Sunday, Jun 05, 2005 at 17:17
Hello!
It is Sunday morning at 6:30 and I am just checking into the
BOG.... I do not have my mouse, just the scratch pad on this ADSL laptop connection... So am somewhat handicapped.. So the cumulative answer from the overall experiences of the 1000 will be coming, but not until Monday at the earliest.. I had on my mental list, to make a TIP on this exact point, because there has been some wrong or only partially correct advice given in the past.
For example: The refrigerator, left on or off... Out of convenience people have suggested leaving it on and running in storage, while I say NO, except for the short haul..... And here is why:
1) If you leave food in it, you run a terrible risk. Just recently someone went away, and for some external reason that we cannot figure out, some obscure voltage spike, some static discharge, some minor lightening strike; something made the Regulator trip off on a protective circuit and there was no one there to reset it. Now we do not know what caused that, but the contents spoiled and the smell has permeated the fridge so badly that it needs to be replaced as all attempts to air and clean it out even to the point of a professional Ozone generator, have failed.
Even a minor mechanical failure, a $25 thermostat dies, and the smell if left long enough can ruin the fridge, so storage with spoilable food in there? Absolutely not!!
2) Even if you clean out the spoilable material, that could run the above risk if there is some kind of problem.... The Danfoss compressor only has a limited life that is unknown and variable.. Maybe it will run 8 years, or 10 years, who knows? But it is limited, and why put the hours on it when you don't need to?
3) A power outage if stored inside, or a circuit tripping, or some electronic malfunction in any number of components, and there is no one there to look after things... A ten cent fuse in the battery charger is blown because of some fault or voltage spike, and you could ruin an expensive set of batteries. Anything goes wrong, and the batteries run down until the Multimeter Voltage Regulator cuts of the supply on LVD (Low Voltage Dissconnect), and then the batteries sit there in a partially discharged state.. If they sit there like that long enough they will be damaged or ruined...
So, in summary, while some advise the leave the fridge running, I would suggest that the cumulative experience at
Bushtracker says no. If I am not using the van for a while, I empty the fridge of perishables, and leave it off... One more thing, always leave the door open to air it out.... That is very good for the fridge, and clean and dry it will be fresh when you want it again... NEVER store it with the door closed, as it will grow mould and get smelly and such...
It is Sunday, and I am going back to my coffee, and will have an answer to the rest on Monday when I have my mouse. I have already almost lost this response twice hitting something wrong.. Ha! The overall answer to all to your very thorough question will be quite lengthy, due to variabilities like inside or outside storage, hooked up to power or not, etcetera... But you have hit almost all the important points...
Will check in Monday..
Regards from the Ranger
AnswerID:
566499