Fridge not cold

Hi turned my fridge on last night (on electric) gone out there  tonight to load it and it is not cold .it is working as the light is on and hot air coming from outside vent. Could it be that it has been so hot today.fridge cant cope?

has the sun been on the side of your van that the fridge is fitted

Yes inside temp has been 38 degrees  as well

Have you got a fan you can place to blow air in the bottom vent and remove the vent covers

Very likely that the air in the back of the fridge, between the grilles, is too hot to exchange much heat with the fridge mechanism and it stops chilling taking place. Putting that area of the van in shade should help and overnight it should cool. If it doesn't then there's a possibility the 240V element has failed, or the usual fuses, but if you've felt heat coming out of the top grille it's likely not to be an element or fuse problem.

Sorry do you mean the bottom  vent outside

yes remove the vent covers outside this helps more air flow
having a fan blow in the bottom vent will help cool the back of fridge
put an umbrella to shade the vent area from the sun light if you cant park so the fridge vents are not in direct sunlight

If it’s warm out side I always put a bag of frozen veg in the fridge out of the freezer ,it helps bring the temp down quicker ,don’t matter if it defrosts as it just used for the van fridge

On a similar theme I carry a quite large blue freezer block straight from our home freezer and into the freezer compartment of the van fridge at the start of a trip. As well as helping in hot spells, it keeps the fridge cool when it has to be switched off for ferry crossings etc
Al.

bikeralw wrote:On a similar theme I carry a quite large blue freezer block straight from our home freezer and into the freezer compartment of the van fridge at the start of a trip. As well as helping in hot spells, it keeps the fridge cool when it has to be switched off for ferry crossings etc
Al.

We do the same with some blue cool blocks left over from our pre-motorhome camping days. They really help reduce the temperature inside the fridge and save it a lot of hard work. Our cool blocks live in the house freezer until needed so they're always frozen.

M3 that sounds a bit drastic and v expensive just because of gas issues. Surely relevant gas bits can be replaced at much, much lower cost esp. on a 6 year old fridge.

Mids wrote:Hi turned my fridge on last night (on electric) gone out there  tonight to load it and it is not cold .it is working as the light is on and hot air coming from outside vent. Could it be that it has been so hot today.fridge cant cope?

Yes.
  Our fridge normally works perfectly. Yesterday, it was about 35 degrees or so outside and our van was parked for half the day with the fridge vents facing the sun and half with them in the shade. We have thermometers in our fridge and fans in the top air vent pulling hot air out, yet the fridge temperature rose to about 11 degrees. Overnight, if has cooled down to its normal 4 degrees. 
These fridges aren’t very efficient in really hot weather.....just when you need them most!

steamdrivenandy wrote:M3 that sounds a bit drastic and v expensive just because of gas issues. Surely relevant gas bits can be replaced at much, much lower cost esp. on a 6 year old fridge.

I took it that M3 lost refrigerant from the fridge coolant system rather than a propane gas issue.
Al.

bikeralw wrote:

steamdrivenandy wrote:M3 that sounds a bit drastic and v expensive just because of gas issues. Surely relevant gas bits can be replaced at much, much lower cost esp. on a 6 year old fridge.

I took it that M3 lost refrigerant from the fridge coolant system rather than a propane gas issue.
Al.

That makes more sense. Can they not be reloaded with refrigerant and how can you lose it in the first place?

We had fridge problems in the record temperature last year, here's the thread ....

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Just to say that the fridge  is now working as normal. Obviously  it was just to hot yesterday for the fridge. Seems strange when it's hot is when you need the fridge to be cold. Something else  I have learnt.

If you look at the fridge specs on the manufacturers websites you'll see something like an optimal operating temperature range and it's something like 10c to 30c IIRC. So perfectly adequate for the vast majority of UK holiday times, but not so good when we have the odd really hot day.

Mids wrote:Just to say that the fridge  is now working as normal. Obviously  it was just to hot yesterday for the fridge. Seems strange when it's hot is when you need the fridge to be cold. Something else  I have learnt.

Thanks for the update. In recent discussions it has been concluded that perhaps the modern Fridges, are more efficient and don't need a Fan adding. Maybe we should be reconsidering with the temperatures we are experiencing.

The last post was thetford fridge cooling fan . This clearly shows its to late when the fridge can’t cool as required and why to have a fan fitted ready for days like this .it may have helped if the side of the van had been given some shade and not in direct sun light.as a Boy Scout would say be prepared