Domestic fridge in Bailey Pegasus

anne1954
anne1954 Forum Participant Posts: 7
edited September 2017 in Caravan & Motorhome Chat #1

this is our second year owning this Pegasus Rimini. We find that when we leave a site, the fridge is very cold, we plug into the car and by the time we get to our next stop the fridge has warmed up considerably. We never travel for more than 3 hours and it warms up even in England in March! The engineers at our local caravan centre say that the temperature should remain almost as cold as when we set off but we maintain that has never been the case . Has anyone else encountered the same problem?

 

Yes but in a Swift connect the caravan to the car and run the engine now measure the Volts on the

on the fridge behind the outside vents it should be greater than 11.9 Volts .

Comments

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited August 2017 #2

    Indeed strange as I leave home or a site with a cold fridge. I don't switch to car battery and when I get set up maybe 4 hours later there is no problem

  • EmilysDad
    EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
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    edited August 2017 #3

    Get your car's 12S/13pin socket checked to ensured it's wired correctly to power your caravan fridge when on the move. 

  • eyebrowsb
    eyebrowsb Forum Participant Posts: 554
    edited August 2017 #4

    Same here.  We don't switch to car battery either, and it can be up to 5 hours before we get set up.  

    We also have a Dometic fridge in our Bailey Unicorn, so probably the same fridge as you have Anne.   We haven't had any problem with ours though, so not sure what to suggest really.

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited August 2017 #5

    We have the tall Dometic fridge in our Genoa and find it has not, at times,been as cold as when leaving the previos site,and have found after asking several "tech"people Including the NCC ,that there is a known "problem"with some vehicles and the intelligent alternators not "recognising"that power is required to trailer caravans over and above the tow vehicles requirements,a way round it is to "fool"the alternator into giving power when towing is to drive on dipped headlights,when talking to Dometic they were also aware and were working on a solution

  • Vicmallows
    Vicmallows Forum Participant Posts: 580
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    edited August 2017 #6

    Like others, we have never bothered to even connect our fridge to the car. It always stays perfectly cold and frozen, even on long ferry crossings.

    However ours is a conventional 'under counter' size fridge.  There are numerous reports on the forums of problems with the tall fridge-freezers which are currently fashionable.  I wonder if there is an intrinsic problem, or whether because they are so much larger people are simply not packing them full enough?  .... perhaps because of weight considerations.

  • EmilysDad
    EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
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    edited August 2017 #7

    If it's set to auto, it'll do it itself.

     

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,308 ✭✭✭
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    edited August 2017 #8

    We do switch ours to car battery. No auto on the Dometic fitted in our Unicorn 2. (Not one of the tall ones) However, when we got to site after a 12 hour plus ferry crossing and only 3 to 4 hours of driving, dinner was still frozen. We had forgotten to lift it out of the freezer. 😖 So a visit to the supermarket was required.

  • anne1954
    anne1954 Forum Participant Posts: 7
    edited September 2017 #9

    Thank you all very much for your responses, we are in France at the moment And find that the freezer compartment stays frozen but the main body of the fridge goes up by about 12 to 18 degrees on a five hour journey. Maybe we should be putting more stuff in the main compartment. Perhaps it is the size of the fridge that is a problem. Once we get on site it does cool down fairly quickly ( depending on campsite voltage). Thank you all again.

  • Navigateur
    Navigateur Club Member Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited September 2017 #10

    I wonder if those fridges/freezers are experiencing some sort of air flow when towing. Perhaps through the door not closing fully on the lock position, or via the hole that is supposed to vent the condensate from the auto-defrost.

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,142 ✭✭✭
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    edited September 2017 #11

    I don't suppose you've got the fridge vent covers on, Anne?

  • Merve
    Merve Forum Participant Posts: 2,333
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    edited September 2017 #12

    That was my first thought I have to say.