temps go over 16?
Monica W said
12:07 PM Jun 20, 2020
bgt wrote:
First off this thread should be called Dometic not Domestic!!! My bad. The Domestic is when the wife finds out the ice-cream has thawed!!!!!! I guess the issue really boils down to the fact that the freezer section is not much more than a sectioned off part of the fridge. The winter mode has me stumped though. We have been in central Qld where night temps were near 0. But day temps were over 20. So given that Dometic says for temps under 16 turn on winter mode. So what happens to winter mode if temps go over 16?
The Waeco CX1140 is a known failure and reason they introduced the appalling modification of the winter switch. The front part of the CX1140 will never keep ice cream frozen. Icecream to be placed right at the back of the freezer. Between the front and back of the freezer there will be circa 5C differential. The digital temperature controller conversion is probably a 30 minute simple job and works.
Can't help on the technicalities of the fridge, but before we had an auxiliary battery in the car we ran out fridge as a freezer when driving, with plenty of thermal mass around the evaporator & covered the fridge with a sleeping bag when not running. Worked really well, even in very hot weather.
Run the fridge for a few hours in the morning & afternoon, & leave it off at night, until you solve the problem. Keep up the thermal mass!
Being a compressor fridge it will use less power in winter. I would think that the extra 5 watts is used by the heater only when the temp of the fridge drops to below 0 deg in extremely cold weather. This would stop products freezing. The heater would therefore only come into play when you select the winter mode.
Digital temperature controller will maintain correct temperature of the refrigerator at all times.
The Waeco CX1140 is a known failure and reason they introduced the appalling modification of the winter switch.
The front part of the CX1140 will never keep ice cream frozen. Icecream to be placed right at the back of the freezer.
Between the front and back of the freezer there will be circa 5C differential.
The digital temperature controller conversion is probably a 30 minute simple job and works.