Thetford Fridge Failure

Ten days into our 4 weeks tour of France I awoke to see a blue light flashing. The Thetford fridge was saying failure no. 1. I was able to turn it onto gas and get back to sleep.

Although the weather was cool, after a couple of days the dial on the gas cylinder was dropping to half way. We rang Red Pennant who were very helpful, but with a long weekend approaching in France, they were unable to help much. They gave us addresses of caravan dealers, but pointed out that no one would come out to sort out our problem.

I knew that Calor gas was unobtainable in France and with the deminishing supply we had, we decided to buy an cooler box at Carrefour. This Camping Gaz 25 litre model worked well, albeit a little noisily during the night. We continued with the holiday as planned and during the last week switched back to the caravan fridge on gas. The reserve bottle lasted very well. I think the first cylinder must have had a faulty connection.

Back in Britain, I bought a new cylinder at our first Caravan Club site although we did not need to use it during our week long trip back up to central Scotland.

I rang a local dealer when we got home. He was certain that it was the control panel that needed replacing. He had already replace quite a few. However Thetford could not let him have new stock until mid August!

So what is Thetford doing about this problem with the N112 fridge? It looks like they are redesigning the circuit board. Of course we were out of warranty in March, but if it is a general fault then Thetford need to replace their poor design under warranty. Watch this space!